Support for a 3.4.5 forum please

[Nuker]

Hi,

I have been running a 3.4.5 board for about 10 years now and I just ran into a big issue.  Im on a shared hosting and all of the sudden I started to get this on my cpanel terminal:

bash: fork: retry: No child processes

following a huge load time every time I tried to browse my board. Then the server just crashed and my host told me my site was causing them a big server overload and that they would need to suspend my account. My board came back after a while but not for long, it went to overload again. My host found that index.php appears to be the problem, so I renamed it and placed an empty index.php instead. The overload goes almost right away, but as soon as I rename it back I start to get the errors on the terminal no matter the time, even when there is nobody supposed to be visiting which leads me to assume its an automated attack directed at index.php but with some sort of query that is overloading the server. Maybe an exploit or something?

Is there anything I can do to fix this issue?

Thank you.

[Dean_]

Yes. Update. 

3.4.5 is far too old I be running these days. Eventually when more and more server update their configs, you will find it difficult to even host the site. There are plenty of scripts to hack and gain access to the 3.x.x versions. 

I doubt IPS will help as it’s EOL now. Though, they maybe able to shed some light on the error. I would think about renewing your licence…

[teraßyte]

As @Dean_ said you are running a really old version. Even IPS doesn't support upgrades from it anymore.

If you are comfortable upgrading yourself that's an option, otherwise you can hire someone else to do it for you if you are unsure on how to proceed. You'll also want to check the modifications you have, if there are updated versions of them available in the marketplace, and if not consider hiring someone to update them for you if you don't know how.

 

You can find someone in the Providers list filtering by IPS Legacy Upgrades for help with the upgrade and filter by the Programming options for help in updating eventual custom modifications: https://invisioncommunity.com/third-party/providers/

I'm on that list too if you need help. 😉

[Nuker]

thanks but if upgrades from my board are not supported then how can I upgrade? I mean, there is no upgrade script to upgrade from my version to the latest one?

[Mark H]

If you are using version 3.4.5 now, and it is (or was) working properly, then you can upgrade to current version. There are some considerations outside of the software which you need to be aware of, though.

The server must be compatible, and if it's using PHP 7.3 now, your host will need to switch to PHP 7.4 or higher along with the required PHP Extensions, then a manual upgrade can be done.

Please see this Guide we have prepared:

starting in the section titled, "Unsupported Legacy upgrades to Invision Community".

EDIT: I should add, depending on the size of the existing install this is not a trivial job. You need knowledgeable staff on hand to assist if needed, as you will very likely be required to run SQL queries manually, for example.

[Nuker]

Thank you. I will give it a try. My board was working properly until 3 days ago. Now I get a too many connections mysql error and the server goes overload. Its like somebody is trying to DDOS me.

[Mark H]

From that description, it's possible you are being attacked, yes. This is something you should ask your host to check, to see if you are getting flooded with requests.

[Randy Calvert]

1 minute ago, Nuker said:

Thank you. I will give it a try. My board was working properly until 3 days ago. Now I get a too many connections mysql error and the server goes overload. Its like somebody is trying to DDOS me.

It's possible.  It's also possible that you are simply outgrowing your current hosting environment.  

Also...  just because it's worked does not mean there is not risks associated with not keeping your board up to date.  There have been literally hundreds of security fixes released in the last decade...  you could end up with a hacked site if someone exploits one of the vulnerabilities long ago fixed and there would not be anything anyone could to do help with it.  

In essence you're running the equivalent of Windows 95 (maybe even Windows 3.1).  It's SUPER old and the longer you wait to upgrade, the harder it will be to do so later.  

 

[Nuker]

Okay, I just found out. One file was missing for some reason and that caused everything to collapse. It was a very silly thing that caused me a big problem. Anyway, I will reconsider to upgrade.

 

Thank you everybody.

[Mark H]

I'm surprised that one missing file would trigger the behavior you saw. 

Do you happen to know the name of the file?

(This may benefit others in the future.)