Server Busy or Unavailable - Page 6 - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Paul Stenning · 7th Mar 2012, 5:44 pm

Apologies for the slowness and database errors for the last few minutes. I was running maintenance jobs on the forum database to try to sort out a few glitches we have had today.

Paul Stenning · 5th Apr 2012, 8:47 am

I am aware of a problem over the last 10-15 minutes. The MySQL database service crashed and failed to restart. I have restarted it manually and reported it to the hosting company to investigate.

The server load is still quite high so the forum could be a bit sluggish until they have found and dealt with the cause.

Paul Stenning · 5th Apr 2012, 3:18 pm

I'm also aware of further problems over the last 20 mins or so. There seems to be an issue with the MySQL database service. The hosting company are on the case...

For now please be aware that things could be unstable so when posting or replying please select the text and press Ctrl-C (copy to clipboard) before posting. Then if it goes wrong you haven't lost it all and can paste it into Notepad and save it until it is back up.

Valvepower · 5th Apr 2012, 5:04 pm

Hi Paul,

I don’t know if it helps but the forum crashed whilst I was editing a new post. I was in the advanced edit mode. And having not made any changes to the post I feel I may have accidently used the browser ‘back’ button instead of using the correct save changes dialogue boxes.

It may be irrelevant and a sheer coincidence but I felt it worth a shout.

If it was me, I’d gladly stand in the naughty corner with the dunce’s hat on at the next Wotton Bassett meet

Terry.

Paul Stenning · 5th Apr 2012, 5:31 pm

It wouldn't be that - there is nothing you could do from the browser that would upset it that much.

Paul Stenning · 8th Apr 2012, 4:32 pm

I had some automated emails about database problems (too many connections) between 16:19 and 16:21 today.

Geoff 555 · 19th Apr 2012, 3:56 pm

Hello Paul .Not a complaint at all but found that everything stopped loading at 11.16. It was fine before and I have just come back on and there are no problems.
No problems with other sites.
XP and Firefox ( and Thunderbird.)
Thank you very much for everything that you do.
Cheers.
Geoff.

Paul Stenning · 26th Apr 2012, 2:07 pm

The hosting company have just experienced a denial-of-service attack that bought down their network. Hence the outage for the last half hour or so. It seems to be back up now but could be iffy for a while.

https://twitter.com/#!/ukdedicated

Paul Stenning · 17th May 2012, 10:25 am

I am aware of problems at the moment - the hosting company are on the case.

paulsherwin · 17th May 2012, 10:28 am

Seems fine again now.

Paul Stenning · 17th May 2012, 10:53 am

Yes, it was down for about 10 minutes I believe. Database issue with this forum that bought the whole server to its knees. Not good, and something I will need to get addressed if the forum is to remain on the same server as the busy eCommerce websites that generate my income.

merlinmaxwell · 17th May 2012, 12:59 pm

10 minutes here dosen't matter, 10 minutes for commerce is a different thing. I am sure all of us won't mind if Vintage Wireless has a bit of downtime while you fix it.

Paul Stenning · 17th May 2012, 1:12 pm

Exactly, it's the knock-on effect on the eCommerce websites that is the issue.

We have had a few problems caused by vBulletin software recently. It is an old version, no longer developed, and the upgrade is too expensive for me for a hobby website.

So there are two options:

1. Migrate the whole forum (with all users, threads, attachments, PMs etc) to different forum software such as phpBB. This is likely to cause some upheaval and there will probably be a few things that don't quite work.

2. Organise separate (cheap) hosting for the forum. Shared hosting somewhere is less of an issue for that because the odd bit of downtime is not a big deal. However there is a cost again, and for the size and traffic of the forum it may be quite significant.

I am looking into option 1, though nothing can happen until I've moved and have broadband on at the new flat.

merlinmaxwell · 17th May 2012, 2:40 pm

Quote:

and the upgrade is too expensive

I'll chip in a fiver or so, it is about two to three hundred dollars, that is only about 30 fivers.

Robert Darwent · 17th May 2012, 2:43 pm

Hi Paul,

Don't know whether its feasible or if you would be even receptive to the idea but considering a large proportion of the forum members are also members of the BVWS, would not an arrangement with the BVWS to share their website be possible as regards alternative hosting for the forum?

Regards

paulsherwin · 17th May 2012, 2:48 pm

GPL forum software is much more sophisticated than it used to be and a switch shouldn't be too traumatic once people adjust to the new interface.

Paul Stenning · 17th May 2012, 3:28 pm

Upgrade to the new vBulletin is £109 plus VAT. I don't like vBulletin 4 though - I have used it on another website for a client and was not impressed. This price is just for an upgrade to version 4, if/when they release version 5 there will be a further upgrade cost.

vBulletin 3.x was the last version written by Jelsoft in the UK. vBulletin 4.x was released after they were taken over by Internet Brands (USA company) and got rid of most of the UK based developers. There are still a lot of people using vBulletin 3.x or moving to other solutions because they don't like vBulletin 4.x and/or the way the organisation is now run.

phpBB is well established and does have a vBulletin 3.x importer available. As vBulletin 3 has been around for a long time I would expect the importer to work well and be fully debugged.

I plan to download the full forum site (attachments, database etc) to my local development server and and see how the importing etc works. Then I will be better placed to make a decision.

Paul Stenning · 22nd May 2012, 3:32 pm

I understand we have had a brief outage or slow period, can someone please confirm times etc?

