Preface
In the digital realm, the growth of a website is often synonymous with the expansion of its resource usage. This phenomenon, commonly referred to as website resource overages, can initially seem like a daunting challenge for many business owners. The fear of exceeding allocated resources, coupled with the potential for increased costs, can create a sense of apprehension.
However, it’s crucial to understand that resource overages are not inherently negative. In fact, they can be a positive indicator of a website’s growth and success. Just as a growing plant needs more water and sunlight, a growing website requires additional resources to maintain its health and continue its growth.
This article aims to demystify the concept of website resource overages and shed light on why they are often a necessary part of a website’s evolution. We will explore how resource overages can be a sign of a thriving business, the importance of scaling resources in line with growth, and strategies for managing resource overages effectively.
Remember, growth is the goal of every business, and with growth comes the need for more resources. Embracing this fact rather than fearing it is the first step towards successful and sustainable online expansion. Let’s dive in and explore this topic in detail.
We recommend that you review the below information and scan your website code to optimize it for better performance, including removal of unused plug-ins. In addition, you may upgrade your hosting plan to add more resources to your hosting plan.
Troubleshooting Tips for Website Performance Issues
1. Determining Cause and Effect
Understanding the relationship between cause and effect is crucial in troubleshooting. When a website experiences performance issues, it’s essential to identify the specific actions or changes that led to the problem. This could be anything from a recent website update, a surge in traffic, or even a change in the hosting environment.
2. Sudden vs. Gradual Performance Issues
Performance issues can manifest suddenly or gradually over time. Sudden issues often indicate a specific event or change that directly impacted the website’s performance. This could be a code or plugin update, a spike in traffic, or a server outage. On the other hand, gradual performance issues often point to ongoing problems, such as inefficient code, increasing website complexity, or steadily growing traffic.
3. Narrowing Down Website Performance Issues
To narrow down website performance issues, consider the following steps:
a. Monitor Website Traffic: Use analytics tools to track your website’s traffic patterns. A sudden spike in traffic can strain your resources and cause performance issues.
b. Check for Code Changes: Recent updates or changes to your website’s code, updates or plugins could be causing the problem. Review recent changes for potential issues. In extreme situations, consider restoring a previous version of the website from backup.
c. Test Website Components: Test different components of your website individually. This can help you identify if a specific feature or page is causing the problem. If dealing with website plugins, consider disabling them one at a time (or disabling all of them, and enabling them one at a time).
d: Review Resource Usage Logs: Resource Usage logs can provide valuable information about the timing, frequency, and degree of your website’s performance and potential resource issues.
e. Review Server Logs: Server logs can provide valuable information about your website’s performance and potential errors.
f. Use Performance Testing Tools: There are numerous online tools available that can analyze your website’s speed and performance. These tools can provide insights into what parts of your website are slowing it down.
Remember, troubleshooting is a systematic process. By approaching it methodically and understanding the potential causes and effects, you can effectively identify and resolve performance issues, ensuring your website continues to grow and succeed.
Reviewing Resource Usage Logs
To view full details regarding your web hosting plan's resource usage, including the time of each incident listed below, click the link below and log into your hosting control panel, then click the "Resource Usage" link in the top right, as shown in the below screen.
URL to your Hosting Control Panel: https://adminmywebsite.ca
You can also access your Hosting Control Panel indirectly by first logging into your Webnames.ca account, and then browsing to the following:
If you have more than one hosting plan, click on the applicable domain name
Click on the Hosting Tab
In the lower right section of the page, look for the button called Login under Hosting Control Panel
Pro Tip: In our experience, most resource issues occur due to the quantity and quality of plugins (such as WordPress plugins) installed on your site. We recommend that you only use plugins you definitely need, and only source your plugins from reputable developers.
If you are using your web hosting plan to host more than once website, please note that all resource usage limits and overages are based on the combined resource usage of all websites within your plan.
