By Z2222 on

I installed Drupal 4.7.2 on Bluehost and began getting many 500 errors.

I called them up and Bluehost said that they no longer support Drupal 4.7.2.

I was told that Bluehost has contacted people from Drupal and said that they would not support the latest version of Drupal "until the memory problems were fixed." Something about Drupal 4.7.2 using up too much memory for their servers.

If you are planning on using Drupal 4.7.2, Bluehost will not work (until these problems are fixed -- if they ever are).

Just want to warn other people. I probably have to go out and buy another hosting plan now.

Are there any plans to change "Drupal's memory usage", or is this the end of Drupal 4.7.2 on Bluehost?

⋅ Categories: Drupal 4.7.x

Comments

stevenpatz’s picture

stevenpatz
he/him
commented

Who do they contact? Dries?

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

They told me that Bluehost has contacted Fantastico and the Drupal team about the "memory problems" with Drupal 4.7.2 and will start supporting it again "once the memory usage problems are fixed." I asked for an estimated time until the problem was fixed, and Bluehost told me that it depends on whether the Drupal team fixes the problem. If there is someone from the Drupal team reading this maybe contact the Bluehost team.

They said they host 100,000 sites (or 100,000 Drupal sites?) and that they were hoping that they were hoping that it would be worked out soon.

I also have many drupal 4.7.2 sites on Site5 with no problem. I'm moving that site from Bluehost to Site5 until I can get another hosting plan for it.

Bluehost recommended that I use an older version of Drupal or Joomla -- but that is not going to work. I have several bluehost accounts so it's very bad news for me.

ggevalt’s picture

ggevalt commented

I was advised by Bluehost support that the installation program for Drupal 4.7.2 within Fantastico was the problem and that if one installed Drupal oneself it would work OK.

I am building a new site with Drupal and so far have not had any problems with it that I can trace to Bluehost. I've actually found them to be very good and responsive. I was able to load up 4.7.2 without problems.

Now I will confess that some of the modules have been tricky and have not loaded properly but while I am newbie my sense is that this is a function of the modules not Bluehost.

I would love some clarification from someone, however, as to whether there is or is not a problem with 4.7.2. This particularly forum for instance has information that's all over the map.

ggevalt
http://www.youngwritersproject.org

geoff gevalt
http://www.youngwritersproject.org
http://www.ywpschools.net
http://geoffreygevalt.com

ggevalt’s picture

ggevalt commented

Here's additional comment from a support person at Bluehost:

"The issue mainly is that the newest version of drupal (or the one that was newest when these issues first came up) changed the character set/collation that the database uses. By default, our mysql server uses latin_sweden_ci. They were using UTF8. Now, you can manually set the character set/collation to utf8 on the database prior to installing drupal, which would fix any issues with it."

ggevalt
http://www.youngwritersproject.org

geoff gevalt
http://www.youngwritersproject.org
http://www.ywpschools.net
http://geoffreygevalt.com

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

I wish they had mentioned that to me on the phone. They told me that the problem had to do with memory. They said that as soon as Drupal team fixed the memory issue that the latest version of Drupal would work on Bluehost.

The message in the error logs said something about premature end of script headers. An online search also said that this was often caused by a memory problem.

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

I did not install with Fantastico. All installation was done manually.

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

I am glad I didn't go for bluehost.

I don't know what memory problems they are talking about as I really haven't experienced any on Site5 despite testing and installing dozens of sites. And, I have never once increased the default memory.

kbahey’s picture

kbahey commented

I am running several sites on 4.7.2 with php.ini settings of 16MB.

This is the way I ran them on 4.6.x as well.

Just for the sake of testing, I reduced that to 8MB (the default for PHP), and restarted the web server. The sites still run fine. phpinfo() says that I have memory set to 8MB.

Even the admin/modules page has no problem loading, and I have LOTS of modules in there (enabled and disabled).

So, where is the memory problem with 4.7.2? Might be a specific contributed module ...
--
Drupal development and customization: 2bits.com
Personal: Baheyeldin.com

--
Drupal performance tuning and optimization, hosting, development, and consulting: 2bits.com, Inc. and Twitter at: @2bits
Personal blog: Ba

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

Are you using Bluehost, or another hosting company? How do you restart the server on Bluehost?

kbahey’s picture

kbahey commented

Another host, but the point is: 4.7.2 WILL RUN FINE WITH 8MB.

So, Blue Host saying there are memory problems cannot be true, or applies only to certain contributed modules ...
--
Drupal development and customization: 2bits.com
Personal: Baheyeldin.com

--
Drupal performance tuning and optimization, hosting, development, and consulting: 2bits.com, Inc. and Twitter at: @2bits
Personal blog: Ba

RichGarner’s picture

RichGarner commented

CRAP! I just convinced my church to buy a hosting plan on BlueHost! I like BlueHost because I have had two other (non-drupal) sites on there and I've had no troubles for over a year. They are very friendly and very helpful and I hate to leave them.

