rocky26

So, it looks like this crazy problem has at long last been solved. I waited a few days before posting about it just to be sure, and I’m posting this epilogue in case it might help future website developers who ever get stuck in the same quandary as we were in for an entire month.

The server technician says he had the MySQL database server on a separate computer from the web server. He was examining a stream of packets a few days ago between the two machines and noticed that groups of TCP timeouts would occur, with each timeout lasting 3 seconds. They were stacking up to be over a minute sometimes, which would explain those gateway timeouts we had during transactions. He says this is the first time he’s ever seen this problem after decades of experience.

Now then, I do not know why he had the SQL database kept on a different computer from the main web server, nor did I know it was even possible to do so. If I’d known he had things set up this way, I would have told him to consolidate everything to a single machine as soon as the common fixes failed to produce results.

At any rate, he did indeed move the database to the same machine as the web host, and the long processing delays and timeouts promptly disappeared. Transactions now typically take between 6 to 8 seconds, with 10 seconds in the high end. This is perfectly acceptable for us and a huge relief from the nightmare of network timeouts and duplicate orders we endured for a month.

I do have one more question for you all: why didn’t anyone mention this situation as a possible cause for our timeouts? Is separating the database from the main webserver on two different computers just something that is rarely ever done, or is it something that almost never causes trouble and therefore didn’t cross anybody’s mind? I really want to know!

@babylon1999, thanks for the suggestion, but I have tried the email deferment code snippet a number of times during the many tests I’ve done lately. There was no difference in transaction time whenever the code was active. Also I believe we did everything in the document you linked (for example, we increased the WP memory to 512 MB).

@xue28, although my server tech had tried the deactivation routine himself earlier this month, I decided to give it a go myself. The notable thing is that when I did it, with credit card payments disabled and “cash on delivery” as the only method, there is still the long delay.

Then we created a staging site with the WP Staging plugin. I spent a day testing various combinations of plugins switching between the Astra, Storefront, and 2022 themes. I cleared out every cache I could find, cleared transients, and so on. Eventually I not only deactivated, but deleted entirely every plugin except the required staging plugin, and set the theme to Storefront. I reinstalled WordPress, reinstalled WooCommerce plugin, and tried some transactions with only cash on delivery and local pickup (because no shipping plugin was available). Even now, I’m getting very long transaction processing delays and even time outs because it’s taking longer than a minute. Credit card payment chains are completely removed from the equation and still there are long waits and time outs.

I am simply baffled, and so is my server tech.

We did that about a week ago, when we took the whole site down because it was basically unusable for customers. I instructed the server tech to deactivate all plugins and switch to the Storefront theme for his initial testing. He says everything worked fine until the Authorize.Net plugin (made by Pledged Plugins) was activated and being used in the checkout process.

The issue is NOT resolved yet. I hadn’t written anything because we’ve been busy trying many different things including moving the entire website from the old Microsoft IIS server to a brand new Nginx server (which we were planning on doing eventually, but pushed it forward in hopes it would solve these problems.)

With our website now on Nginx, the entire site does run considerably faster, BUT the long delay between checkout and order confirmation is still present. The main consolation is that there is a loading circle that now appears after pressing the “place order” button, so customers can see that something is actually happening during the 45-60+ seconds the payment process is taking its time. Perhaps the delay is slightly shorter than it used to be, but customers are still submitting duplicate payments because they receive an error message saying “please try again” whenever the payment delay takes longer than a minute. It seems completely random whether it takes 45 seconds or longer than a minute.

We did the “deactivate everything” routine and it seems that if there is a problem with any of the plugins, it might be the WooCommerce Authorize.Net Gateway, or something WooCommerce is doing when interacting with it. Though for all I know there could be a third entity causing interference. So I really don’t know. Authorize.Net says everything looks fine on their end.

As for patterns or similarities that triggers the issue… it’s happening with every single transaction as far as we can tell, including with our own test orders.

There don’t seem to be any fatal error logs from the past several days. However, I can paste the system report here if it might be useful:

`
### WordPress Environment ###

WordPress address (URL): https://ultimak.com
Site address (URL): https://ultimak.com
WC Version: 7.7.0
REST API Version: ? 7.7.0
WC Blocks Version: ? 10.0.4
Action Scheduler Version: ? 3.5.4
Log Directory Writable: ?
WP Version: 6.2.1
WP Multisite: –
WP Memory Limit: 512 MB
WP Debug Mode: –
WP Cron: ?
Language: en_US
External object cache: –

### Server Environment ###

Server Info: nginx/1.18.0
PHP Version: 8.1.18
PHP Post Max Size: 128 MB
PHP Time Limit: 300
PHP Max Input Vars: 1000
cURL Version: 7.81.0
OpenSSL/3.0.2

SUHOSIN Installed: –
MySQL Version: 8.0.33-0ubuntu0.22.04.2
Max Upload Size: 128 MB
Default Timezone is UTC: ?
fsockopen/cURL: ?
SoapClient: ?
DOMDocument: ?
GZip: ?
Multibyte String: ?
Remote Post: ?
Remote Get: ?

