MW outages

[David Hingtgen]

Couldn't connect for hours, then my connection went out, and the moment it was back up I tied MW--and it worked! Annoyingly, the traces from when I couldn't connect and when it was back are identical--and they match the first "working" one I posted.

This time though, I got "couldn't connect" messages instead of simply "icon spins forever".

[Bri]

The daily outage lasted for about 3 hours or so today, bit longer then usual.

[azrael]

Definitely feels server-side, not a routing issue.

[Hurin]

Just had the outage myself from ~noon to 12:45 pacific. It seems to be almost certainly server-side. And judging by the behavior, it probably has something to do with php or mysql.

I'm making that guess because the problem actually started small and then continued to ramp up until the entire IPB forum was inaccessible (just timed out, wheel spinning).

At first, I could visit the forums index (and refresh it), and could even click the forum sections (but not the forums themselves), and user profiles also worked.

However, I could not visit a particular forum or click on a topic (via the last post link to the right of each forum). I also could not open the PM system.

Gradually, all functionality was lost.

Wild guessing: Perhaps certain tables in the database have gotten too large and are therefore gradually bringing certain parts of mysql (or php) to its knees until the whole thing goes kaput? Maybe allocating more memory to php might help?

Dunno. . . but something is definitely afoot.

Hope that report helps.

B

Edit: Down again at 1:30pm. I also meant to mention that apache remains up and working throughout these outages as the main site (non-forum, so no php or mysql) remains available.

Edited July 22, 2009 by Hurin

[Xeros]

Wild guessing: Perhaps certain tables in the database have gotten too large and are therefore gradually bringing certain parts of mysql (or php) to its knees until the whole thing goes kaput? Maybe allocating more memory to php might help?

Long ago, I've read that is a common problem of IPB when the database is too large

[promethuem5]

I am continuing to consistently have no access to the board from like noon to 2PM EST. But Hurin said it smarter than me

[VFTF1]

I'm making that guess because the problem actually started small and then continued to ramp up until the entire IPB forum was inaccessible (just timed out, wheel spinning).

At first, I could visit the forums index (and refresh it), and could even click the forum sections (but not the forums themselves), and user profiles also worked.

However, I could not visit a particular forum or click on a topic (via the last post link to the right of each forum). I also could not open the PM system.

Gradually, all functionality was lost.

This is what happened to me about three or four months ago when this all started.

Incidentially - I think I might have been the ONLY MW member to have this problem back then because:

a) I emailed Gubaba and he said he had no problem and never mentioned it again

b) Nobody created a MW outages thread

But all the meanwhile - for like three months - I had these problems.

Now suddenly it seems most other folks do to.

Ironically - I haven't had any outages since the last time I posted about one - which was...what...a week or two ago?

But my yahoo mail keeps acting stupid and sometimes even manages to freeze my computer when I want to open Yahoo mail.

And no - it's not a virus on my computer.

It's the same on my laptop and EVEN on computers in internet cafes which were frozen and had to be restarted due to my yahoo mail basically crashing them when I wanted to access mail

Amazing.

Pete

[Mr March]

b) Nobody created a MW outages thread

Just think of all the work and frustration that could have been ignored without this thread

[Bri]

Well, I have had these outages now for a month or 2 as well, maybe a bit longer not sure. It started with short ones of 30 mins to an hour, today had the longest one yet: 5 hours or so. Between 19.00 and 24.00 CET.

[David Hingtgen]

"IPS Driver error. It appears there is a problem with the database"

[Ladic]

me 2 i have also had this problems

[Nied]

Put me down as having problems now too, maybe half an hour ago. Same behavior as Hurin mentioned.

[Cent]

MWF has been getting impossible to use during the mornings or early afternoons before 2PM PST. I can reach the main forum index, but viewing any posts or sub forums will get me nowhere as the host is non contactable.

[David Hingtgen]

I actually had no real problems until the server was reset recently. Now, it's getting worse every day. Got another "IPS driver error" message once.