Anyone know if they still support older Drupal versions? I guess I can call and comment back on my findings.

RichGarner’s picture

RichGarner commented

I called BlueHost support... they said that they had Drupal available as an automatic install, but due to these memory issues, they removed it from the auto install list. They say that if you can install and manage it yourself it should work fine.

But I still get a 500 error when I try to upload a 8Mb audio file.

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

They told me that "the latest version of Drupal is unsupported so you are on your own" (in response to my telling them that their servers were causing 500 errors). They said that it was some kind of "memory usage problem with the latest version of Drupal". They recommended that I use an older version of Drupal or try Joomla.

My site has no traffic at all, and just a few common modules, and was still giving 500 errors when using the Drupal admin panel.

davemybes’s picture

davemybes commented

I have also just convinced a client to sign up with Bluehost and have installed 4.7.2. I have quite a few modules installed, including a self-made one, and have upped the php.ini memory to 12MB. So far everything works OK. Lets hope it stays that way.

guitarmiami: You said the modules you are using are common ones. Are they all the right version for 4.7? Have you created any of your home that create a menu item somewhere? I would try disabling all extra modules not part of the core and see what happens. Also check that when you copied Drupal onto your server that all files did in fact copy across.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

I changed the php.ini memory to 16MB and still got the same error. I already moved it to another company's server though.

The files were all uploaded (twice). They are the correct modules for 4.7. I upload the same modules for every site. I've installed Drupal dozens of times and don't think I made any errors. Tech support looked at the 500 error and said that it was a problem with the latest version of Drupal and that I "was on my own" because it is not supported by Bluehost.

The modules are:
pathauto
poormanscron
feedback
front
gsitemap (not enabled yet)
nodewords
xstatistics

I would get the 500 error when saving settings for the front module, and another one but I'm not sure which one it was... pathauto?

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

Are these the only contributed modules you are using or do you have more?

In my opinion, BlueHost is being quite irresponsible. To make a sweeping statement that 4.7.2 has memory issues when thousands of sites are using it without a problem doesn't speak very highly about their technical staff.

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

I forgot to mention that the "forward" module was uploaded also (but it wasn't installed). Gsitemap wasn't installed either. There were no other modules.

I mentioned that I moved my site to Site5 hosting. Site5 are also having problems with their servers. Their ticket system is completely broken and there is no no phone support. I finally found an email address and heard back from them 24 hours later (now) that they are still working on the problem.

The problem with Site5 is that my site doesn't show up in control panel problems and I haven't been able to work on my site in 24 hours because I can't create a database for Drupal (FTP and SSH work, but I can't create a database user).

I'm having bad luck at the moment. For $8 - $16/month what can you expect? I still haven't found a cheap hosting service that is reliable.

davemybes’s picture

davemybes commented

Dude, you are having some seriously bad luck there. I am currently running 4.7.2 on both bluehost and ipowerweb with no problems (geez, I'm really tempting fate with that statement!). You might want to look at ipowerweb, although you have to ask them for lock tables and create temporary table permissions. If you ask nicely, they should give them to you, otherwise you will have to use the workarounds that can be found here: lock tables -> http://drupal.org/node/40774 and temp tables -> http://drupal.org/node/49644. I've heard Dreamhost is also fairly good, but there have also been some negative reports.

If you want to try bluehost again, I have the php.ini file from their server, in case you need it. I sent it to Rich, but haven't heard back yet to know if it worked for him.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

I've heard negative reports about ipowerweb. Also Dreamhost (an "F" rating by the Better Business Bureau, whatever that means). But also some good things about Dreamhost (which I have to balance with people's $97 affiliate commision motivation).

I already switched that site from Bluehost, but now am dealing with the Site5 problems. It's been on Site5 about 36 hours and I haven't been able to install a database yet because of their server problems. I cannot work on the site. Site5 is great until something goes wrong. No phone support. "24 hour technical support" means "it will take us 24 hours to respond your your urgent emails."

I give up for now... Will work on other projects tonight.

kbahey’s picture

kbahey commented

I am the author of feedback and use it on all my sites (with 8MB) without an issue (incidentally, I committed a new version today that is a totally new rewrite, but that is not related to memory issues).

I also use pathauto and gsitemap without any issues.

I used to have xstatistics, but it slowed my browsing (heavy database queries).

Haven't used nodewords so far, and don't need poormanscron since I use linux cron.

