Urgent Help Needed - Too Many Connections - Site Mostly Down

Developers Server & Performance
1

Hi! Unfortunately we are facing a really strange issue.

Suddenly since yesterday morning, cs-carts log is saying User xxx already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections in /home/xxx/public_html/app/Tygh/Backend/Database/Mysqli.php on line 40

Our host has tried all night to resolve it without success. They even moved the entire server to a new node and still the issue remains. I believe it's not a matter of tweaking the configuration a bit - the host already tried this and why would this suddenly be needed without any spike in visitors (we could easily handle 150, now we can't handle 2).

This same setup has run without any issue at all for months and it's even showing these errors with just 1 visitor. We can't sell anything or do any work.

If there is anybody who might know something or could have a look I'd be very grateful.

Thanks!

2

Is it a specific user or does it happen if you access the site?

It sounds like an issue I had where anonymous bots were running random search queries.

3

Hi Tool, thanks for your reply.

A 6th person at my host just finally found there was an unusually high number of syn connections. She tuned the firewall and now it runs OK again.

I already blocked most bots except for the important ones.

Why someone would attack us (unless it's a competitor?!) remains a mystery to me .. or could this have been something else?

4

I never could figure who was responsible for the search queries. They came from proxies all over the world.

Do you know what the requests being made were?

5

Crazy. I don't know, I will ask my host if they can see it.

I just checked WHM's daily log and can clearly see that suddenly our carts usage went from a couple of percent to 80 in cpu and similar spikes in mysql. Before that, our wordpress blog was actually eating up more resources than cs-cart!

6

You would have to check the account specific visitor log.

7

Hmm I don't see anything strange in there. It looks totally normal.

8

Interesting. I guess there is nothing to log since the connection is only half open.?

9

Yeah could be, that's what I was thinking too.

10

I already blocked most bots except for the important ones.

Could you share how to do that and which one (list) to avoid things happened?

Thank you in advance.

11

Could you share how to do that and which one (list) to avoid things happened?

Sure, you can refuse them in your robots.txt file. Here is my robots.txt file

User-agent: *
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /store_closed.html

