More server problems, forum downtime

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Last night one of our apache servers died, we don't know why or what caused it and we are still waiting for our server admin to respond to an email we sent.

Also the forum started mass doubling posts for almost every submission, sometimes triple posting a submission. Again we aren't sure whats causing that either. Marcel has put count queries back on the Master SQL database, which means the load on our Master is back to where it was last week..

I'm not really sure what we can do to fix these problems, but we have Dave and Marcel looking into it.

The forum is offline while Marcel does a topic recount.. this takes time and when thats complete the forums will re-open. Later today we should have the second apache server back up.. Hopefully there will be something in the logs that tell us what went wrong there.

I'd like to apologise for our downtime. Its very frustrating to me and I know that our valued members are getting annoyed at the constant server problems. I will be looking into getting professional advice next week, to see if we can resolve some issues.

Thanks to everyone for the continued patience while we try to resolve the issues.

Update: The forums are back online, we will be monitoring the servers to see if there are additional problems.

#1 HoochieMamma on 08 Oct 2006 - 13:31

I thought something screwed up when none of my posts where showing up in the RC2 thread.

(2 replies) #2 aStRaLgOd on 08 Oct 2006 - 13:33

Keep up the good work guys

#2.1 Maxious on 08 Oct 2006 - 13:42

Quote - aStRaLgOd said @ #1

ditto - we all know how hard you guys work (and think!

to make sure this stuff doesn't happen too often and how honestly you handle it when it does.

#2.2 Deciever on 08 Oct 2006 - 14:23

lol here I thought it was me.... I just got done tweaking my registry then lo-and-behold when I visit the forums it no longer refreshes properly lol

#3 AshMan on 08 Oct 2006 - 13:43

Keep up the good work.

#4 Lee® on 08 Oct 2006 - 13:43

Thanks for the hard work neowin staff.

#5 gadean on 08 Oct 2006 - 13:48

There's no need to apologize.

These things happen.

#6 Martyn on 08 Oct 2006 - 13:54

Hey it's ok. No need to apologise, you guys do awesome work.

As long as we get a bit of notice I do not mind.

#7 PureLegend on 08 Oct 2006 - 13:55

Oh, okay! I thought it was just me. It stopped showing posts, for some reason, and the amount of replies on some topics was -1. I thought it was me, so I cleared my cache.

Thanks for the speedy resolution.

#8 bryan09 on 08 Oct 2006 - 14:14

no wonder i cannot surf since 6 hours ago ... i miss the forum!

#9 QwertyManiac on 08 Oct 2006 - 14:17

And I thought my IP was banned

#10 IceDogg on 08 Oct 2006 - 14:32

Thanks for keeping us informed about what's going on. Not much more we could ask then that. Like what has already been said, these things happen.

#11 iCeFuSiOn on 08 Oct 2006 - 14:39

So that explains why my posts were showing up twice. Thanks for keeping us updated, I look forward to things returning to normal.

#12 Al on 08 Oct 2006 - 14:44

that explains the problems I was having. Anyway, good luck

#13 Vykranth on 08 Oct 2006 - 14:53

Good luck, guys

(1 reply) #14 Novaoblivion on 08 Oct 2006 - 14:57

I miss the forums, but I really needed to do homework today anyway so I have a chance now lol. Keep up the good work guys.

#14.1 guylaroche on 08 Oct 2006 - 16:16

Same thing here

#15 Smigit on 08 Oct 2006 - 14:58

Quote -

Its very frustrating to me and I know that our valued members are getting annoyed at the constant server problems.

Dont worry, I still love yah's

#16 alsiladka on 08 Oct 2006 - 15:00

I was surprised as to how come not a single post in BPN for 6 hours!!! Have not seen that before .

I thought maybe the Neowin Community is taking a sunday leave all at once , LOL!!

#17 barneyt on 08 Oct 2006 - 15:06

Yup! Your hard work pays off... and we are all behind you!

Barney

(3 replies) #18 Deciever on 08 Oct 2006 - 15:17

The mass doubling at least in my experience was caused by us impatient users who would copy and paste what we typed into a new reply window because the site would

A) not load the next page after we hit Reply

and

B) The original thread would appear not to have been updated, however when you click on Reply again it shows that the previous did go through but since I did not notice that till the 4rth try I ended up triple posting!

So basicly the error boils down to it not serving up the updated pages correctly and not refreshing the page to the original thread after hitting Reply.

I hope that helps!

#18.1 dragon2611 on 08 Oct 2006 - 15:25

or C)

you press submit reply and you get a timeout/404 so you press back and then hit submit again only to find out it actually had posted before the timeout/404 error.

something that sometimes happens to me is i double post because of a browser error message comes up so i think it didn't post but it did

#18.2 Smigit on 08 Oct 2006 - 15:31

I was getting B. I posted and it hung, tried again and still no lock and decided not to bother and looked elsewhere. when I revisisted BPN the topid had been marked as oneI had replied too however after looking inside the topic I still couldnt see my actual post.

It was an extremly awesome post too I assure you.

#18.3 aStRaLgOd on 08 Oct 2006 - 15:55

Quote - Smigit said @ #18.2

Oh I am not one to doubt the awesomeness of your arguments, kind sir....

#19 M118LR on 08 Oct 2006 - 16:03

While rebuilding the Forums, you need to take a look at the threads that have been started. People have been starting threads in the wrong Forums. It is becomming difficult to follow the NeoWin Forums. An example would be people asking general Vista questions in Customizing Vista instead of the Vista Beta Forum where it belongs.

(1 reply) #20 rIaHc3 on 08 Oct 2006 - 16:18

Man I needed to look at something posted in the forums. Downtime couldnt have come have a worse time. Oh well, hope you guys get it resolved quickly and thanks for the dedications to the forums.

#20.1 Neobond on 08 Oct 2006 - 16:29

It's back up..

#21 Jugalator on 08 Oct 2006 - 17:45

I don't think your server problems have been that bad really; thanks for your hard work on having such big forums up and running so often.

#22 miniM3 on 08 Oct 2006 - 18:46

A server failed!! omg!!! where do we live?
lol! no need to apologize, just say: "a server died, just be patient ffs!"

#23 Deansweb2004 on 08 Oct 2006 - 20:40

Glad to see it working again

#24 Jon20usa on 08 Oct 2006 - 21:03

Thanks for keeping us posted. And it really isn't all that big of a deal. This is a forum after all and there are more important things in life. And as much as it pains me to say this maybe we should all enjoy a Sunday morning/afternoon outside or doing something else instead of on our computers

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