STF Outage - 9/1

Post by **doc** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:18 am

Well, I'm very sorry to be reporting another outage. The good news is, it's my fault.

We started to have some problems yesterday morning with a few forums not acting right and, when I started to fool with it, I quickly managed to drive everything completely into the dirt.

Here's what happened. Each night, we do a complete automated backup of the database. The size of the STF database currently approaches 1 gigabyte! All those Jake Raby posts. The hard drive on our server is a 60GB drive. It takes about 30GB to operate the site. That leaves 30GB available for storage. Except every night another 1GB gets added to the drive in the form of the new backup. No problem, as long as I go into the server and delete some of the old backup files every few weeks.

Guess who didn't delete the backup files for more than a month? Yep, I blew it. The drive was completely full and I mean completely. Caused the site to crash and introduced corrupted data to some of the sessions files (the ones that control your ability to use STF). I had to go to the tech guys and wait for them to get the chance to mercifully fix the site. Everybody lift your mug and toast Mark and Steve, tech kings.

So, we appear to be back in business this morning. Sorry to all for the inconvenience. (Must have forced the OR boys to reintroduce themselves to their families!). I'll try to stay on top of the maintenance from now on.

Hang with us. We're dancing as fast as we can.

Regards,

doc

Post by **Leatherneck** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:36 am

Doc appreciate your hard work and efforts to keep this site running, The site outage gave me time to work on the Off-Road video and talk to some people about T-Shirts.

Post by **doc** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:01 am

AND, an "OR boy" chimes right in with a thank you for a day off. Truth be that Leatherneck was the first to identify yesterdays problem to me. Many thanks.

But, at that time only a few forums were down. So, was it really Leatherneck that caused me to mess with the site controls, thereby crashing the site, initiating a call to the tech guys, the tech guys gyrating......?

Is this whole mess Leatherneck's fault?

doc

threedguru · Post by **threedguru** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 12:05 pm

im in the it field and have you tried using an incremental backup instead of a full day backup?, just a thought

Class 11 streeter · Post by **Class 11 streeter** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 12:06 pm

Doc, thanks for the efforts, and sorry if I karma'd this last episode. I love STF as much as everyone else.

BTW I outed Leatherneck on the Off-Road forum for his actions when an STF outage topic came up over there!

Post by **doc** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 1:07 pm

I've come to accept that these things happen. It drives me out of my mind during each episode. This one was nobodie's fault but mine. Unlike the past, when I had no real idea what happened and was just 100% dependent on others, this time I actually had a clue and the only real delay was contacting the tech guys for some quick repairs.

I note your recent post regarding STF history and point out that one thing I have learned is that the forums have a life based on the members, not on me, or the moderators or the technology. The driving force is the crazy little cars with aircooled engines. I just try to be a reasonable steward for the site. I will continue to appreciate suggestions and those that continue to come back in spite of the sites stumbles.

doc

Can Drive Soon · Post by **Can Drive Soon** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:16 pm

Could you add a hard drive? 100+ gig hard drives are seeming to come pretty cheap these days..

Can Drive Soon · Post by **Can Drive Soon** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:18 pm

Here you go 160 gigs, 50 bucks.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 822152020R