After a couple of failed attempts at switching to the new server setup, it seems I’m going to have to fall back and punt (at least on a portion of it). With the help of Frederick Townes, I have what should be a really screaming-fast web server setup. But for some reason, it seems that the Apache Worker MPM + FastCGI (mod_fcgid) + PHP CGI combination is not stable. At least, it’s not for me. Both times that I’ve switched DNS and put real traffic on the server, it crashes and burns. It’s like a sports car with a flat tire — it looks great, but it won’t get you very far.
So, I’m going to switch back to pre-fork Apache and mod_php. I’m still splitting MySQL off to its own server, and with Frederick’s help I have some improvements to my Apache config that should greatly improve things. Between those two factors, I expect to have a lot fewer problems, and be able to serve more pageviews during traffic spikes.
With luck, I’ll have more news soon.