Disallow: Sistrix


User-agent: sistrix

Disallow: /


Disallow: Sistrix


User-agent: SISTRIX Crawler

Disallow: /


Disallow: Sistrix


User-agent: SISTRIX

Disallow: /


Disallow: SEOkicks-Robot


User-agent: SEOkicks-Robot

Disallow: /


Disallow: jobs.de-Robot


User-agent: jobs.de-Robot

Disallow: /


Backlink Analysis


user-agent: AhrefsBot

disallow: /


Bot der Leipziger Unister Holding GmbH


user-agent: UnisterBot

disallow: /


Moz - SEO Products & Solutions for Better Search Performance


User-agent: dotbot

Disallow: /


http://www.searchmetrics.com


User-agent: SearchmetricsBot

Disallow: /


MJ12Bot | Home | from Majestic


User-agent: MJ12bot

Disallow: /


http://www.domaintools.com/webmasters/surveybot.php


User-agent: SurveyBot

Disallow: /


http://www.seodiver.com/bot


user-agent: SEOdiver

disallow: /


http://openlinkprofiler.org/bot


User-agent: spbot

Disallow: /


http://www.wotbox.com/bot/


User-agent: wotbox

Disallow: /


DotBot - Help Hub - Moz


Moz Link Explorer: Free Backlink Checker with 44T Links! - Moz


User-agent: dotbot

Disallow: /


http://www.meanpath.com/meanpathbot.html


User-agent: meanpathbot

Disallow: /


http://www.backlinktest.com/crawler.html


User-agent: BacklinkCrawler

Disallow: /


http://www.brandwatch.com/magpie-crawler/


User-agent: magpie-crawler

Disallow: /


http://filterdb.iss.net/crawler/


User-agent: oBot

Disallow: /


User-agent: fr-crawler

Disallow: /


http://webmeup-crawler.com


User-agent: BLEXBot

Disallow: /


Crawler


User-agent: MegaIndex.ru

Disallow: /


User-agent: megaindex.com

Disallow: /


http://www.cloudservermarket.com


User-Agent: CloudServerMarketSpider

Disallow: /


Trendiction Bot


User-Agent: trendictionbot

Disallow: /


http://www.exalead.com


User-agent: Exabot

Disallow: /


http://www.career-x.de/bot.html


User-agent: careerbot

Disallow: /


At Dataprovider.com we structure the global web


User-agent: Lipperhey-Kaus-Australis

Disallow: /


User-agent: seoscanners.net

Disallow: /


User-agent: MetaJobBot

Disallow: /


User-agent: Spiderbot

Disallow: /


User-agent: LinkStats

Disallow: /


User-agent: JobboerseBot

Disallow: /


User-agent: ICCrawler

Disallow: /


User-agent: Plista

Disallow: /


User-agent: Domain Re-Animator Bot

Disallow: /


At Dataprovider.com we structure the global web


User-agent: Lipperhey-Kaus-Australis

Disallow: /


TurnitinBot General Information Page


User-agent: turnitinbot

Disallow: /


http://help.coccoc.com/


User-agent: coccoc

Disallow: /


ubermetrics-technologies.com


User-agent: um-IC

Disallow: /


datenbutler.de


User-agent: mindUpBot

Disallow: /


http://searchgears.de/uber-uns/crawling-faq.html


User-agent: sg-Orbiter

Disallow: /


Common Crawl - FAQ


User-agent: CCBot

Disallow: /


https://www.qwant.com/


User-agent: Qwantify

Disallow: /


http://linkfluence.net/


User-agent: Kraken

Disallow: /


http://www.botje.com/plukkie.htm


User-agent: plukkie

Disallow: /


https://www.safedns.com/searchbot


User-agent: SafeDNSBot

Disallow: /


Robots协议支持_360搜索使用帮助


User-agent: 360Spider

Disallow: /


Robots协议支持_360搜索使用帮助


User-agent: HaosouSpider

Disallow: /


Moz - SEO Software for Smarter Marketing


User-agent: rogerbot

Disallow: /


http://www.openhose.org/bot.html


User-agent: OpenHoseBot

Disallow: /


Screaming Frog SEO Spider Website Crawler


User-agent: Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Disallow: /


http://thumbsniper.com


User-agent: ThumbSniper

Disallow: /


http://www.radian6.com/crawler


User-agent: R6_CommentReader

Disallow: /


User-agent: ImplisenseBot

Disallow: /


Cliqz


User-agent: Cliqzbot

Disallow: /


About aiHit


User-agent: aiHitBot

Disallow: /


Trendiction Bot


User-Agent: trendictionbot

Disallow: /


http://warebay.com/bot.html


User-agent: WBSearchBot

Disallow: /

12

If you're using nginx I would highly recommend to use this config. I had similar issue with many malicious bots and it worked like a charm:

https://github.com/mitchellkrogza/nginx-ultimate-bad-bot-blocker

13

Isnt the robots text ignored by the badbots ?

14

Sure, you can refuse them in your robots.txt file. Here is my robots.txt file

User-agent: *
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /store_closed.html