Try disabling just one module and doing the test that causes the 500, then repeat for every other module until you know which one causes the issue.
--
Drupal development and customization: 2bits.com
Personal: Baheyeldin.com

--
Drupal performance tuning and optimization, hosting, development, and consulting: 2bits.com, Inc. and Twitter at: @2bits
Personal blog: Ba

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

Are you using upload module or something else? To say across the board that it is Drupal 4.7.2 without specific's is not all that responsible nor is it likely to be accurate. Perhaps you are using a module that has a high RAM requirement and that is the actual issue. Someone is going to have to do some troubleshooting to see what the actual issue is.

By common one's, perhaps you could define common ones rather then have everyone guessing. There may be 'known' issues with 'common ones'.

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

The complete list of modules is above.

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

Bluehost is normally good. They offer cheap hosting with 24/7 phone support. This problem with Drupal is not going well for me though.

RichGarner’s picture

RichGarner commented

Bluehost support also told me that I could up the memory in my php.ini file to fix this upload issue. However, I cannot find a php.ini on my server. So I created one from scratch out of a php.ini template I found on the net. I removed all but the variables that I need to change according to BH support. But this did not fix the problem.

Since I am a self-proclaimed idiot, I'm sure that I did something wrong. But I'm wondering what might be the easiest path to try to resolve this...

A. Should I try to get the php.ini to work and hope that I can upload
OR
B. Should I try to get this audio_import2.module to work so that I can select an audio file that I ftp into a folder
(I have installed this audio_import2.module as described here: http://drupal.org/node/40889 but I can't get it to work.)

davemybes’s picture

davemybes commented

Rich,

On my Bluehost site, there was a php.ini file already there. If you are interested, I can always send it to you. Drop me a line through my contact form if you want it. I just looked through it, and my memory limit is still at 8MB. I must have been thinking of my local server where I increased the memory limit.

Unfortunately, I cannot help you with the audio_import2 module, seeing as I have never used it. There are other file upload modules - is there any reason you're using this one instead of one of the others eg. the core upload module?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

elmuerte’s picture

elmuerte commented

Are they using eAccelerator by any chance?
For some reason Drupal and eAccelerator do not work well together. I switched to APC and everything went back to normal (mem usage is usually about 0.5MB (even on the modules page)).

--
Magicball Network -- Little Big Adventure community
vbDrupal [developer]

bryansd’s picture

bryansd commented

I'm running eAccelerator just fine for my Drupal, SMF, and Wordpress sites just fine. I think for some eAccelerator users the issues is not Drupal but related more to which version of PHP is being used:

The encoder will only work with PHP versions from the 4.x.x branch. All other PHP versions aren't currently supported by the encoder. The latest release, 0.9.4, supports PHP 4 and PHP 5.0.x for caching scripts. PHP 5.1 support is being worked on and will be available in eAccelerator 0.9.5.

Getting back on topic regarding hosting a Drupal site...I never found myself happy with any shared hosting plans (including plans that I resale). After I went with a Virtual Private Server (VPS)...my Drupal sites have been humming along. I urge anyone with server administration skills to take a look at them. My VPS is through my resale business, Dakota Hosting, but other companies likely provide just as good of a service.

If you do insist on shared hosting...you may want to try out Rhombic networks. I've never tried their service, but I've had some good conversations with their owner, Samat. He's provided the Sands theme here at Drupal and is a Drupal diehard. I'm sure they'll be providing Drupal 4.7 support soon (if they don't already).

Cheers, Bryan

CMSReport

elmuerte’s picture

elmuerte commented

It was clearly eAccelerator, was using 0.9.4 on php 4.3.10 it worked fine with all other scripts but for some reason stuff didn't work well with Drupal. I did quite some debugging using xDebug and found some really weird shit going on. So it could have been something about my system setyp, was using Debian stable with a custom build eAccelerator (using the debian setup).
So in the end I simply ditched it for APC and haven't encountered any problems so far. Even tho drupal was the only PHP product that showed this bevaior I don't think it's drupal but rather a combination. Just to black list Drupal because there's a issue with it using a certain system setup is just stupid. You should fix your setup. Ofcourse it's easier for hosting porviders to blame the customer.

--
Magicball Network -- Little Big Adventure community
vbDrupal [developer]

dz-1’s picture

dz-1 commented

i seutp 4.7.2 on my site about a month ago (still working on it), and it is still up as of right now.. and i havent had any issues..

you said you were getting a 500 error when uploading a file, where exactly were you uploading the file?

i believe you are confusing 'will not support' with 'will not work', which are two totally different things.

i think that this post is misleading in stating that bluehost does not work with 4.7.2 as it clearly is for some of us, if they dont provide tech support for it then that is their perogative..

so, when are you getting 500 errors?

