No Results Issue (Memory Issue?)

[liamandjo]

Hello,

I have been experiencing some issues with a blank (or no result) page based on the limits I set in the configuration. At the moment, I have the search working by limiting files to 30000 and words to 45000, but if I increase these much more the search will not provide any results. I have read this is likely an Apache server issue, but was wondering if the files and words limit would make this likely before I contact the web hosting company. Is there an easy way I can verify apache is the culprit (bearing in mind I am not competent at Apache?).

Many thanks for any advice anyone can give.

[David]

It is very likely due to this Apache configuration issue. But we would need to see the site in question before being sure.

The larger the size of the index, the more CPU time and RAM required to search the index. So if for example your server has RLimitCPU set to 2 sec. Then eventually as you increase the size of the index, the script will run for more than 2 seconds, causing the server to terminate it.

In the post linked to above there is a test script (just a small loop), that can be used to prove there is an issue on the server.

[6StringGeek]

I ran that test and here are my results:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 67108864 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 35 bytes).

My site is only about 500 pages and is hosted on a godaddy server. I know you mentioned in another thread that godaddy is one of the hosts that may throttle the CPU time. Do you have any webhost suggestions that do not do this and would work well with Zoom?

Thanks!

[David]

This allowed "Allowed memory size bytes exhausted" message is from PHP in fact and not Apache.

See if this FAQ will help,
Q. "Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted..." or similar error message

[6StringGeek]

Thanks for the quick reply. I don't have access to the php.ini so I added the recommended code to my .htaccess and I get this error:

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

So I'm guessing that I am out of luck unless I can find a webhost that will support your software requirements. Any ideas anybody?

[David]

It is easy to make a mistake in the .htaccess file. So you might want to check it carefully and try the 3rd option mentioned, using,
ini_set ( "memory_limit", "128M");

You may also want to consider using the CGI version for better performance on large sites. But your host probalby doesn't support CGI either.

We use Pair.com as a web host. We haven't had any problem using the CGI, nor setting PHP limits.

[6StringGeek]

Thanks for the reply. I cut/pasted the script from your help file...double checked and it's correct. Also changed the value...no good.

Thanks for the pair.com recommendation. I will check them out today.

I suppose a good test would be to load your free version on my host and see if it works...I assume the pay versions are essentially the same...if that works out I'll grab a copy asap. Looks like a perfect solution for me.

[David]

Larger sets of index files use more RAM and CPU time to search. So it is possible that small sets of index files will work on some hosts, but as the index file gets larger you'll hit the limits at that host. Some hosting companies have very low RAM usage limits in some cases we have seen hosts that only allow you to use 1% of the RAM installed in the server.