Downtime

[shiney]

All -

The downtime this morning was caused by an unexpected extreme spike in network traffic resulting in the host temporarily disabling our connection. Everything is taken care of now and we are back in action, I apologize for the inconvenience!

~ shiney

[shiney]

MYSQL ran out of memory for some reason. I have a huge swap file on the server so we're ending up with a lot of loss here, and I will be doing some maintenance in the coming days, so there may be short periods of downtime as a result. Sorry for the inconvenience all. Growing pains...

[shiney]

I've been getting about 80 emails a day from the forums/SQL server stating that people can't connect so I modified the configuration to allow for more connections overall. Sorry, this is the last downtime we should experience for a while.

[shiney]

It appears that this actually worked - not a single one error email received from the server since!

Le shocke. (French is easy just put an e at the end of everything that sounds like it could be said with a french accent.)

(If you want to speak spanish replace the e with an o.)

El shocko.

Admittedly, sounds kinda like a Luchador...

[Krylo]

El shocko.

Admittedly, sounds kinda like a Luchador...
Or a dirty sexual act.

...

Or a porn star.

[shiney]

Point goes to Krylo for absolute truth.

[shiney]

Planned downtime around 6:30 EST for 15 minutes or so while I do a little server-side maintenance and housecleaning to try and resolve a few SQL issues we've been experiencing elsewhere on the machine.

[shiney]

It came and went as easily as can be reasonably expected. Thanks for your patience everyone.

[rpgdemon]

Well, actually, we were all raging horribly and not at all patient, but unable to post our feelings of thinly veiled hostility and contempt.

Edit: Y'know. Because the forums were down.

[Fenris]

Well, actually, we were all raging horribly and not at all patient, but unable to post our feelings of thinly veiled hostility and contempt.

Edit: Y'know. Because the forums were down.

I'm perfectly able!

Shiney stop doubleposting like what

[shiney]

Let me level with you guys about some stuff:

This webserver is increasingly dated and cluttered with what can only be termed as "crap". The configurations are a little old, the SQL server is malfunctioning at best, the server is showing signs of wear and tear. This was already occurring at the sudden time of "MAJOR PROBLEM: NPF DIES???" when Brian announced the lack of renewing the license. So I brought us over here and did the best I could, but as you guys can well see there are a lot of downtimes.

I want to apologize for that and for my partial lax schedule of updating and Real Actual Maintenance, and my lack of knowledge in combatting issues that arise during the normal course of operations. I'm working on getting us into a better situation but it is likely going to involve more downtime over the coming weeks. All I can ask is patience and understanding while I fuck around and get to a pretty dangerous level of cavalier attitude regarding our years of history around here.

Pretty soon, we'll be running fine and without horrifying downtimes the likes of which we are constantly experiencing. Just...bear with me while we get there. :/

[Amake]

One upon a time I lived in an old farmhouse that was like, constantly falling apart. We who lived there loved the place and spent hours every day fixing holes in the roof, digging for water, propping up walls and stuff, but at night the house would creak deep in its foundations and crumble a little more.

Then it turned around. Cracks in load bearing logs would shrink overnight, big stuff like that, but also little things like holes in the curtains would be mended. Sometimes late at night people thought they could hear tapping as if from tiny hammers. Naturally, we assumed we had nisser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomte) in the house, and we started putting out plates of milk, butter, cookies and porridge at night.

After some time the house was as good as new and business asreturned to usual. But we never forgot how the nisser did everything we couldn't, and pretty much carried the whole operation by themselves, even though we gave them just the tiniest presents and faintest thanks.

It's hard to fathom what drives the nisser, why they give so much or how they can work so hard. Trying to put into words the thanks they deserve could only sound insincere, and trying to compare to any human efforts the things they do could only sound like a cheesy, ham-fisted moral.

(In this metaphor, the nisser is shiney.)

[Krylo]

If nothing else, I find the fact that it's now you, someone whom I know and can contact, who is in charge of downtimes makes them actually far more bearable. Because we can give you shit when it comes back up.

Plus we had them under Pierre, too, so whatever.