Understanding Resource Graphs
Reaching the limit of total server CPU usage
CPU usage reflects processes and activity occurring on your website. The loading of a simple webpage would require little CPU resources, while the loading of a complex script or other activities can consume relatively more. Pages with multiple types of functionality will require multiple processes and thus higher CPU resources to work properly. The amount of CPU resources being consumed by a website at any given time is a factor of both website complexity and number of concurrent visitors.
Exceeding the physical memory limit
Each process running on your website will consume memory. Some memory consumption will occur for each visitor to your website, as they load pages and interact with content. Additional memory consumption will occur during administrative or automated tasks, such as image resizing and general content creation, mail campaigns, and backups. Busier websites will have higher physical memory requirements. Websites with a large number of plugins will also require additional physical memory.
Reaching the limit of disk i/o rate
Disk i/o (short for Input / Output) reflects data being read and written to disk by your website code. Most disk i/o for a website occurs in the form of the loading data from disk and presenting it to your website visitor. Large images and video will consume disk i/o resources. The loading of a simple webpage would require little disk i/o resources, while the loading of a page with heavy multimedia content would consume relatively more. Therefore, the amount of disk i/o resources being consumed by a website at any given time is a factor of both website page content size and number of concurrent visitors loading that page content.
Reaching the limit of concurrent i/o operations
I/O (short for Input / Output) Operations reflect the number of processes of your website code attempting to write or read data from disk. Most i/o operations for a website occur in the form of the loading data from disk and presenting it to your website visitor. Large quantities of images or other data stored on disk can cause a high number of I/O operations, since the loading of such data would ideally occur all at once when such a page is loaded by a visitor. . The loading of a simple webpage would require little disk i/o operations, while the loading of a complex page would consume relatively more. Therefore, the amount of disk i/o operations being consumed by a website at any given time is a factor of both webpage complexity and number of concurrent visitors loading that page.
Exceeding the maximum concurrent website connections (Entry Processes)
Each connection to your website represents a visitor actively engaging with your website (clicking links, loading pages etc.). Concurrent connections are then the cumulative total of the simultaneous actions being performed by all visitors on your website. Administrators and actions being taken on the backend of your website will also contribute to the connection count. Busier websites will see higher concurrent connection counts, and thus require a hosting plan with higher resources.
Exceeding the concurrent processes limit
Processes reflect activity occurring on your website. The loading of a simple webpage would require a process to perform that action, as would loading a script or any number of other activities that can occur on a website. Pages with multiple types of functionality will require multiple processes to work properly. The activity of visitors on your website will require the necessary processes to run in order for the related webpages to work as intended. Therefore, the number of processes occurring on a website at any given time is a factor of both website complexity and number of concurrent visitors.
Reviewing Access and Error Logs
To view full access and errors regarding your website, including the time of each event listed above, click the link below and log into your hosting control panel, then click the "Resource Usage" link in the top right, as shown in the below screen.
URL to your Hosting Control Panel: https://adminmywebsite.ca
You can also access your Hosting Control Panel indirectly by first logging into your Webnames.ca account, and then browsing to the following:
If you have more than one hosting plan, click on the applicable domain name
Click on the Hosting Tab
In the lower right section of the page, look for the button called Login under Hosting Control Panel
Log Browser assists you in troubleshooting issues with your websites by parsing the web server logs and displaying relevant warnings and error messages in the Hosting Control Panel interface.
To access the Log Browser, go to Websites and Domains > Logs. You will be presented with a list of messages gathered from the logs. By default, the Log Browser displays messages present in the monitored logs at the moment of opening. If you want to refresh the list with messages added after opening the Log Browser, click Refresh. Alternatively, if you want to have new messages continuously added to the list, click Start real-time updates.
To quickly locate errors, use the Type filter to limit the display to Errors only. After locating errors, it is advisable to revert back to "Any" type and to review the events immediately preceding the errors in order to better determine cause and effect.