Board was down

[TosaInu]

Hello,

The board was down for a while. It switched to use another database which didn't exist. Problem fixed and made a backup.

Lets hope it will not do other weird things.

[JAG]

It is safe to say I s*** myself, I thought my accoutn had been deleted somehow. I am VERY glad it is back up :)

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

It was a bit scary. I was going to make a new account, but then I saw Jag', so I didn't bother. Plus the fact that there wern't any forums to enter. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-dizzy2.gif

[TosaInu]

Hello,

I share your feeling JAG and it was way past the SesameStreet show when I found out. The problem was fixed pretty easily, but making a safety backup took some time. So much for getting to bed early. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-zzz.gif

The board seems to be causing trouble, I'm sure some of you recall the nasty events with the previous UBB board? The host shut it down and the staff was forced to delete 80% of the content (almost all is saved in backups and imported into SQL archives). Followed by a harsh pruning policy.

UBB was a flatfile forum (which means that all data is stored in simple textfiles in the server root, not only is this not very secure it also put a lot of stress on the server for all but the smallest forums. It's also a real nightmare to backup).

This forum uses a SQL database, which is both faster and more secure (about all modern forums have that option).

The forum has now about 4 times more posts than UBB ever had and it is busier. The UBB was flatfile, which is bad, it also had a nifty trick which pure database utilising boards don't have. This should offset the drawback a bit: it used static pre-rendered html files to display the topics. Every action in database boards requires a query. In short: the board is more effective but has to work harder too.

The number of queries in the database is causing problems, serious ones and this causes server crashes. We're, together with the host, looking for reasons and fixes. This board is busy, but there are much larger and busier boards around. Also on this network. Using other software could be a solution, but maybe not the right one here.

One of the 'queries' is causing some serious trouble: the searchlog. The searchlog is used for two things: when it's created for each new post and when anyone uses the Search.
To see whether that is the real and only problem, the Search function is disabled for a while. The result will tell us more about what to do next.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience. As for the other things, please use this board like normal: post, spam, PM and read away.

[TosaInu]

SQL server is moved to another machine. Thus the forums were away for a while. This may help a bit. We'll keep watching at it.

[scooter_the_shooter]

yeah it has been screwy form me alot latley

[eds]

When I try to search for new posts it says "You are not allowed to use this part of the board".

Is this related?

[TosaInu]

It is indeed related eds.

[king steven]

pretty much like my problem yesterday, hey TosaInu http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/handball.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/handball.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/handball.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/handball.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/handball.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/handball.gif

[barocca]

FYI
for some time today none of the hosts websites had sql or php database access,

the whole lot was down
websites were ok,
but all forums and database access requests - including UGO and 3D downloads - were down.

i suspect ALL their eggs are in one basket - as in all their databases for all their sites are in one location, on one machine.

lets see if they can fix it sooner rather than later
B.

[TosaInu]

Hello,

There are still problems.

[TosaInu]

Looks like the banners fail to load.

[solypsist]

the bonzi buddy isn't loading, either. https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

[TosaInu]

I'll see what I can do for you Solypsist.

The active sessions table locked up. So you couldn't log in for a while. Sorry I didn't spot this right away.

[TosaInu]

And again.

[Medieval Assassin]

Bonzi Buddy is a spybot. BTW. And the boards really screwy for me and doesnt show up most the time https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-computer.gif

[TosaInu]

Hello Medieval Assassin,

The boards have troubles lately, almost exclusively due to the size. We're busy for some time to install and use other software.

Suffice to say that the theory and the practice are two different things. https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-computer.gif

The positive news is that we found a neat forum, the current forum should operate about fine for the time we need to setup the new one and finalise merging the old backups (many of the problems are there).

[barocca]

bonzi buddy is a long running staff joke about what new software we should get for the org

this forum makes huge backups of everything,
so while it is a neat and tidy forum for a while it pretty soon begins to get out of control,
we dont seem to be able to limit what gets backed up sufficiently to keep the system up and running smoothly,
so we are looking at new forums
Tosa has found one he can control easily with a larger support and "mod" base,
so we will go with what the forum admin (Tosa) recommends - after all he has to do all the hard work on it.

so dont worry about bonzi buddy - unless Bonzi offer us lots of dollars and a nice shiny new mercedes benz sportz car for each staffer...(and a new niki for each patron) https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-jester.gif

https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/medievalcheers.gif
B.

[ah_dut]

excuse my ignorance B. but what's a niki?

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

As far as the new forums go, we will be able to keep avatars, accounts and such, yes?

[TosaInu]

Yes. Together with all posts and polls.

That is a tiny problem. This will be the 7th (+) board the org will use since 1999. Quite some data has been lost already.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.totalwar.org

[TosaInu]

The board may be able to handle a couple of search requests now. Member accounts can use it again, it's still not available to guests and patrons. Sorry.