[Fenris]

If nothing else, I find the fact that it's now you, someone whom I know and can contact
shiney you should really start logging on AIM more because I remember wanting to talk to you about things but being unable to find you-

AND

Make a backup copy of the forums before you take it down manually. I'm not sure exactly what code you'll be wrestling with and I wouldn't want some data to be corrupted or removed or whatever I'm bad with computers!

[shiney]

Just send me PMs on yonder forum PM thinger. My laptop (which is again broken, fucking laptops) is under linux and I haven't gotten around to making AIM work yet.

[Fenris]

Just send me PMs on yonder forum PM thinger. My laptop (which is again broken, fucking laptops) is under linux and I haven't gotten around to making AIM work yet.

Hard to do when the forums are down, jerk!

But yeah, point taken about the PMs.

[synkr0nized]

[...] linux and I haven't gotten around to making AIM work yet.

open Pidgin*, enter AIM information, log in, chat :P

* may need to download it depending on your distribution



So how's the forum been running on your server? From a client perspective, I haven't noticed much quirkiness, at least certainly no more (in fact much less) than before, but I am curious if you're still logging weird errors.

[shiney]

Not many thankfully. Some still which is why I am making with the updates.

[rpgdemon]

I haven't really noticed anything, to be honest. I just like needlessly antagonizing people. ;)

Also, I second using Pidgin. The thing is awesome. I use it on my PC.

[shiney]

Planned downtime either tonight or tomorrow night -- going to completely ruin the webserver in an attempt to un-ruin the webserver. Can someone be a super pal and find all the remaining outstanding bugs (unicode, mark forums read, etc) that need repair and put them all in one post for me? Thanks.

[shiney]

Brief but planned!!! downtime a little later tonight while I tweak some stuff.

[shiney]

SQL asplode last night. I'm gonna put contact info in the mod forum in the future so someone can get ahold of me if the server is unavailable so I can fix shit quicker, I don't always know right away. Sorry folks.

[Krylo]

Must not have asploded for long, as I didn't even notice it and I've been up all night.

[shiney]

Huh, weird. Crash log indicates it died around 9PM. Well anyways! My point still stands.

[shiney]

Whoops. We had Listen 80 defined twice in the apache logs. It's all better now.

[bluestarultor]

SQL asplode last night. I'm gonna put contact info in the mod forum in the future so someone can get ahold of me if the server is unavailable so I can fix shit quicker, I don't always know right away. Sorry folks.

You know, I think it's time you got a Twitter. Everyone else on NPF has one and even if you use it for nothing but saying the server exploded, at least we'll have an idea what's going on and be able to tell you. ;)

[shiney]

Die in hell.

[bluestarultor]

Die in hell.

<3

That's what I said, but it really is convenient.

[Seil]

Whoops. We had Listen 80 defined twice in the apache logs. It's all better now.

http://zelda.neoseeker.com/w/i/zelda/9/98/Navioot.jpg

Hey, listen?

[synkr0nized]

You know, I think it's time you got a Twitter. Everyone else on NPF has one [...]

I don't.



Thus, Twitter is not important.

[bluestarultor]

I don't.



Thus, Twitter is not important.

I didn't get my first computer until I was nine, when my then-uncle was going to throw it away for being a boat anchor with DOS 5.0 and Win3.1.

I didn't get my first additional games for it until three solid months of begging finally wore my mom into buying from the "please take this shit for free" bin.

I didn't get a color monitor for it until I was ten, which my mom's work was going to throw out for being outdated.

I didn't get a CD drive for it until I was eleven, because my dad had one he wasn't using.

I didn't get my first proper game system until I was twelve, and the GBC had already been out for a year. My grandparents popped for one I could share with my brother because my cousins both liked theirs so much. We got four games for it and didn't get more until months later when we coughed up from our own piggy banks.

I didn't get my first console until I was thirteen, which was a free fourth-hand PS1 from a friend as everyone got the PS2. It's one of the originals with the plastic gears (and still works!).

I didn't get a modern computer until I was eighteen, and it was the cheapest laptop we could find for school. I got my first dial-up a month later after explaining what the Internet was to my mom and saying how useful it would be for school research.

