We recently took over an Umbraco site for a client who had it built elsewhere. It was running version 7.7, deployed on Azure and was running in to all sorts of issues. Basically, the site would go down every 2 days or so.
So, I updated to version 7.14 and the issues went away in terms of stability. However, other past issues it had still remain. The 2 big ones are:
When changing content and saving, the site and admin dashboard goes
in to a hanging state and it takes a good 60 seconds or so for the
site to come back.
Also, there was use of the content picker to select a node which
when typing in to the search bar would not return anything at all.
I changed this to use content picker2 but I am still getting the
same issues.
What's strange about the 2 issues above is that when I run it locally to try and fix it, those issues are not an issue! So, I'm wondering if it's got something to do with the Azure hosting. The client has understandably had enough and wants to move to a different hosting provider.
Has anybody seen similar behavior to what I am seeing? Would moving away from Azure be the answer? Does anyone have any suggestions of great hosting providers?
Are you using Azure Web Apps or dedicated VPS access? We are running sites both on Web Apps and VPS and have seen if site is quite large with lot of content then it is better to use VPS over Web Apps. Reason is that when saving Umbraco generates XML cache and that takes sometimes lot of time on Web Apps.
We also faced similar issue with a site on Web Apps that we upgraded from v6 to v7 and to latest version of v7 recently. Later on we moved to azure VPS and all is working smoothly.
We're using Azure Web Apps (running on S1). I am thinking it might be to do with needing more power. Does the content picker search really need that much power though? Seems a bit of an overkill to upgrade everything just because of that.
We are doing some research about having some VPS's instead. As always, it's the cost comparisons vs performance that will be the deciding factor.
Those issues definitely "smell" like the website is not correctly configured for Azure WebApps - especially given the fact the same issues do not occur locally. WebApps can be a great and stable platform for hosting Umbraco, but it is important to understand the specific configuration you'll need to get the most from WebApps.
Thank you for the reply. I agree, it does smell of the incorrectly configured approach but I did go through all that and modified it all. Previously, it would crash every 2 days or so and the upgrade and 'Azure Fix' did the trick.
Maybe it's to do with the size of it. It is the largest Umbraco site we have and none of the others have any issues at all. Maybe that App Service needs more power (currently it's on S1) and of course, with that comes more cost hence me considering moving to a more cost effective hosting platform.
I still can't work out why the content picker search wont work though when it runs perfectly ok on local.
Good to know you can rule out config as the issue! If you decide to stick it out with WebApps perhaps a few more steps to take - at least this is what I'd do:
1 - Verify Examine is configured correctly for cloud - I'm thinking this could be the issue with content picker search
2 - For the sake of validating you are using a WebApps service tier capable of running your site's workload (you did say it's a relatively large site) I'd scale up to S3 and run through the same scenarios to see if the issues are solved...or lesser in any case.
FWIW - the 1.75GB of RAM in the S1 tier is far below what I've recommend to my clients with large sites in the past. I understand there's a cost implication here, but for the sake of knowing if (part of) the issue is a lack of resources, it'd be worth testing.
Let us know the outcome of your efforts and what you decide.
-Paul
Differences (issues) between live and staging
Hello all
We recently took over an Umbraco site for a client who had it built elsewhere. It was running version 7.7, deployed on Azure and was running in to all sorts of issues. Basically, the site would go down every 2 days or so.
So, I updated to version 7.14 and the issues went away in terms of stability. However, other past issues it had still remain. The 2 big ones are:
What's strange about the 2 issues above is that when I run it locally to try and fix it, those issues are not an issue! So, I'm wondering if it's got something to do with the Azure hosting. The client has understandably had enough and wants to move to a different hosting provider.
Has anybody seen similar behavior to what I am seeing? Would moving away from Azure be the answer? Does anyone have any suggestions of great hosting providers?
Many thanks, Michael
Hi Michael,
Are you using Azure Web Apps or dedicated VPS access? We are running sites both on Web Apps and VPS and have seen if site is quite large with lot of content then it is better to use VPS over Web Apps. Reason is that when saving Umbraco generates XML cache and that takes sometimes lot of time on Web Apps.
We also faced similar issue with a site on Web Apps that we upgraded from v6 to v7 and to latest version of v7 recently. Later on we moved to azure VPS and all is working smoothly.
Do let me know if you need any further help?
Hi there
Thank you for the reply.
We're using Azure Web Apps (running on S1). I am thinking it might be to do with needing more power. Does the content picker search really need that much power though? Seems a bit of an overkill to upgrade everything just because of that.
We are doing some research about having some VPS's instead. As always, it's the cost comparisons vs performance that will be the deciding factor.
Thanks, Michael
Hi Michael -
Those issues definitely "smell" like the website is not correctly configured for Azure WebApps - especially given the fact the same issues do not occur locally. WebApps can be a great and stable platform for hosting Umbraco, but it is important to understand the specific configuration you'll need to get the most from WebApps.
Here is the step by step setup for that: https://our.umbraco.com/documentation/Getting-Started/Setup/Server-Setup/azure-web-apps
I'd recommend validating the config carefully and sticking with WebApps if possible.
-Paul
Hi Paul
Thank you for the reply. I agree, it does smell of the incorrectly configured approach but I did go through all that and modified it all. Previously, it would crash every 2 days or so and the upgrade and 'Azure Fix' did the trick.
Maybe it's to do with the size of it. It is the largest Umbraco site we have and none of the others have any issues at all. Maybe that App Service needs more power (currently it's on S1) and of course, with that comes more cost hence me considering moving to a more cost effective hosting platform.
I still can't work out why the content picker search wont work though when it runs perfectly ok on local.
Thanks, Michael
Hi Michael -
Good to know you can rule out config as the issue! If you decide to stick it out with WebApps perhaps a few more steps to take - at least this is what I'd do:
1 - Verify Examine is configured correctly for cloud - I'm thinking this could be the issue with content picker search
2 - For the sake of validating you are using a WebApps service tier capable of running your site's workload (you did say it's a relatively large site) I'd scale up to S3 and run through the same scenarios to see if the issues are solved...or lesser in any case.
FWIW - the 1.75GB of RAM in the S1 tier is far below what I've recommend to my clients with large sites in the past. I understand there's a cost implication here, but for the sake of knowing if (part of) the issue is a lack of resources, it'd be worth testing.
Let us know the outcome of your efforts and what you decide. -Paul
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