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RWG down for a while

greg_r

Departed Friend
Patron
8/7/08
985
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0
Folks,

We've been having some connectivity issues at RWG over the last couple of days. Our hosts are struggling to find out what the problem is, so we're taking the server down for a short while in order to try and diagnose where the issue lies.

I expect us to be back up in a few hours. Sorry for the downtime.

Edit: 14:45 PM Sunday 15th Sept.

Okay, I had expected us to be almost done by now, but it seems that I have proven my point with our hosts - the problem was not our configuration, the problem is with the server hardware or the rack in which it is hosted.

I have another support ticket open with them now. Realistically, we may not be back up today, though.

FURTHER INFO:

For those that aren't aware of the history, this is where we are now (unlike some other boards, it isn't a big secret! ;) ).

When we completed the server migration last weekend, all was running well. However, by mid-week we were being plagued by intermittent connectivity problems. You'd post something, or click on a link, and get a 404 or 401 error - but mostly not our own pre-defined error pages - the browser would just report an inability to connect to the site.

Intermittent faults are the worst - its damned hard to track a fault you can't repeat on on demand. One thing was clear - it had nothing to do with the amount of traffic the board was getting and it was not an attack of any sort.

Over the next couple of days, the errors became more frequent. I raised a ticket with our hosts, suggesting that there was either a routing problem with the rack our server is hosted in - or an intermittent problem with the server hardware itself. They investigated but reported back to say that they could find no problem and that it must be a software issue.

I was pretty damned sure it wasn't software but this morning, in an attempt to prove it, I decided to start again. I closed the board, did a full backup and then started a full re-image of the server OS and base configuration. This is completely automated and should have completed within an hour. It didn't - which rather proves my point that the problem isn't the board software or our configuration ;)

I have reported the issue to our hosts and await the results of their investigation. Realistically (based on past experience) it's going to be several hours before they fix this. Once we've got the hardware working or replaced it's a matter of about two hours' work for me to get us up and running as all I have to do is re-configure the server the way we need it, re-install the database (which takes a while as it's big) and then restore everything else from the full backup I have. Easy job, but I need a working server first.

Anyhow, that's where we stand now. I'll update this when I have a response from the hosts, which could be any time between now and tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience!

UPDATE 5.30pm 15th Sept:

C'mon home, folks, we're back up. :cheer:

Whether this has actually fixed the issue remains to be seen, but we'll have to see how it goes.
 

greg_r

Departed Friend
Patron
8/7/08
985
5
0
Note that the server may be entirely offline for an hour or so. Don't worry about any error messages you may see - we will reappear in due course.
 

trailboss99

Head Honcho - Cat Herder
Staff member
Administrator
Certified
30/3/08
42,448
12,356
113
Oh good, it's not just me. I was about to go join the server . . .
 

Del

I'm Pretty Popular
Supporter
15/7/10
2,233
7
38
Ah, ok then. I'll stop cursing at TalkTalk now........:lol:
 

scorpion

You're Saying I Can Sell?
9/7/12
63
1
8
1%20sad%20palms.gif

So has all of Onzes thread crapping now busted the RWG server?