I didn't get high-speed Internet until I was nearly twenty because my mom finally discovered YouTube and I convinced her to shell out for a package deal with our phone company.

I did not get a cell phone until I was twenty-two, and only because my brother had bought a TracFone on his own money and then decided his plan blew goats, so it was just lying around.

I did not join any site minus Gaia, Zenhex, or NPF until late last year.

I did not join Twitter until NPF exploded however long ago.



If I have something related to technology or software and another person doesn't, chances are they are fucking behind. XP

[Krylo]

If I have something related to technology or software and another person doesn't, chances are they are fucking behind. XP

Or it's stupid.

[Kim]

Twitter isn't stupid. At least, not inherently so. However, it isn't something people have to have either. It's a thing. It's very useful. That's all.

[bluestarultor]

Or it's stupid.

Hey, hey, HEY! Twitter is totally awesome! It's like an IM, only with as many people as you want to read from and you can talk to anyone who wants to hear from you all at once! :knowledge:

PS - I didn't get taught how to use an IM until after I joined NPF. :P

PPS - Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is a man who will someday soon be writing an intricate financial system for your bank, or critical code for your operating system, or the combat system for that game you'll be drooling over in a few years when it gets announced. :P

(PPPS - I have to be one of the most self-deprecating people alive. XD)

[synkr0nized]

hahaha Blues that post is so I don't even what is going on nyoro~n

[Krylo]

It's a thing.

That is stupid.


But for serious, if you're a person who both cares about things enough to need up to the second updates on them in 150 characters or less, and subscribes only to news sources/insiders/etc. on those things I could see where it would be useful.

For the rest of us it's just going to be a place to watch stupid people post stupid updates about their stupid boring lives in very short posts.

Besides, the entire admin/mod/PR staff has Shiney's number. We text/call him when we notice the forums are down. He doesn't need a twitter for that, and the rest of you can just wait patiently for things to get fixed or wait for information to trickle down the grape vine (and probably hit POS's or someone else's twitter, admittedly).

[bluestarultor]

hahaha Blues that post is so I don't even what is going on nyoro~n

Mostly it's just me making fun of myself for having a family that knows jack shit about technology and having gotten screwed pretty much my whole life in that department until I got my own disposable income. XD

[Kim]

The whole fuck Twitter/Facebook/Myspace/Whatever thing people seem to have going on just smacks of I don't even know what. I mean, Blues' whole spiel is pretty asinine, and Shiney really doesn't need a Twitter, but I wouldn't say you're coming off any better than Blues. Just a bunch of blegh all around.

[bluestarultor]

The whole fuck Twitter/Facebook/Myspace/Whatever thing people seem to have going on just smacks of I don't even know what. I mean, Blues' whole spiel is pretty asinine, and Shiney really doesn't need a Twitter, but I wouldn't say you're coming off any better than Blues. Just a bunch of blegh all around.

No, I will fully admit that reading that whole thing over just got way too long to be funny, which was what I was aiming for and missed like Babe Ruth on a bad day.

Everyone else is just being everyone else reacting to me being asinine.



Edit: Also, I can totally dig their attitude, because until very recently, I was in the same boat. I only joined Twitter so I could talk to Mac when the server melted and ended up chatting up Token before Mac followed me and snowballing from there. I only just got a Facebook after literal years of outright refusing so my mom would stop spamming my email with StumbleUpon links. I have to say I still don't particularly like it, but it's an easy way to post info to my family and is slightly less painful than sifting through pages of unmarked links.

[synkr0nized]

Nah, I totally get how Twitter can be neat, moreso once I got a smartphone. It's truly merely a particular use of it that is stupid, much how my gripes about FB before joining it could be traced to the ways people I know used it rather than the service itself.

[shiney]

NOW EVERYBODY APOLOGIZE AND HUG AND KISS AND MAKE UP AND WE'LL HAVE CUPCAKES.

[Krylo]

But I'm pretty sure you can't JUST hug and kiss NonCon.

It's like having just one potato chip.

