Server keeps crashing on heavy load (facebook SDK + Laravel 5.2 + AWS) - php

Question

I'm on the free tier of AWS and using the laravel framework and the facebook v.2.5 SDK (Web). I'm trying to get the latests 10 posts from facebook for approximately 600 users. Which would be 6000 posts max. Every time I run the query it runs through about 10 loops and then the app completely crashes and goes offline. Then returns after a few minutes. Laravel isn't showing me any errors.
My code is:
/**
* Get facebook users posts
* #return \SammyK\LaravelFacebookSdk\LaravelFacebookSdk;
*/
public function posts(\SammyK\LaravelFacebookSdk\LaravelFacebookSdk $fb)
{
// get posts
$profiles_to_get = DB::table('facebook_profiles')->distinct('username')->get();
$fb_admin_profile = DB::table('profiles')->where('social_media_type', "facebook")->first();
$admin_fb_access_token = $fb_admin_profile->oauth_token;
foreach ($profiles_to_get as $profile_to_get) {
try {
$response = $fb->get('/'.$profile_to_get->username.'?fields=posts.limit(10)', $admin_fb_access_token);
$userNode = $response->getGraphUser();
$posts = json_decode($userNode['posts']);
foreach ($posts as $post)
{
isset($post->message) ? $fb_posts[] = array('account_id' => $profile_to_get->id,
'facebook_id' => $userNode->getID(),
'message_id' => $post->id,
'message' => $post->message,
'created_time' => $post->created_time->date,
'created_at' => Carbon::now(),
'updated_at' => Carbon::now(),
) : null;
foreach ($fb_posts as $fb_post)
{
$postDuplicateChecker = DB::table('facebook_posts')->where('message_id', $fb_post['message_id'])->get();
if($postDuplicateChecker == !null)
{
DB::table('facebook_posts')->where('message_id', $fb_post['message_id'])->update($fb_post);
$notification = "First notification";
}
else
{
DB::table('facebook_posts')->insert( $fb_post );
$notification = "Second notification";
}
}
if ($post > 0 && $post % 10 == 0)
{
sleep(5);
}
}
} catch(\Facebook\Exceptions\FacebookSDKException $e) {
dd($e->getMessage());
}
}
return Redirect::route('someroute',[ 'notification' => $notification]);
}
I've tried setting the query timeout at 300 so it doesn't time out and also making the loop sleep after every 10 requests so that it reduces the load. Also I have other apps running on the same server but they never go offline when this app crashes.
My question is is there any way to optimize the code so that I don't have to upgrade the server or is my only choice to upgrade the server?

Answer 1

The answer was to batch the query using array_chunk and chunk the process into smaller pieces which could be handled easier.
array array_chunk ( array $array , int $size [, bool $preserve_keys = false ] )
Reference: http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-chunk.php