Why was the site down today?

Handruin

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Yes, the site was down due to a failed hard drive on the system. They replaced the drive and reloaded the OS. The data drive was fine apparently.
 

Handruin

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I kind of assume that when the drive had file system errors several days back that it was an indication of problems to come. They backup data daily (as do I on my own) but you never know when the system might go down. I still feel like SF is a bit poky in performance.
 

Handruin

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No, the server we're on has never had RAID 1.

Also, the HTTP failed this morning and I had to ask them to restart it (they didn't say why it died). I've also put in a ticket to be transfered off this server and onto one of their new ones. The new systems are the Core 2 Duo's and actually do have RAID 1 configured. I'll let you know what happens when I hear back from them.
 

time

Storage? I am Storage!
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Site's been very, very close to unusable for me. Just waited an hour or so before I could even load a page.

Must be a lot of failing disk drives ...
 

Handruin

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The site is inconsistently slow today. I've been noticing double posts from members between yesterday and today. I'll open another ticket; this is ridiculous.
 

timwhit

Hairy Aussie
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Maybe it's time to switch to Dreamhost, or some other provider? I would be willing to kick in money to host the site and I bet a lot of other regulars would also be willing. But, it is still Doug that has to do the work of moving everything, so it is ultimately up to him.
 

Handruin

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I'm home sick today so I have a bunch of time to kill. Let me search around and see what I can find. I need a place that can provide us with SSH access which seems to be problematic.
 

P5-133XL

Xmas '97
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Salem, Or
The site continues to run poorly when replying thereby creating duplicate posts because the poster doesn't believe it went through and trys again.
 

Handruin

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The site continues to run poorly when replying thereby creating duplicate posts because the poster doesn't believe it went through and trys again.


I know, I'm seeing it. I've complained twice so far today and they're telling me the page loads fine. Just a few minutes ago apache died again. I really am looking for a new host. There are literally hundreds to read through and EVERYONE has an opinion.
 

Handruin

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I want to bash some heads. Sorry about the downtime. :bibber:

Apparently they moved everyone else last night and since we moved a few weeks ago, they copied the DNS information again and overwrote ours. They sent us back to the old server for a short period of time, that's why you saw the old message that we were moving servers. nothing was lost, but they screwed up.

I finally closed on my house and I'm looking for a new place...hopefully I'll be able to get us into a new situation sooner than later.
 

Bozo

Storage? I am Storage!
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Feb 12, 2002
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For the last two days the site has been agonizingly slow to load.
Anybody else having any problems?
Also, the smilely faces keep changing in the window to the right of the reply window, each time I open the reply page. Strange.

Bozo :joker:
 

Handruin

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I opened a ticket a couple hours ago and this was the response I got:

We are currently running the initial backup on the new server, which has to copy all the data. After this is done the backup system will only copy files that change. Unfortunately this initial backup takes some time, about another 12 hours.

Please kindly bear with us.
 

Handruin

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I like Utah a lot. I'll be sad when I have to leave. I've been traveling through Vegas, Arizona, and now I'm in Utah working my way back to Vegas. We've put 1600 miles on the rental so far. It has had a rough ride with us taking onto several questionable dirt roads. :)

Anyway, the site was down due to a power plant failure which provides the power to our host which is in Colo4 in Texas. I guess they didn't have generators or other forms of backup. Lots of knownhost customers were down with us during this time.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
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Heh. Now you see why I go there almost every year. I did 2400 miles in 8 days, practically killing ourselves this year. I try to avoid the mid-summer crowds though.
 

Handruin

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I did not know you visited Utah every year. I've been here once before back in 2006 and saw only a little of Monument Valley.

This time I'm happy to say that I've made use of the seasonal national park pass and it's covered the cost ($80). We've visited so many parks throughout southern Utah. I'm currently on my way to Zion national park.

Also, crowded you say? I can see some humor in that considering how few people are in this area. :-D. It has been crowded with wild animals.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
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I did not know you visited Utah every year. I've been here once before back in 2006 and saw only a little of Monument Valley.

This time I'm happy to say that I've made use of the seasonal national park pass and it's covered the cost ($80). We've visited so many parks throughout southern Utah. I'm currently on my way to Zion national park.

Also, crowded you say? I can see some humor in that considering how few people are in this area. :-D. It has been crowded with wild animals.

Well I don't mean the whole state of Utah and neighboring states, but some of the parks can be relatively crowded compared to May and September for example. It's not like Yellowstone or places like that in peak season. Of course the places that require a 4x4 see less traffic and some of the national monuments and BLM land have very few visitors.
 

Handruin

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What the hell kind of datacenter doesn't have backup generators?

You and 40+ other people I read in the hosting company's support forums asked the same thing. They didn't get feedback as to why there was no APC or generators that supported the place during the outage.
 

sdbardwick

Storage is cool
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North San Diego County
Especially considering their front page touts their power arrangements:
Colo4’s true 2N power infrastructure ensures redundancy and reliability for customers with the most demanding power requirements.

11.1MW of utility power
Spare 3.75 MW transformer on site
250 watts/sq ft
Four (4) autonomous N+1 power plants delivering true A & B power supply
Six (6) backup diesel generators on standby
Generators tested bi-weekly and routinely run at full load
Multiple voltages available including 110v, 208v, and three phase 208v
On–site staff constantly inspect and monitor power equipment
If commercial power fails, automatic transfer switches (ATS) immediately activate generators, monitor electric feeds and transfer stabilized loads to generators
 
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