### Database ###

WC Database Version: 7.7.0
WC Database Prefix: wp_
Total Database Size: 34.70MB
Database Data Size: 24.37MB
Database Index Size: 10.33MB
wp_woocommerce_sessions: Data: 0.23MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_woocommerce_api_keys: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_woocommerce_attribute_taxonomies: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_woocommerce_downloadable_product_permissions: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.06MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_woocommerce_order_items: Data: 0.13MB + Index: 0.06MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_woocommerce_order_itemmeta: Data: 1.52MB + Index: 0.92MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_woocommerce_tax_rates: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.06MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_woocommerce_tax_rate_locations: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_woocommerce_shipping_zones: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.00MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_woocommerce_shipping_zone_locations: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_woocommerce_shipping_zone_methods: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.00MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_woocommerce_payment_tokens: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_woocommerce_payment_tokenmeta: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_woocommerce_log: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_actionscheduler_actions: Data: 0.16MB + Index: 0.17MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_actionscheduler_claims: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_actionscheduler_groups: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_actionscheduler_logs: Data: 0.13MB + Index: 0.13MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_cartflows_ca_cart_abandonment: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_cartflows_ca_email_history: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_cartflows_ca_email_templates: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.00MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_cartflows_ca_email_templates_meta: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_commentmeta: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_comments: Data: 1.52MB + Index: 0.61MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_e_events: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_is_inverted_index: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.08MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_links: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_options: Data: 10.45MB + Index: 0.14MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_postmeta: Data: 5.52MB + Index: 6.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_posts: Data: 2.50MB + Index: 0.30MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_rank_math_analytics_gsc: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.06MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_rank_math_analytics_objects: Data: 0.05MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_rank_math_internal_links: Data: 0.06MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_rank_math_internal_meta: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.00MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_redirection_404: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.05MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_redirection_groups: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_redirection_items: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.09MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_redirection_logs: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.05MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_snippets: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_stock_log: Data: 0.06MB + Index: 0.00MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_term_relationships: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_term_taxonomy: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_termmeta: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_terms: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_tm_taskmeta: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_tm_tasks: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_usermeta: Data: 0.41MB + Index: 0.36MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_users: Data: 0.05MB + Index: 0.05MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_admin_note_actions: Data: 0.06MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_admin_notes: Data: 0.08MB + Index: 0.00MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_category_lookup: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.00MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_customer_lookup: Data: 0.08MB + Index: 0.06MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_download_log: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_order_coupon_lookup: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_order_product_lookup: Data: 0.11MB + Index: 0.06MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_order_stats: Data: 0.09MB + Index: 0.05MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_order_tax_lookup: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_product_attributes_lookup: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_product_download_directories: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_product_meta_lookup: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.09MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_rate_limits: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_reserved_stock: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.00MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_tax_rate_classes: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wc_webhooks: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wpforms_tasks_meta: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.00MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wpmailsmtp_debug_events: Data: 0.22MB + Index: 0.00MB + Engine InnoDB
wp_wpmailsmtp_tasks_meta: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.00MB + Engine InnoDB

### Post Type Counts ###

attachment: 315
customize_changeset: 43
custom_css: 1
elementor_library: 2
is_search_form: 4
nav_menu_item: 30
oembed_cache: 6
page: 71
post: 2
product: 57
product_variation: 30
revision: 180
shop_order: 617
shop_order_refund: 3
wp_global_styles: 2

### Security ###

Secure connection (HTTPS): ?
Hide errors from visitors: ?

