What happened to the forum?

thomas · Apr 13, 2003, 02:57

First of all, my apologies for the recent downtime. According to Murphy's law such things only happen on days when the admin is not around.

The reason for the recent DB errors is simple: we receive too many hits, the server cannot cope with the number of visitors and their requests to our databases. Good for the ego, bad for our visitors. It seems that we will soon have to migrate to a virtual private or a dedicated server. Any sponsors out there?

;)

Twisted · Apr 13, 2003, 03:02

Maybe we should start banning people. Just randomly. That'll save some bandwith.

Or divide our users into different groups, who can only access the forum on pre-specified times.

thomas · Apr 13, 2003, 03:10

Lol, I'll consider your suggestions!

Perhaps I will have to discontinue the banner exchange, we'll see. I thought I still had a few months until breakdown.

**Iron Chef** · Apr 13, 2003, 12:32

Just out of curiousity, how long was the actual downtime--anybody know offhand (24+ hours)? At any rate, things seem back to normal for the time being. I assume such episodes don't occur very often, so it's really only a minor inconvenience for forum members considering the directory was still working at the time unless i'm mistaken.

thomas · Apr 13, 2003, 16:43

According to the 250 mails notifying me about the DB mishap the forum must have been down for about 12+ hours. I also received a dozen mails from desperate visitors, lol. At any rate, let's cross our fingers and hope it won't reoccur.

;)

Twisted · Apr 15, 2003, 17:32

<Twin Peaks quote>

It is happening again...

</Twin Peaks quote>

Twisted · Apr 15, 2003, 17:32

It's not due to some DOS-attack from that ***** we banned last week is it?

thomas · Apr 15, 2003, 17:38

It's a technical issue that's most likely related to the latest version of MySQL or Cpanel (the account control system). There's a long discussion about the prob at the vBulletin forum, obviously we are not the only forum to be affected

=> http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...threadid=69171

Twisted · Apr 17, 2003, 17:30

Good thing about these crashes is that we can now tell what time Thomas wakes up every day.

thomas · Apr 17, 2003, 18:02

Lol, what a life! Hm, I think as long as these DB issues prevail, I better adapt my biorhythm to my server's time (US Mountain Time).

;)

Twisted · Apr 17, 2003, 18:19

This actually has quite an impact on the visits to my own website as well. A lot of my visitors originate from this forum.

thomas · Apr 17, 2003, 19:05

There's really nothing my hosting company or I can do about it at the moment, as it is related to server software. I was told that they are working hard to solve the problem. I keep my fingers crossed.

thomas · Apr 24, 2003, 17:10

Again, two hours of downtime this morning, I apologize for the inconvenience. I think that this time Googlebot was the culprit, exceeding the number of max connections to the database by deepcrawling the forum. Our server-related problems seem to be more or less solved, thus whenever database corruption occurs it will be related to the number of visitors during peak hours.

Marc · Apr 30, 2003, 12:37

Isn't there a way to prevent searchbots from wasting forum's bandwith? I know this will result in less visits since google's cache image of this site won't be updated , but now that we are at the edge maybe it could be a temporary solution.

thomas · Apr 30, 2003, 16:20

Hi Marc, you are right, it is possible to block any searchbot from accessing the forum, but that would also affect our SERP ranking. Actually, there haven't been any DB errors for quite a while, so I'm inclined to wait for Google's next deepcrawl and see what happens.

lineartube · Apr 30, 2003, 19:00

load balacing, anyone?

thomas · Apr 30, 2003, 19:15

Lol, if someone sponsored one or two dedicated servers, sure... ;)

Apr 13, 2003, 02:57	#1
thomas Decommissioned ex-admin Join Date: Mar 14, 2002 Posts: 4,209	What happened to the forum? First of all, my apologies for the recent downtime. According to Murphy's law such things only happen on days when the admin is not around. The reason for the recent DB errors is simple: we receive too many hits, the server cannot cope with the number of visitors and their requests to our databases. Good for the ego, bad for our visitors. It seems that we will soon have to migrate to a virtual private or a dedicated server. Any sponsors out there? ;) __________________ Remember what the dormouse said, feed your head, feed your head!