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

It wasn't when uploading a file... it was when updating settings in the Drupal admin section.

I have another older site on Bluehost with Drupal 4.7.x without problems so far (same modules). But there were consistent errors with this last site. They said it's a known issue, that they don't support the latest version of Drupal, and that I should either switch to an older version of Drupal or try Joomla.

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

You mean an older version of Drupal with Security vulnerabilities. I still know of no one contacted by them within the infrastructure team

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

sol77’s picture

sol77 commented

Has this issue been resolved? I have been looking into moving my site to Bluehost but I want to know if it still is a poor option.

Hostmonster.com seems like a good alternative otherwise.

davemybes’s picture

davemybes commented

I would say its resolved. I think the problem was specific to that user's installation. I have my site still running on Bluehost with no problems.

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ggevalt’s picture

ggevalt commented

I use Bluehost as well and have had no problems. They are extremely helpful. Again, they've said the issue with Drupal has been in the Fantastico installation scripting. They support Drupal in a variety of versions. They also have upgraded all their servers and routers and the sites are much, much faster just in the last week.

geoff gevalt
www.youngwritersproject.org/drupal

geoff gevalt
http://www.youngwritersproject.org
http://www.ywpschools.net
http://geoffreygevalt.com

sol77’s picture

sol77 commented

The CEO for Bluehost did make a good impression and they were very helpful and quick when answering my questions but I went with Hostmonster.

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

I have a couple of Drupal 4.7 sites on Bluehost already. When I went to add a new one it didn't work and they told me it was no longer supported and that I should try Joomla, etc...

They are very helpful, and otherwise a great cheap hosting company that I would recommend for anything except Drupal -- but they told me that they don't support the latest version of Drupal. I don't know if they have fixed it yet.

ggevalt’s picture

ggevalt commented

Actually, Bluehost DOES support Drupal. It is currently on 4.7.2 but it always has lagged behind current versions in most software it offers; they say it is to make sure all the bugs have been worked out. And it has resumed offering Fantastico script for installation but is, again, on the 4.7.2 version. (It is, frankly, pretty easy to manually update to 4.7.3.)

I jump in on this discussion again only because I think there's been a little bit of misinformation about Bluehost being presented here. I am hardly a company apologist and I have no dog in this fight except that I've had Bluehost as host for some time, I've recently converted my site to Drupal CMS and I have found Bluehost folks ALWAYS extremely helpful. Even when they took down the Fantastico script for a while, they provided individuals (including me) help in manually loading the program.

geoff gevalt
http://www.youngwritersproject.org

geoff gevalt
http://www.youngwritersproject.org
http://www.ywpschools.net
http://geoffreygevalt.com

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

If they have added Drupal back into Fantastico then maybe they have fixed it. (I've heard that it isn't good to install Drupal through Fantastico though. Better to install manually.)

The only problem is that they told me that the latest version of Drupal was not supported, and they told me this after I had many accounts with them. Bluehost is otherwise great. From what you are saying it sounds like the Drupal/Bluehost problem is fixed.

dvessel’s picture

dvessel commented

They recently altered the CPU cap claiming anything over a 1 minute time frame to measure it would kill any shared host. Well, I guess if your trying to take the whole concept of "over selling" to the next level it could be true. It's 30 seconds of CPU time out of a 60 seconds now. You exceed it then you will get errors. It used to be defined as 20% over a few minutes effectively lowering your CPU quota.

On the bright side, they do have a higher end plan now not advertised on their home page.

–joon
http://www.dvessel.com

HappyOtter’s picture

HappyOtter commented

I think the problem can be fixed by using PhpMyAdmin to set all the table character sets to utf8 and then set the default collation to utf8 (or at least make them the same character set of your choice).

modctek’s picture

modctek commented

Wow. I've been having no end of trouble with mysterious "500 Internal Server Error" problems on my host, who says they dedicate 32mb to PHP. (Aplus.net)

Anyone else able to confirm this helps eliminate these errors? I noted on my databases that most of the tables were utf8, but the collation was set to something different like latin1-swedish?? I've just switched the collation to match the charsets of my tables and crossing my fingers it will help!

modctek’s picture

modctek commented

At least with my hosting provider. Looks like I'm back to searching for a Drupal-friendly host.

Z2222’s picture

Z2222 commented

Update:

I am now running Drupal 5.1 on Bluehost with no problems. Drupal is even listed in their Fantastico section.

Site5 is good as long as you don't get a bad server. I've had a couple of accounts with them that were on bad servers that were a nightmare (disk failures, offline for too long). Once they upgraded the servers (after serious ordeals) everything was fine.