[infinite recursion]

Interesting, I never thought about doing it for security.

In that case, after all the chaos settles and the server is back up and stable, I would suggest trying modphp or something else for a day or two, and see if the problems still occur. If you don't have the same problems with it, there are two ways you can make it work.
1) You, could actually run separate virtual machines for each site, but that'd be a pain.
2) An easier way, would be to use a reverse proxy. Basically, you could start one apache instance for each of your sites, and have it listen on a different port. Each instance serves one site, which would keep them separate from each other, and thus give you the same level of security. Then, you run another instance of apache on port 80. It would use a reverse proxy to essentially forward requests to the correct apache process. Not the most elegant thing, but it would get you the added security while avoiding fcgid. If only apache had an option to handle each vhost in a separate process

[BAILOPAN]

infinite recursion: thanks for the suggestions. we actually already do #2 nginx is the outward-facing server, there are two apache instances (one for our mod_php vhosts, one for our mod_fcgid vhosts like the forums).

so I think we're in a decent position to just try it and see what happens.

[infinite recursion]

Neat. Yea, there's no rush too, the google cache works great for when it is acting up.

[Dravu]

Originally Posted by BAILOPAN infinite recursion: thanks for the suggestions. we actually already do #2 nginx is the outward-facing server, there are two apache instances (one for our mod_php vhosts, one for our mod_fcgid vhosts like the forums). so I think we're in a decent position to just try it and see what happens.

The only real issue in switching between the two is getting the permissions right. When switching to mod_php, everything has to be chown'd to nobody which is easy enough. Switching back, however, you have to remember who owns what and do a few recursive chowns depending on who owns what. It's easier to switch off mod_fcgid and suPHP than to switch back. D:

Also, nice to see the use of nginx.

[The Art of War]

Originally Posted by FaTony I didn't try to make a joke. I just hate people that lie even if lie is justified on their moral grounds. Many of you think that if Bailopan choose the lesser cap, he is caring for community well-being, isn't distracting newcomers, is being a shy "in a good way" person, etc. I.e. his lies are justified and make him a sort of noble person. However, you don't think about if the people knew the real bill, they would donate more. Also, if he would have been posting a detailed statistics of what is going on and disclose the amount of his own spendings, people would tend to donate slightly more, proportionally to his spendings. The worse the situation gets and more people know about it, the more people tend to help. The whole HDD crash would be evaded (at least the statistical probability would be less). I'm saying all of it because even after the crash I don't the see signs of that lesson being learned. EDIT: didn't see the Bail's post. Good one. But it is generally assumed that donation goal is what will guarantee a well-being of a system to a certain degree. I know you can evade from this in court.

Perhaps he is too busy with his work and trying to recover the failed drive to get you som statistics...

Oh and about that "nice crusade, bro" Psy, mine were better

Originally Posted by Kyle12 There's no Zionist conspiracy going on, which has been stated a number of times now.

Lol.

[BAILOPAN]

Forum e-mails should be working again. Sorry for the delay on that one.

[PM]

Good job on the rescue! Amazing that not everything went wrong at once this time!

[Chrisber]

Bail, did you see my post?

Chris

[Land of plenty]

Originally Posted by BAILOPAN Kyle12: Another webserver is an option, but we have a lot of custom apache gunk including .htaccess usage that we'd have to make sure can be ported first.

This might seem like nit picking but wouldn't you be better off using httpd.conf rather than .htaccess, as the Apace Foundation recommend? I know a lot of people ignore this advice but the problem supposedly scales severely. Its not just that apache needs to read .htaccess file every time, it needs to check each parent folder as well.

You can use includes within httpd.conf so you may be able to turn your existing .htaccess files into includes over time and perhaps even use user/group permissions on them for access control if needed. The only drawback I can think of (not having a great understanding of your setup) is that a root user needs to reload the conf for any changes to take effect. I understand this can be done 'gracefully' and does not require a complete apache restart. I don't have any real experience with this myself. I've used apache2 a little.

Its great you came back so well by the way. I was thinking about those Autumn leaves in Monty Pythons 'Meaning of Life'.

[10Stars]

Hey, even accounts that don't ever log in still work!

Good to see everythings still around Bail.