I recently upgraded the Apache webserver and PHP software that the forum code runs on and things didn't go quite as smoothly as I hoped. There are still some residual weirdness and it appears to have caused an outage this morning. If you notice the forums down, PLEASE send a note to forums[at]dumpshock.com and we'll try to get things back up as quickly as possible. We'll try to get things stabilized as fast as we can so we can avoid this kind of thing in the future, or at least until the next major upgrade.

I noticed several outages yesterday--September 6--I presume that was from the upgrading. Thanks for clarifying why...

It did it again -- thanks for those that let me know. Made a change and trying again -- thanks for your patience, believe me it's at least as annoying to me as it is to everyone else.

I'd imagine more, as you actually have to fix it. We just have to whine at you about it

~J

Thanks again, J, for letting me know it went down. I think I tracked down the problem this time and put in a permanent fix. Optimism is high.

As usual, let me know if it goes belly-up again.

I. Hate. Windows.

Ok, I reverted PHP back a version, we'll see what happens this time. If this goes on much longer, I'll be reverting all the way back to the state before the upgrade. I'll get it figured out soon.

Everything is reverted. If it keeps crashing, I'm going to set it on fire and give up.

-> Bug Reports

Do not get me started. I was implored to run Windows on the server by someone who will remain nameless. Needless to say, I wish I hadn't . Oh well, these things happen.

I'd have already switched it to Linux, but it would be a huge mess unless I had another server to build in parallel to transition stuff off to. And I don't have one, so we grin and bear it. Someday....

Posted a note on the homepage. Forums are up now, but not sure how long they'll stay up. Bottom line: Expect them to go down in the near future and stay down until late this evening, at which point they should stabilize somewhat.

I don't know whether this is related to the bug or not, but prior to the upgrade/outages, pressing "Reply" and logging in at that point used to leave me within the thread. Now, it sends me back to the main forums page.

That's an artifact of the changes we made. It should resolve itself soon, I hope.

UPDATE: The forums are up! I've moved the forums completely off of the server instance that was running them and into a Linux instance. This is somewhat of a stopgap solution since we're still talking to the database on the old instance, but it should restore the stability that has been sorely lacking. I'll be making more permanent changes in the coming weeks, once I'm convinced that things are going to at least be stable while I work.

Please continue to report outages with the forums and with all the Dumpshock sites to forums[at]dumpshock.com.

Hey. Just wanted to say that despite all the headaches and problems, the hearburn and the sweat, I think I speak for us all in saying THANKS!

You're welcome. I appreciate the thought.

Amen. We appreciate it in spades.

~J

Unrelated, I think. If you would post a Bug Report on it, that would be great. I'll try to look into it as soon as I can.

If I was your Mr. Johnson, I'd be giving you a sweet bonus right now for having this back up, you better believe it. Thanks as well!

If I was his Johnson, I'd be trying to find an excuse to not pay him. Fortunately, we're quarter-decent human beings here

~J

Neuron Basher you're doing a great job, much appreciated. I to am Mr. Fixit for Windows, got to shift to Linux, well, as soon as I learn it.

I've been a Unix system administrator for a dozen or so years, so that's definitely where I prefer to run servers when given the choice. I was given the choice this time, and decided to try something "new" when we deployed this server, but I wish I hadn't. I plan to rectify that mistake as soon as I can.

Thanks for all your work. It is appreciated. (I was going to say "vastly" appreciated or some such, but I don't know an adequate adverb for the work you've pulled.)

Is Windows a virus?

No, Windows is not a virus. Here's what viruses do:

• They replicate quickly. Okay, Windows does that.
• Viruses use up valuable system resources, slowing down the system as they do so ... okay, Windows does that.
• Viruses will, from time to time, trash your hard disk ... okay, Windows does that too.
• Viruses are usually carried, unknown to the user, along with valuable programs and systems. Sigh ... Windows does that, too.
• Viruses will occasionally make the user suspect their system is too slow (see 2) and the user will buy new hardware. Yup, Windows does that, too.

Until now it might seem that Windows is a virus, but there are fundamental differences: viruses are well supported by their authors; they are active on most systems; their program code is fast, compact, and efficient; and they tend to become more sophisticated as they mature.

So Windows is not a virus. It's a bug.

And now back to our regularly scheduled screwing over of PCs, already in progress

Feh, Windows may have been the suck in the past, but if I were unix people, I'd start learning the 2003 products and XP before I found myself out of a job

It's been going up and down for me for the past couple days. Part of it might be there's a new security update for macs, including the Safari browser, which was updated to match the latest Apache updates.

Working for me now, but I'm unable to update my Controls/profile - I assume the same is true for everyone else.

But thanks for all your hard working keeping things going!

The weird part is, this is all happening in the server room about 20 feet from where I sit.

Yep, gone again, just as I wanted to check a few threads before going home. Oh, well.

Just thought I mention this.

I cannot access the forums through invision.dumpshock.com, but if I come in through the My Assistant on forums-temp.dumpshock.com I can access the shadowrun forum.

i'm seeing a wierd phenom...

i normally go to the forums opening page and click on the Shadowrun Missions link that is beneath the Welcome to the Shadows link, and that takes me to the subforum. Now, if i do this, i get a "cannot find server" error.

if i go first into the main forum "Welcome to the Shadows", and then click on the Missions subforum, i can get in no problem.

That's a DNS related issue that should work itself out within the next several hours or so, depending on how long your DNS server caches the old IP address.

I just got a hiccup. Went to the forums and firstly, only two people were online. I realized I wasn't logged in, but clicking on any of the links left me at the front page (with a different URL in the php?=blahblahblah). It stopped now, so I guess it's okay...

Random note, I've noticed AH's site hasn't been responding as much as it should (at least it wasn't yesterday, I didn't check today). Is this related?

And tons of kudos to our dedicated sysadmins for putting up with the hell which is windows. I think Neil Stephenson described it as a beat-up, overpriced old stationwagon when compared to the tank that is Linux?

Yep, it's related. The main Dumpshock server is still having issues, and I'm transitioning things to the environment that the forums use as I have the time to do so. Hopefully things will get back to their normal stable state shortly, but I'm going to have to slow down my work on Dumpshock stuff a little bit to focus on my day job.

No getting it replaced with a four-point Hunted flaw!

~J

OK, i can get back into the subforums....now when i click on a user to bring up their profile, i get a totally blank white screen...

Yeah, we know about this one. Not sure how I'm going to handle it at the moment though. I'm thinking about it, should have something to tell about this soon.

I haven't been having any problems since about 1pm Pacific time.

Last known problem solved. See the Bug Reports forum if you're interested in the details. Please use the Bug Reports forum for any additional problems. I'm closing this thread.

Thanks for all the support and kind words, we appreciate it.