[Aldurin]

But I'm pretty sure you can't JUST hug and kiss NonCon.

It's like having just one potato chip.

. . .

Stuff in favor of twitter

twitter is stupid

I just never used twitter because it never really occurred to me as being useful to my specific situation. I might start using it more since it's an inconvenience for me to use pesterchum given how I installed it and no one was ever on at the same time after that week we all discovered it.

And no, this thread is no longer about server downtime. It's not my fault, I'm just the guy who comes to watch the train wreck.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

But I'm pretty sure you can't JUST hug and kiss NonCon.

It's like having just one potato chip.

. . .


Admit it Earl, you would be first in line.

[Bard The 5th LW]

You can make your invisible posts actually invisible you know. The code is #111.

[shiney]

Haven't done my maintenance in too long and the SQL server got angry. We're good now.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

It was either that or my attempt to steal Christmas crashed everything.

[Loyal]

It seems the clock's been screwed up again as a result of the downtime.

[shiney]

Derp derp fixed.

[Nikose Tyris]

Derp derp fixed.

Holy shit, I'm trapped in the future.

My Time: 11:22

Forum Time: 7:22

[Krylo]

They were down this morning for a few hours. Not a database error, just couldn't connect.

Shiney is already aware. I'm sure he'll fix the time again when he gets a chance. He wasn't able to get to the forums right away.

[Nikose Tyris]

Ah, I wasn't aware. Sorry for sounding dickish. D:

[shiney]

Fixed now.

[Aldurin]

I want forum time travel too . . .

[Kim]

The forum seems to be loading weird for me. The "no new posts" blue atom symbol thing on the left isn't loading, but the "new posts" one is. Am I the only one having this problem?

EDIT: Nevermind. Fixed now.

[rpgdemon]

Probably not a huge deal, but it sort of died on me for a few minutes, a few minutes ago.

[Aldurin]

Odd, token said he had that too, but I was totally checking threads that few minutes ago so who knows.

[shiney]

The funny thing is I had planned a downtime like this as a LULZ APRIL FOOL'S joke but the joke is on me. Our database got angry. It's better now!

[rpgdemon]

I figured it WAS a LULZ APRIL FOOLS thing. You should have just gone with it.

[Krylo]

Psh, just a downtime is kinda meh as an april fool's joke. Now, if he had designed a splash page about how the forum license had expired and had Brian make a post about how it was GONE FOREVERZ, that's an April Fool's prank.

[Loyal]

Forums went down again, briefly.

I believe it may be related to the search function. Both times it went down, I was trying to perform a search (Specifically, I was advanced-searching for Earl's old "Time Is An Illusion" thread, sorted by Relevancy which for some reason is not the default option.) and the forums went kaput before the search could be completed. The first time I passed it off as coincidence. The second time, not so much.

[Fenris]

STOP BREAKING THINGS LOYAL

[rpgdemon]

I just searched twice for Time is an illusion, advanced search, no problem.

[Fenris]

STOP TRYING TO BREAK THINGS RPGDEMON

[Aldurin]

Why do you guys even look for this stuff? I don't even look back at my old posts except for that one time I tried to and completely failed at using the search function.

[rpgdemon]

STOP TRYING TO BREAK THINGS RPGDEMON

COME AND TRY TO MAKE ME.

[Pip Boy]

Sometimes its good to just look back through those really epic Whatthefuck threads for old times' sake. Like the Kirby2000 thread (http://nuklearforums.com/showthread.php?t=34189). That shit was priceless.

[rpgdemon]

Did a pretty good job of stopping me. Everything borked for a few minutes there. No threads or sub forums would load, but the index would.

[Loyal]

STOP BREAKING THINGS LOYAL

FOR SCIENCE.:knowledge:

[Flarecobra]

It was down for about 10 minutes today.

[shiney]

Yeah I was the reason why; suffice it to say I'm really tired of this server mainframe and am ready to get us on a new machine. In short any time MYSQL hangs for whatever reason the whole thing needs to be restarted and that is a 10 minute process. Sucks but I don't have a lot of choice. :|