Disallow: Sistrix


User-agent: sistrix

Disallow: /


Disallow: Sistrix


User-agent: SISTRIX Crawler

Disallow: /


Disallow: Sistrix


User-agent: SISTRIX

Disallow: /


Disallow: SEOkicks-Robot


User-agent: SEOkicks-Robot

Disallow: /


Disallow: jobs.de-Robot


User-agent: jobs.de-Robot

Disallow: /


Backlink Analysis


user-agent: AhrefsBot

disallow: /


Bot der Leipziger Unister Holding GmbH


user-agent: UnisterBot

disallow: /


Moz - SEO Products & Solutions for Better Search Performance


User-agent: dotbot

Disallow: /


http://www.searchmetrics.com


User-agent: SearchmetricsBot

Disallow: /


MJ12Bot | Home | from Majestic


User-agent: MJ12bot

Disallow: /


http://www.domaintools.com/webmasters/surveybot.php


User-agent: SurveyBot

Disallow: /


http://www.seodiver.com/bot


user-agent: SEOdiver

disallow: /


http://openlinkprofiler.org/bot


User-agent: spbot

Disallow: /


http://www.wotbox.com/bot/


User-agent: wotbox

Disallow: /


DotBot - Help Hub - Moz


Moz Link Explorer: Free Backlink Checker with 44T Links! - Moz


User-agent: dotbot

Disallow: /


http://www.meanpath.com/meanpathbot.html


User-agent: meanpathbot

Disallow: /


http://www.backlinktest.com/crawler.html


User-agent: BacklinkCrawler

Disallow: /


Magpie Crawler | Brandwatch


User-agent: magpie-crawler

Disallow: /


http://filterdb.iss.net/crawler/


User-agent: oBot

Disallow: /


User-agent: fr-crawler

Disallow: /


http://webmeup-crawler.com


User-agent: BLEXBot

Disallow: /


Crawler


User-agent: MegaIndex.ru

Disallow: /


User-agent: megaindex.com

Disallow: /


http://www.cloudservermarket.com


User-Agent: CloudServerMarketSpider

Disallow: /


Trendiction Bot


User-Agent: trendictionbot

Disallow: /


http://www.exalead.com


User-agent: Exabot

Disallow: /


http://www.career-x.de/bot.html


User-agent: careerbot

Disallow: /


At Dataprovider.com we structure the global web


User-agent: Lipperhey-Kaus-Australis

Disallow: /


User-agent: seoscanners.net

Disallow: /


User-agent: MetaJobBot

Disallow: /


User-agent: Spiderbot

Disallow: /


User-agent: LinkStats

Disallow: /


User-agent: JobboerseBot

Disallow: /


User-agent: ICCrawler

Disallow: /


User-agent: Plista

Disallow: /


User-agent: Domain Re-Animator Bot

Disallow: /


At Dataprovider.com we structure the global web


User-agent: Lipperhey-Kaus-Australis

Disallow: /


TurnitinBot General Information Page


User-agent: turnitinbot

Disallow: /


http://help.coccoc.com/


User-agent: coccoc

Disallow: /


ubermetrics-technologies.com


User-agent: um-IC

Disallow: /


datenbutler.de


User-agent: mindUpBot

Disallow: /


http://searchgears.de/uber-uns/crawling-faq.html


User-agent: sg-Orbiter

Disallow: /


Common Crawl - FAQ


User-agent: CCBot

Disallow: /


https://www.qwant.com/


User-agent: Qwantify

Disallow: /


http://linkfluence.net/


User-agent: Kraken

Disallow: /


http://www.botje.com/plukkie.htm


User-agent: plukkie

Disallow: /


https://www.safedns.com/searchbot


User-agent: SafeDNSBot

Disallow: /


Robots协议支持_360搜索使用帮助


User-agent: 360Spider

Disallow: /


Robots协议支持_360搜索使用帮助


User-agent: HaosouSpider

Disallow: /


Moz - SEO Software for Smarter Marketing


User-agent: rogerbot

Disallow: /


http://www.openhose.org/bot.html


User-agent: OpenHoseBot

Disallow: /


Screaming Frog SEO Spider Website Crawler


User-agent: Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Disallow: /


http://thumbsniper.com


User-agent: ThumbSniper

Disallow: /


http://www.radian6.com/crawler


User-agent: R6_CommentReader

Disallow: /


User-agent: ImplisenseBot

Disallow: /


Cliqz


User-agent: Cliqzbot

Disallow: /


About aiHit


User-agent: aiHitBot

Disallow: /


Trendiction Bot


User-Agent: trendictionbot

Disallow: /


http://warebay.com/bot.html


User-agent: WBSearchBot

Disallow: /

Thank you.

15

Isnt the robots text ignored by the badbots ?

Maybe by the very bad bots, but the unneccesary bots seem to respect the robots.txt

16

Hello.

A better solution is to block robots in the .htaccess file.

Best regards

Robert.

17

Hello.

A better solution is to block robots in the .htaccess file.

Best regards

Robert.

Agree with this