[mickyg]

IPS driver error for me too. There was a period yesterday or the day before when I couldn't get to the site at all. No error, just what seemed like an infinite wait for the site to load (the main MW site, not just the forums).

[Xeros]

Since yesterday, I've had many difficulties to see the forum during the evenings

[miriya]

I have been having intermittent inability to view topics for the last few days.

[Roy Focker]

Didn't know there was a problem till I expected it today.

[shiroikaze]

Every now and then, the forums load fine, it doesn't load, or gives me an IPS error.

Most of the time, it load fine thankfully...

[orguss01]

404 on the update link main page....left hand side

[anime52k8]

404 on the update link main page....left hand side

I think that's been out for a long time

[Ignacio Ocamica]

I've had the same problem for the last two weeks

Yesterday it was IPS driver error for me too. I couldn't access the forum for the past two hours.

[EXO]

I say we nuke it from orbit.

[CF18]

More odd problem today:

http://macrossworld.com/mwf

This is the forum URL at front page, it it don't work - DNS lookup failed.

Manually change it to this work:

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf

[Duke Togo]

I say we nuke it from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.

Not being able to access the site (for random amounts of time) has become an almost daily occurrence for me.

[David Hingtgen]

Couldn't get in the past couple hours.

[anime52k8]

I couldn't get on from about midnight to 2:00am. Then when I tried again this morning starting at about 7:00am, I couldn't even get to the main page (cannot find server error). gave up trying to get on about 11:30.

[Jasonc]

OK, so it took me awhile to get back on here, but yeah, I've been having problems for several days, mainly in the morning, early afternoons. Whatever is going on, hope it fixes itself.

[Cuda]

Whatever is going on, hope it fixes itself.

That always works for the US Army.

Yeah, I tried to get on yesterday, it crashed my firefox. I know, I'm obsolete using firefox.

[chillyche]

I say we nuke it from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.

[chillyche]

It's the only way to be sure.

Not being able to access the site (for random amounts of time) has become an almost daily occurrence for me.

Woops. Late to the party.

[KiriK]

Yea, out for me again for the past couple of hours... boo

[EXO]

Its funny because it was working fine before 11am pacific and you can feel it slowing down until it completely halts...

[Dante74]

Its funny because it was working fine before 11am pacific and you can feel it slowing down until it completely halts...

You don't think Shawn hooked the site up to the economy do you?

[Nied]

Just had the outage myself from ~noon to 12:45 pacific. It seems to be almost certainly server-side. And judging by the behavior, it probably has something to do with php or mysql.

I'm making that guess because the problem actually started small and then continued to ramp up until the entire IPB forum was inaccessible (just timed out, wheel spinning).

At first, I could visit the forums index (and refresh it), and could even click the forum sections (but not the forums themselves), and user profiles also worked.

However, I could not visit a particular forum or click on a topic (via the last post link to the right of each forum). I also could not open the PM system.

Gradually, all functionality was lost.

Wild guessing: Perhaps certain tables in the database have gotten too large and are therefore gradually bringing certain parts of mysql (or php) to its knees until the whole thing goes kaput? Maybe allocating more memory to php might help?

Dunno. . . but something is definitely afoot.

Hope that report helps.

B

Edit: Down again at 1:30pm. I also meant to mention that apache remains up and working throughout these outages as the main site (non-forum, so no php or mysql) remains available.

You know I've seen this kind of behavior before on Sharepoint sites running on MSSQL (mainly Dynamics), and every time it wasn't a matter of individual tables getting too big but the hard drive filling up to capacity. Most of the servers I worked with were single HD affairs and as the hard drive filled up (either because the DB or the swap file expanded to fill the drive or both) performance would become slower and slower until the entire site would timeout. Eventually an automated DB shrink routine would run or the swap file would shrink down from inactivity and things would begin working again, but eventually things would build back up again and stop the site. Now I'm not familiar with MySQL or PHP and IIRC the MW server is running on Linux (all my training is in MS based stuff) but it certainly feels like something similar is happening here.