So the forum was down for about 24 hours due to a database issue. Sorry about that :(
The database table holding the messages (ie, all of the forum posts) got into some weird state and needed to be repaired. Since we run on a shared hosting environment instead of a VPS, I wasn't able to perform the repair myself. All I could do is put in a support ticket with the host and wait for them to do it. It took them about 24 hours to respond, but they got it done, so here we are again.
I could have gotten us back online faster if I had opted to restore a database backup, but I didn't want to risk losing any forum posts.
I hope that nobody was too inconvenienced by the downtime :-[
I think it was a good choice. Preserve what we have here. :3
Thanks for your help getting the dinosaur back on its foot :bub:
No FW for a day, wow, it was killing me. Luckily I had to work.
I thought it never was gonna be up again! But now it's up and not much are happening here.
Today is another peaceful day.
Gee, it sure is boring around here. :link: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CV5UgInnzQ)
I nearly died without FC. So long downtime. :(
Yeah, same issue as last time, but it took them three times as long to fix it :-X
There is a database "optimization" that occurs every seven days that seems to be the culprit. I have disabled this feature, so hopefully it won't crash again.
I really hope it fixed the problem as I am lost without Famicom World.
I must have tried to get on here 200-300 times. I was getting scared it was lost for good.
Me too!
A small tear of joy appeared when I could access the forum this morning :)
I'm happy it's back up. :)
It died the day my friend surprised me with a Family BASIC setup in the mail :P
Im glad you're back online.
If it happens again are we entitled to any kind of compensation? It doesn't seem right that their software mistakes can wipe us out until they can get round to a quick fix...
Quote from: L___E___T on March 01, 2017, 05:51:30 am
If it happens again are we entitled to any kind of compensation? It doesn't seem right that their software mistakes can wipe us out until they can get round to a quick fix...
The forum software is technically at fault, not the provider.
twice in a row. too suspicious.
what if someone finds a way to reproduce the issue again? it would be nice to fix the root cause if it's known already.
anyway, thank you for keeping this forum on line.
quick question on the topic. if i see the forum isn't operating than my first action would be sending a message to administrator about the observed issue. to whom and how to contact in case of emergency? or is it too redundant to notify administrator about the downtime? what is the best i can do for the forum in that case?
To be honest I was wondering the same thing. Is there some way we can report the issue?
I was about to contact the main site, but I thought it could have happened the same as with smsrealm
Quote from: famifan on March 01, 2017, 11:37:01 am
twice in a row. too suspicious.
I have reason to believe it was caused by a scheduled task.
Quote from: famifan on March 01, 2017, 11:37:01 am
what if someone finds a way to reproduce the issue again? it would be nice to fix the root cause if it's known already.
The forum software was doing a database "optimization" every 7 days. This seems to fail somehow and, when it does, it leaves the table in a bad state. Because we're on shared-hosting rather than a VPS, I can't fix that sort of thing myself. I have turned off the "optimization", so it shouldn't crash again (I hope). I'm also making more frequent backups of the database now, so if it does crash again I can just restore the backup rather than wait for support to fix it.
Quote from: famifan on March 01, 2017, 11:37:01 am
quick question on the topic. if i see the forum isn't operating than my first action would be sending a message to administrator about the observed issue. to whom and how to contact in case of emergency? or is it too redundant to notify administrator about the downtime? what is the best i can do for the forum in that case?
In case it isn't clear, I am the Administrator they're referring to ;D
The moderators can see my email address, so they should probably use that. I'm on twitter @ximwix , which would alert my phone if you messaged me. I do have the uglyjoe@famicomworld.com email, as well, but I haven't checked that for months (never added the account to my new phone).
I never noticed your email in your profile. I'll have to save that.
Some scheduled maintenance on the database will take us offline for a couple of hours:
QuoteWe will be working to improve service on your MySQL server this Thursday, March 30th, starting at 2PM PDT. This maintenance is estimated to take up to 2-3 hours to complete with a total of roughly 2 hours of downtime. Databases will not be available during this 2 hour period.
Alright here we go! "Holds breath"