Apr 13, 2003, 03:02	#2
Twisted That man in the corner Join Date: Mar 15, 2002 Location: The Netherlands Age: 35 Posts: 1,456	Maybe we should start banning people. Just randomly. That'll save some bandwith. Or divide our users into different groups, who can only access the forum on pre-specified times. __________________ ZenLog Earotic

Apr 30, 2003, 19:00	#16
lineartube free spirit Join Date: Oct 29, 2002 Location: Vila Franca de Xira/Portugal Age: 33 Posts: 389	load balacing, anyone? __________________ Ln.

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Apr 13, 2003, 03:10	#3
thomas Decommissioned ex-admin Join Date: Mar 14, 2002 Posts: 4,209	Lol, I'll consider your suggestions! Perhaps I will have to discontinue the banner exchange, we'll see. I thought I still had a few months until breakdown.

Apr 13, 2003, 12:32	#4
Iron Chef Villain Join Date: Feb 26, 2003 Location: Fukuoka (current), Nagoya, Sapporo Age: 38 Posts: 1,962	Just out of curiousity, how long was the actual downtime--anybody know offhand (24+ hours)? At any rate, things seem back to normal for the time being. I assume such episodes don't occur very often, so it's really only a minor inconvenience for forum members considering the directory was still working at the time unless i'm mistaken.

Apr 13, 2003, 16:43	#5
thomas Decommissioned ex-admin Join Date: Mar 14, 2002 Posts: 4,209	According to the 250 mails notifying me about the DB mishap the forum must have been down for about 12+ hours. I also received a dozen mails from desperate visitors, lol. At any rate, let's cross our fingers and hope it won't reoccur. ;)

Apr 15, 2003, 17:32	#6
Twisted That man in the corner Join Date: Mar 15, 2002 Location: The Netherlands Age: 35 Posts: 1,456	<Twin Peaks quote> It is happening again... </Twin Peaks quote>

Apr 15, 2003, 17:38	#8
thomas Decommissioned ex-admin Join Date: Mar 14, 2002 Posts: 4,209	It's a technical issue that's most likely related to the latest version of MySQL or Cpanel (the account control system). There's a long discussion about the prob at the vBulletin forum, obviously we are not the only forum to be affected => http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...threadid=69171

Apr 17, 2003, 17:30	#9
Twisted That man in the corner Join Date: Mar 15, 2002 Location: The Netherlands Age: 35 Posts: 1,456	Good thing about these crashes is that we can now tell what time Thomas wakes up every day.

Apr 17, 2003, 18:02	#10
thomas Decommissioned ex-admin Join Date: Mar 14, 2002 Posts: 4,209	Lol, what a life! Hm, I think as long as these DB issues prevail, I better adapt my biorhythm to my server's time (US Mountain Time). ;)

Apr 17, 2003, 18:19	#11
Twisted That man in the corner Join Date: Mar 15, 2002 Location: The Netherlands Age: 35 Posts: 1,456	This actually has quite an impact on the visits to my own website as well. A lot of my visitors originate from this forum.

Apr 17, 2003, 19:05	#12
thomas Decommissioned ex-admin Join Date: Mar 14, 2002 Posts: 4,209	There's really nothing my hosting company or I can do about it at the moment, as it is related to server software. I was told that they are working hard to solve the problem. I keep my fingers crossed.

Apr 24, 2003, 17:10	#13
thomas Decommissioned ex-admin Join Date: Mar 14, 2002 Posts: 4,209	Again, two hours of downtime this morning, I apologize for the inconvenience. I think that this time Googlebot was the culprit, exceeding the number of max connections to the database by deepcrawling the forum. Our server-related problems seem to be more or less solved, thus whenever database corruption occurs it will be related to the number of visitors during peak hours.

Apr 30, 2003, 12:37	#14
Marc Regular Member Join Date: Mar 30, 2003 Age: 27 Posts: 82	Isn't there a way to prevent searchbots from wasting forum's bandwith? I know this will result in less visits since google's cache image of this site won't be updated , but now that we are at the edge maybe it could be a temporary solution.

Apr 30, 2003, 16:20	#15
thomas Decommissioned ex-admin Join Date: Mar 14, 2002 Posts: 4,209	Hi Marc, you are right, it is possible to block any searchbot from accessing the forum, but that would also affect our SERP ranking. Actually, there haven't been any DB errors for quite a while, so I'm inclined to wait for Google's next deepcrawl and see what happens.

Apr 30, 2003, 19:15	#17
thomas Decommissioned ex-admin Join Date: Mar 14, 2002 Posts: 4,209	Lol, if someone sponsored one or two dedicated servers, sure... ;)