s2member install crushes server

[blewis]

I installed the regular s2member plugin last week with the idea of testing it out and then buying the Pro version (we need paypal pro support). We are running on a WordPress 3.1.3 (latest) install. Everything seemed fine and my testing was going well, but then our server (dedicated box) starting having issues. The sysadmin determined that our load was way above normal and services were crashing. After scratching my head for a while, I realized that other than upgrading from version 29 to version 3.1.3 of WP, s2member was the only other change I made. I disabled the s2member plugin and the server load returned to normal and has been stable since.

Any thoughts as to why this might have happened. Any known incompatibilities with other plugins that might cause such run-away behavior? I am hoping to solve this instead of just giving up on s2member as it has the feature set we need.

Thanks,
Bryan

[Jason Caldwell]

Hi Bryan. Thanks for reporting this important issue.
No, nothing like that. What other plugins are you running?

[blewis]

Jason,

I haven't had a lot of time in the past week to play with it, and it's definitely s2member causing the issue. I tried activating it again last night. The box was fine for a while, but when I got up this morning the load was through the roof (normally the load is like 0.25, and it was 30.0!). There are tons of httpd processes that have been created and are sucking all of the CPU. When I disabled s2member last weekend, the server ran the entire week without issue.

Obviously there are plenty of people using this plugin without problems. So I can only assume there is a conflict with another plugin (or perhaps the latest version of WP).

I have quite a few plugins. I have gone through and cleaned out plugins that I don't use or can live without. I have updated WP to the latest (3.1.4) and update all plugins to the latest. These are the plug-ins I have left:

Audio Player
Avatars
Contact Form 7
Exclude Pages from Navigation
Google Analytics Dashboard
Select Google XML Sitemaps
Google XML Sitemaps
Really Simple CAPTCHA
s2Member
Simple Facebook Connect - Base
SFC - Fan Box Widget
SFC - Publish
Simple Image Widget
Smart Youtube
Twitter Widget Pro
Use Google Libraries
WP-Cufón
WP-reCAPTCHA
WP Google Analytics
YD Recent Posts with thumbnails

I would really love to get this figured out. Any additional thoughts?

Bryan

[Jason Caldwell]

Sorry, nothing jumping right out at me.

I would suggest running a debugging plugin to see if you can find repeated database queries or major conflicts. Something like this: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/debug-bar/

If you post a link to your site, we can also take a quick look in Firebug to see if anything needs to be optimized. Otherwise, it sounds like you might need to run some diagnostics on your WordPress installation. This is where a PHP coder might come in handy for you. You might try Elance.com or jobs.wordpress.net.

[blewis]

Jason,

Thanks for the response. I have deactivated or uninstalled some additional plugins and things have stabilized. So at this point I am going to slowly reactivate critical plugins one-by-one and see which one is the cause of the conflict. If I figure out which one doesn't get along with s2member, I will let you know.

Bryan