Unable to connect to the database! · Article

What Is Covered

• Summary
• Causes
• Troubleshooting


 

Summary

This entry is to clarify on a specific error found in your UBB.threads MySQL Log File found associated with a Database Error Only Visible to Forum Administrators error.


 

Causes

Generally the cause of being unable to connect to the MySQL database is server resource usage, you're likely hitting your resource limits (either Memory or Storage space) which is causing temporary issues (until resources are released back to the server).

You're more likely to see these resource limits being matched during "off time" where the server is preforming maintenance (backups for example take a lot of system resources to generate, but don't generally take that long to process), so if you see these errors occurring late at night or early in the morning, it's probably the cause.


 

Troubleshooting

On a Shared Host there is ultimately nothing you can do short of asking your web host to investigate why the MySQL database crashes; it'd be helpful to supply them with your UBB.threads MySQL Log so that they can check any downtime against their server logs.

On a VPS or Dedicated Server there is quite a bit of troubleshooting that you can do:
• How is your storage? During peak hours I'd recommend that you have 500mb-1gb free memory, and several gigs of free storage space.
• What time are these errors happening? See my above comment in the "Causes" section above regarding server updates and backups.

At some point every VPS or Dedicated server is going to run into an issue with either needing more storage space or needing additional memory allocated to your server; you'd have to discuss with your web host or data center directly if you find that server resources are needing to be upgraded.
Posted By Gremelin Posted on March 15th, 2015 · Updated on January 13th, 2017

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