It seems the WordPress front end is having some problems that have caused occasional slowness and a couple of outages. I have both the techies on the VPS hosting side and the theme authors trying to figure out what it might be. We are not sure yet whether it is software or server issue yet.
I’m hoping I don’t need a third party to umpire the proceedings as there can be a tendency for the respective parties to invoke an SEP field. This works by designating something you wish to make disappear as ‘Somebody Else’s Problem’. Once achieved, the item in question ceases to exist as far as the creator of the SEP is concerned. Programmers do this by blaming hardware, server admins conversely have the option to blame the software.
My VPS techies say it’s RAM but I, as far as I can see from Googling it, I have at least 10 times the amount of RAM needed for even the highest usage peaks. I rarely see more than 1Gb RAM suggested for WordPress sites with ten times more traffic than mine, yet I have 5Gb! His advice to add more RAM sounds to me like telling your mechanic that your car only does 2mpg and him suggesting a bigger petrol tank rather than curing an absurd level of consumption. However, I might have it all wrong as a server expert I am not, so he has been asked to explain in simple terms why extra RAM should be needed.
The good news is these problems do not affect the Members’ Area as it is hosted on another system with different software, you can reach it direct with this link (vip.esinem.com) if you experience any further issues.
Update:
I have finally been given some help by a very knowledgeable gentleman who lives and breathes databases. Within minutes, he came up with simple change to the way cron jobs are run and immediately the load dropped massively. He has very kindly offered to take a further look and I am optimistic that we’ll see some big improvements very soon.