### Active Plugins (14) ###

WooCommerce Authorize.Net Gateway: by Pledged Plugins – 6.0.3
Smart Custom 404 error page [404page]: by Peter Raschendorfer – 11.4.3
Starter Templates: by Brainstorm Force – 3.2.1
Code Snippets: by Code Snippets Pro – 3.3.0
Elementor: by Elementor.com – 3.12.1
Flexible Shipping: by Octolize – 4.21.2
Redirection: by John Godley – 5.3.10
Rank Math SEO: by Rank Math – 1.0.114
UpdraftPlus - Backup/Restore: by UpdraftPlus.Com
DavidAnderson – 1.23.4

Variation Swatches for WooCommerce: by CartFlows – 1.0.7
Stock Manager for WooCommerce: by StoreApps – 2.10.0
WooCommerce: by Automattic – 7.7.0
WP Mail SMTP: by WP Mail SMTP – 3.8.0
WP Super Cache: by Automattic – 1.9.4

### Inactive Plugins (8) ###

Backup Duplicator & Migration - WP STAGING: by WP-STAGING
WPStagingBackup – 2.14.1

Code Profiler: by Jerome Bruandet ~ NinTechNet Ltd. – 1.6.1
Enweby Variation Swatches for Woocommerce: by Enweby – 1.0.2
Ivory Search: by Ivory Search – 5.5.1
Jetpack: by Automattic – 12.1
WooCommerce Payments: by Automattic – 5.8.1
WP-Optimize - Clean, Compress, Cache: by David Anderson
Ruhani Rabin
Team Updraft – 3.2.15

WPForms Lite: by WPForms – 1.8.1.2

### Dropin Plugins (1) ###

advanced-cache.php: advanced-cache.php

### Must Use Plugins (3) ###

Code Profiler (mu-plugin): by Jerome Bruandet – 1.0
Elementor Safe Mode: by Elementor.com – 1.0.0
WP STAGING Optimizer: by René Hermenau – 1.5.1

### Settings ###

API Enabled: –
Force SSL: –
Currency: USD ($)
Currency Position: left
Thousand Separator: ,
Decimal Separator: .
Number of Decimals: 2
Taxonomies: Product Types: external (external)
grouped (grouped)
simple (simple)
subscription (subscription)
variable (variable)
variable subscription (variable-subscription)

Taxonomies: Product Visibility: exclude-from-catalog (exclude-from-catalog)
exclude-from-search (exclude-from-search)
featured (featured)
outofstock (outofstock)
rated-1 (rated-1)
rated-2 (rated-2)
rated-3 (rated-3)
rated-4 (rated-4)
rated-5 (rated-5)

Connected to WooCommerce.com: –
Enforce Approved Product Download Directories: ?
HPOS feature screen enabled: –
HPOS feature enabled: –
Order datastore: WC_Order_Data_Store_CPT
HPOS data sync enabled: –

### WC Pages ###

Shop base: #1613 - /shop/
Cart: #1079 - /cart-2/
Checkout: #1080 - /checkout-2/
My account: #12 - /my-account/
Terms and conditions: #2254 - /terms/

### Theme ###

Name: Astra
Version: 4.1.4
Author URL: https://wpastra.com/about/?utm_source=theme_preview&utm_medium=author_link&utm_campaign=astra_theme
Child Theme: ? – If you are modifying WooCommerce on a parent theme that you did not build personally we recommend using a child theme. See: How to create a child theme
WooCommerce Support: ?

### Templates ###

Overrides: –

### Admin ###

Enabled Features: activity-panels
analytics
coupons
customer-effort-score-tracks
import-products-task
experimental-fashion-sample-products
shipping-smart-defaults
shipping-setting-tour
homescreen
marketing
mobile-app-banner
navigation
onboarding
onboarding-tasks
remote-inbox-notifications
remote-free-extensions
payment-gateway-suggestions
shipping-label-banner
subscriptions
store-alerts
transient-notices
woo-mobile-welcome
wc-pay-promotion
wc-pay-welcome-page

Disabled Features: product-block-editor
minified-js
new-product-management-experience
product-variation-management
settings

Daily Cron: ? Next scheduled: 2023-05-18 08:58:07 -07:00
Options: ?
Notes: 107
Onboarding: completed

### Action Scheduler ###

Canceled: 1
Oldest: 2023-05-14 20:41:15 +0000
Newest: 2023-05-14 20:41:15 +0000

Complete: 445
Oldest: 2023-04-16 19:39:06 +0000
Newest: 2023-05-17 16:22:06 +0000

Failed: 18
Oldest: 2023-03-02 01:38:29 +0000
Newest: 2023-05-13 23:27:44 +0000

Pending: 2
Oldest: 2023-05-17 23:25:26 +0000
Newest: 2023-05-18 00:03:04 +0000


### Status report information ###

Generated at: 2023-05-17 12:33:21 -07:00
`

Sorry, I meant to post this elsewhere, but I’ve had trouble navigating this forum. I did manage to figure things out, and it turns out WooLentor doesn’t do what I need anyway. If someone wants to delete this post that’s fine by me.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by rocky26.