MySQLi - Too Many Connections Error due to Amazon AWS

[RobAC]

All of a sudden this week, my forums have been getting slammed on two different servers from a ton of hits coming in from various IP addresses that all go back to Amazon AWS.

I've increased max_user_connections in MySQL to 10,000 and tried blocking some of the IP ranges but nothing seems to be working.

Is anyone else seeing this in their forums?

Example:

Database error in vBulletin :

mysqli_real_connect(): (HY000/1040): Too many connections
/home/public_html/forums/includes/class_core.php on line 1351

MySQL Error :
Error Number :
Request Date : Thursday, June 21st 2018 @ 11:48:43 AM
Error Date : Thursday, June 21st 2018 @ 11:48:44 AM
Script : /forums/external.php?type=RSS2&forumids=200
Referrer :
IP Address : 34.209.102.89
Username :
Classname : vB_Database_MySQLi
MySQL Version :
Server : 50.22.50.218
User Agent :


Stack Trace:

#0 vB_Database->halt() called in [path]/includes/class_core.php on line 5948
#1 catch_db_error() called in on line
#2 mysqli_real_connect() called in [path]/includes/class_core.php on line 1351
#3 vB_Database_MySQLi->db_connect() called in [path]/includes/class_core.php on line 280
#4 vB_Database->connect() called in [path]/includes/init.php on line 213
#5 require_once([path]/includes/init.php) called in [path]/includes/class_bootstrap.php on line 101
#6 vB_Bootstrap->init() called in [path]/includes/class_bootstrap.php on line 72
#7 vB_Bootstrap->bootstrap() called in [path]/global.php on line 26
#8 require_once([path]/global.php) called in [path]/external.php on line 54
#9 require([path]/external.php) called in [path]/dbseo.php on line 434

[Wayne Luke]

If you make changes to MySQL's configuration, you have to reboot the MySQL server for them to take affect.

You should talk to your hosting provider about DDOS protections. They should be able to block the specific IP addresses at the router or switch level to alleviate stress on your network.