Traffic Spike (QSM – admin-ajax.php)

  • Resolved ksuteja

    (@ksuteja)


    1 year, 10 months ago

    Hi QSM

    I got suggestion from Siteground support team, to reduce the admin-ajax.php from my website (where it has almost 100 of quizzes with QSM) as when the spike loads, it breaks my CPU resources.

    Is reducing admin-ajax.php from QSM function is possible to do? how do I do that? Otherwise, do you have any suggestions?

    Thanks.

    
Thank you for contacting our Technical Support Team.

I've checked the case and noticed that the server was overloaded between 14:34 UTC and 15:00 UTC. During this time, there was quite a lot of traffic to your site?*.com, mostly on quiz pages. Something that stands out is that the admin-ajax.php is being executed on these pages (when someone selects an answer) and this could be the reason why the load spiked. As you may know, the admin-ajax.php script is quite resource intensive. With higher levels of traffic, the script can be executed a lot of times and thus cause a temporary load spike.

I found that the admin-ajax.php script is being called with the following action:
qsm_get_question_quick_result

This can be seen in the browser's developer console -> Network -> Select the admin-ajax.php resource -> Payload. This action belongs to the following plugin:
quiz-master-next

Reducing the number of admin-ajax.php executions on the site's pages would also reduce the load that the site generates. You may consider reaching out to your developer or the plugin's developers so that they can review them and propose/make changes to reduce the admin-ajax.php processes.

The site that had the second-most traffic during the load spike is?*.com?and I see that its quiz pages were also visited, thus generating the same admin-ajax.php requests.

I'd also recommend replacing the native WordPress cron feature on your WordPress-based websites with a real cron, as this will also lower the overall load generated by the sites:
https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/real-cron-job/

Alternatively, you may also consider adding 2 more CPU cores via your Client Area -> Services -> Upgrade. However, the most optimal solution would be to reduce the amount of admin-ajax.php executions on your sites.

If you need further assistance or have any additional questions, feel free to contact us again.

Best Regards,
Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

  • Hello @ksuteja,

    I hope this message finds you well.

    I apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced.

    Could you kindly provide us with the following information? It would greatly assist us in troubleshooting the issue:

    1. The current versions of WordPress (WP), PHP, and the Quiz and Survey Master (QSM) plugin you are using.
    2. A screenshot of the quiz options tab, including all the sub-tabs within it.
    3. Could you please inform us of the number of concurrent users attempting to access the quiz?
    4. If possible, please share a quiz link with us for the purpose of troubleshooting.

    Additionally, it would be helpful if you could provide the error log or debug log of your website.

    We eagerly await your response.

    Best regards,
    Sumit

    Hi?@ksuteja ,

    We haven’t heard back from you in a while, so I’m going to mark this as resolved. If you have any further questions, you can start a new thread.

    Regards,
    Sumit

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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