500 Internal Server Errors with DreamHost

You’re welcome!

There are a few ways to reduce your 500 Internal Server Errors on Dreamhost.

For one, move to the site to it’s own user account. If you run multiple sites under one user these all share the same RAM resources making it easier to hit that magic limit and trigger there process watcher to kill your processes.

Your peak usage of 35.4MB is on par with my WordPress set-up and it seems to be doing much better under it’s own user account.

Thanks kinkool, but exactly! I’m already running a single WP install on a unique user account and with SuperCache enabled. I’ve done everything the DH support suggests that doesn’t require command line sysop expertise. I have a few other WP installs that are lighter and they mostly run fine, only occasional 500s. I was moved to a new server in the last 6 months. That seems to be about when my troubles started, but that’s only anecdotal.
But I guess the takeaway is that until hosts publish how much memory comes with their shared hosting, we don’t really know what we’re getting.

@ johnh23 Did not manage to bring down the your memory usage? Any particular plugins that were the cause?

Nothing new to report. Still having issues as outlined above. Most likely the FeedWordpress plugin and depending on how big a feed it has to parse.
But I wish there was more transparency with hosting companies in this area. DreamHost, HostGator, GoDaddy, etc, none of them advertise the amount of memory that comes with an account.

But I wish there was more transparency with hosting companies in this area. Dream Host, HostGator, GoDaddy, etc, none of them advertise the amount of memory that comes with an account.

Me too. I am now just left alone trying to lower the memory usage. Either that or a VPS. TPC Memory usage is fortunately a free WordPress plugin that at least can shed some led on the site’s usage.

By far the MOST frustrating thing about DreamHost 500 errors is this:
Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.
You’re in the middle of updating WP or plugins and you get an error while inside the WP dashboard. You have to ftp into your blog and delete the Maintenance file, which is hidden. Happens all the time.

Having the same issue with tasks I typically do that does not happen on my other host.

I have a number of sites that are based on different topics but have the same structure and plugins. I started on Bluehost and recently decided to launch my newest on on DreamHost to compair.

Tasks I usually run such as add a new catecory or tag and then apply it to existing posts usually results in this listed 500 error, this NEVER happens with the same site setup different content on bluehost.

I’m still in trial, but will not stay if this cannot be resolved.

New site I am building on dreamhost
https://onlinecomputersupportandrepair.com/

Existing site on bluehost
https://freeappliancerepairmanonline.com/

I’ve been having the same problems with increased frequency. It’s pretty ridiculous – I’ve been running wordpress on dreamhost for years, same set up, very little content, only about 20-50 unique visitors a day and I’m getting 500 errors all the time just while trying to make new posts or edit tags, etc. Even deleting a spare theme in the backend! Or just visiting my stats page.

Have any of you moved? Any good alternatives? I’m starting to feel they are just not the solution.

Some times you will get that error if there are is problem on server

Yes, I have some very simple, easy-on-the-plugins sites as well where it’s pretty much impossible to get through even adding a new post without hitting 500 errors.
Hostgator has a similar shared hosting product but I haven’t tried them yet.

Host gator is more reliable as I am using it for one of my cleint

the tech support people are very unhelpful, they just keep telling me that wordpress is terrible at memory usage. Since it’s such a common platform, I’m not really accepting that. One site has only two plugins, both common (wp stats, askimet) and STILL hits 500 errors on loading the image upload script. I feel like there is something very wrong there.

I have had a lot of issues with one WordPress site with Dreamhost. It uses Shopp mind you so server demand was a bit higher than average, but the load I had was way off. I also had to take care of debugging myself once they cut me off using their proc script. Dreamhost Wiki has tips you can use though. See https://wiki.dreamhost.com/WordPress_Optimization and https://wiki.dreamhost.com/Fine_Tuning_Your_WordPress_Install . If those do not help:
1/TPC Memory usage plugin is fortunately a free WordPress plugin that at least can shed some led on the site’s usage. Install it and use it using different WP/plugins combinations. If certain plugins stick out see if they can be upgraded/reinstalled.
2/Check if your wp-config.php is OK and connects to a local server and not a remote server. The latter can cause an enormous server load. So check config for DB connection, sef url rule and so on.
3/Check if plugins are well configured and no impossible SQL or HTTP requests are being made. This you can check by checking the server logs (PHP/HTTP) and or MySQL log. If a proper MySQL connection cannot be established and requests keep on being made that causes a huge server load. Asking for many non existing files or running wrongly composed scripts can cause a large server load as well.