500 Internal Server error

Hello, i'm facing a problem for a week:

My board running vBulletin 3.8.2 with a vBSEO 3.3.0 Gold from time to time (when refreshing pages, going to "What's Going On? ", etc) i got the following:

500 Internal Server Error

Please note i'm running on a dedicated server from Hostgator and, after a support ticket i sent to them we increase the max process limit till 50 but i'm still facing the issue. Checking the server's load i found the following process:

wwwonli 32099 2.2 1.8 44828 19492 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32105 2.2 1.8 44180 19260 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32111 2.5 1.8 44180 19260 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32117 2.5 1.8 44180 19260 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32123 2.6 1.8 44184 19260 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32129 3.0 1.8 45200 19260 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32135 2.8 1.8 45208 19268 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32141 3.0 1.8 45200 19264 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32147 3.7 1.8 44180 19268 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32153 3.5 1.8 45200 19260 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32159 3.7 1.8 45208 19268 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32166 5.0 1.8 44180 19260 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32172 5.0 1.8 44176 19256 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32178 5.0 1.8 45196 19260 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32184 7.5 1.8 44180 19260 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32190 7.5 1.8 44184 19264 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32196 7.5 1.8 44176 19256 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32202 16.0 1.8 44176 19256 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32208 15.0 1.8 44180 19268 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32214 15.0 1.8 44176 19256 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32216 16.0 1.9 44784 19716 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/links/browselinks.php
wwwonli 32225 0.0 1.8 44184 19260 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32228 0.0 1.8 44176 19264 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32237 0.0 1.8 44180 19260 ? S 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32240 0.0 1.5 41020 15664 ? R 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php
wwwonli 32243 0.0 1.1 38840 12120 ? R 13:03 0:00 /usr/bin/php /home/wwwonli/public_html/vbseo.php

Seems that vBSEO spawns a lot of processes, about my .htaccess file here's the content:

# Comment the following line (add '#' at the beginning)
# to disable mod_rewrite functions.
# Please note: you still need to disable the hack in
# the vBSEO control panel to stop url rewrites.
RewriteEngine On

# Some servers require the Rewritebase directive to be
# enabled (remove '#' at the beginning to activate)
# Please note: when enabled, you must include the path
# to your root vB folder (i.e. RewriteBase /forums/)

RewriteBase /

#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.onlinewebmarket\.net
#RewriteRule (.*) http://www.yourdomain.com/forums/$1 [L,R=301]

RewriteRule ^((urllist|sitemap_).*\.(xml|txt)(\.gz)?)$ vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1 [L]

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !vbseourl=
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(admincp/|modcp/|chat|cron)
RewriteRule ^(.*\.php(/.*)?)$ vbseo.php?vbseourl=$1 [L,QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !\.(jpg|gif)$
RewriteRule ^(archive/.*)$ vbseo.php?vbseourl=$1 [L,QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^(admincp|modcp|clientscript|cpstyles|images)/
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ vbseo.php?vbseourl=$1 [L,QSA]

# BEGIN WordPress

# END WordPress


<Files 403.shtml>
order allow,deny
allow from all

</Files>

Please gimmi a hand to solve this issue, thanks in advance.-

vbseo.php processes nearly EVERY script, thus it's always in the top list.

RewriteRule ^(.+)$ vbseo.php?vbseourl=$1 [L,QSA]

basically means, that if it made it this far, and its not a real file or directory, to send the script through vbseo.php.

Thus, it's a false indicator of what script is actually causing the problem.

Go into your logs a bit deeper. Find the true 500 condition.

Thanks for your reply but...can you explain it clearly to a newbie as me (i don't understood your explanation, sorry).

Originally Posted by briansol

vbseo.php processes nearly EVERY script, thus it's always in the top list.

RewriteRule ^(.+)$ vbseo.php?vbseourl=$1 [L,QSA]

basically means, that if it made it this far, and its not a real file or directory, to send the script through vbseo.php.

Thus, it's a false indicator of what script is actually causing the problem.

Go into your logs a bit deeper. Find the true 500 condition.

when you go to /thread-123/ this effectively calls a url like: "vbseo.php?vbseourl=showthread&id=213"

thus, vbseo.php gets the 'credit' for using the process, but it's false because the "showthread" part of the script effectively gets added on to vbseo.php as its total weight, which isn't true.


you need to find your true error to see whats causing the 500.
next time you see it, open up your apache error_log file (usually in /usr/local/apache/logs/)

Thanks again, i'll follow your intructions. But i'm sure the issue involves vBSeo due if i deactivate it the issue dissapears at all (even for days), but once i reactivate it the problem pops up inmediately, after asking my provider for increasing the max process limit the issue is less frequent than before but it's always there...

Originally Posted by briansol

when you go to /thread-123/ this effectively calls a url like: "vbseo.php?vbseourl=showthread&id=213"

thus, vbseo.php gets the 'credit' for using the process, but it's false because the "showthread" part of the script effectively gets added on to vbseo.php as its total weight, which isn't true.


you need to find your true error to see whats causing the 500.
next time you see it, open up your apache error_log file (usually in /usr/local/apache/logs/)

Another update: into the Admin Panel of vBSEO i turned off the "Enable Adsense Section Targeting?" and the problem seems gone, in fact my provider right now is monitoring my site and after this change i got on a support ticket's reply:

There are no processes currently running for wwwonli so it looks like they are just running and ending properly at this point and not continuing to hang around. It appears that the changes you made have helped for now at least.

Also please note that i deactivated also all mods, hacks running on my board for test and the problem continues (till the change posted above).-

Originally Posted by masterweb

Thanks again, i'll follow your intructions. But i'm sure the issue involves vBSeo due if i deactivate it the issue dissapears at all (even for days), but once i reactivate it the problem pops up inmediately, after asking my provider for increasing the max process limit the issue is less frequent than before but it's always there...