Nginx Server "Forbidden Access error" and frozen browser issue

May 4, 2016 3.1k views
Nginx Server Optimization
gavilan
By:
gavilan

We are hosting an online examination system in a Ubuntu server 14.04 and nginx server. We tested the system with 50 users accessing the system over WiFi network using smartphones, Tab and Laptops. But while accessing the system, some browsers got frozen for longer duration and some got forbidden access error msg but got resolved when pressed refresh. What can be the possible issues?

4 comments
  • Artelis May 4, 2016

    What size droplet have you set this up on? Depending on what's actually handling this system (other than Nginx), if it's the smallest 512MB droplet, it could easily be choking trying to handle 50 connections at once.

  • gavilan May 5, 2016

    whats a droplet?

  • newbie May 5, 2016

    @gavilan
    VPS is called droplet at digitalocean.

    you should upgrade to 1 gb droplet. but before that, to the following 2 things and check if that solve your issue or not.

    1. add swap
      How To Add Swap on Ubuntu 14.04

    2. optimize nginx
      How To Optimize Nginx Configuration

    How To Add Swap on Ubuntu 14.04
    by Justin Ellingwood
    Swap space can be used as an "overflow" area for your system when you run out of RAM. The operating system can store data that would normally be kept in RAM on the hard drive in a specially formatted file. In this guide, we'll demonstrate how to create and use one of these files in Ubuntu 14.04.
  • gavilan May 5, 2016

    We have not used VPS. A simple web application hosted in a web server and accessed from an intranet through WiFi.

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1 Answer
PatrickDO August 10, 2016

Hi @gavilan,

A virtual server at DigitalOcean is called a Droplet (a drop in the Digital Ocean). Depending on how many concurrent users you intend to have on the server, you may be better suited to increase the size of your virtual machine to increase the RAM.

Before you change the size of the application, could you perhaps describe the application a little more? Is it PHP? or is it just simple HTML? or another language? Did you install a standard application (such as wordpress), or did you write your own? Does it have a database server?

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