Dave Moll · 22nd May 2012, 3:53 pm

I was getting "database error" a little before 16:30 - sorry, I didn't note the exact time.

Darren-UK · 22nd May 2012, 4:29 pm

The latest outage was just now; 17:20hrs to 17:25hrs. There's been a few over the last hour or so but, like Dave, I didn't note the exact times.

7th Mar 2012, 5:44 pm	#101
Paul Stenning Administrator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 5,438	Re: Server Busy Apologies for the slowness and database errors for the last few minutes. I was running maintenance jobs on the forum database to try to sort out a few glitches we have had today. __________________ Paul Stenning Forum Admin/Owner and BVWS Committee Member

5th Apr 2012, 8:47 am	#102
Paul Stenning Administrator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 5,438	Re: Server Busy I am aware of a problem over the last 10-15 minutes. The MySQL database service crashed and failed to restart. I have restarted it manually and reported it to the hosting company to investigate. The server load is still quite high so the forum could be a bit sluggish until they have found and dealt with the cause. __________________ Paul Stenning Forum Admin/Owner and BVWS Committee Member

5th Apr 2012, 3:18 pm	#103
Paul Stenning Administrator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 5,438	Re: Server Busy I'm also aware of further problems over the last 20 mins or so. There seems to be an issue with the MySQL database service. The hosting company are on the case... For now please be aware that things could be unstable so when posting or replying please select the text and press Ctrl-C (copy to clipboard) before posting. Then if it goes wrong you haven't lost it all and can paste it into Notepad and save it until it is back up. __________________ Paul Stenning Forum Admin/Owner and BVWS Committee Member

5th Apr 2012, 5:04 pm	#104
Valvepower Hexode Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Southend-On-Sea Posts: 497	Re: Server Busy Hi Paul, I don’t know if it helps but the forum crashed whilst I was editing a new post. I was in the advanced edit mode. And having not made any changes to the post I feel I may have accidently used the browser ‘back’ button instead of using the correct save changes dialogue boxes. It may be irrelevant and a sheer coincidence but I felt it worth a shout. If it was me, I’d gladly stand in the naughty corner with the dunce’s hat on at the next Wotton Bassett meet Terry.

5th Apr 2012, 5:31 pm	#105
Paul Stenning Administrator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 5,438	Re: Server Busy It wouldn't be that - there is nothing you could do from the browser that would upset it that much. __________________ Paul Stenning Forum Admin/Owner and BVWS Committee Member

8th Apr 2012, 4:32 pm	#106
Paul Stenning Administrator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 5,438	Re: Server Busy I had some automated emails about database problems (too many connections) between 16:19 and 16:21 today. __________________ Paul Stenning Forum Admin/Owner and BVWS Committee Member

19th Apr 2012, 3:56 pm	#107
Geoff 555 Heptode Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Bristol Posts: 708	Re: Server Busy Hello Paul .Not a complaint at all but found that everything stopped loading at 11.16. It was fine before and I have just come back on and there are no problems. No problems with other sites. XP and Firefox ( and Thunderbird.) Thank you very much for everything that you do. Cheers. Geoff.

26th Apr 2012, 2:07 pm	#108
Paul Stenning Administrator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 5,438	Re: Server Busy The hosting company have just experienced a denial-of-service attack that bought down their network. Hence the outage for the last half hour or so. It seems to be back up now but could be iffy for a while. https://twitter.com/#!/ukdedicated __________________ Paul Stenning Forum Admin/Owner and BVWS Committee Member

17th May 2012, 10:25 am	#109
Paul Stenning Administrator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 5,438	Re: Server Busy or Unavailable I am aware of problems at the moment - the hosting company are on the case. __________________ Paul Stenning Forum Admin/Owner and BVWS Committee Member

17th May 2012, 10:28 am	#110
paulsherwin Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Oxford, UK Posts: 6,991	Re: Server Busy or Unavailable Seems fine again now.

17th May 2012, 10:53 am	#111
Paul Stenning Administrator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 5,438	Re: Server Busy or Unavailable Yes, it was down for about 10 minutes I believe. Database issue with this forum that bought the whole server to its knees. Not good, and something I will need to get addressed if the forum is to remain on the same server as the busy eCommerce websites that generate my income. __________________ Paul Stenning Forum Admin/Owner and BVWS Committee Member

17th May 2012, 12:59 pm	#112
merlinmaxwell Nonode Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Maidenhead, UK. Posts: 2,450	Re: Server Busy or Unavailable 10 minutes here dosen't matter, 10 minutes for commerce is a different thing. I am sure all of us won't mind if Vintage Wireless has a bit of downtime while you fix it. __________________ Cats have staff, it's dogs that have owners.

17th May 2012, 1:12 pm	#113
Paul Stenning Administrator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 5,438	Re: Server Busy or Unavailable Exactly, it's the knock-on effect on the eCommerce websites that is the issue. We have had a few problems caused by vBulletin software recently. It is an old version, no longer developed, and the upgrade is too expensive for me for a hobby website. So there are two options: 1. Migrate the whole forum (with all users, threads, attachments, PMs etc) to different forum software such as phpBB. This is likely to cause some upheaval and there will probably be a few things that don't quite work. 2. Organise separate (cheap) hosting for the forum. Shared hosting somewhere is less of an issue for that because the odd bit of downtime is not a big deal. However there is a cost again, and for the size and traffic of the forum it may be quite significant. I am looking into option 1, though nothing can happen until I've moved and have broadband on at the new flat. __________________ Paul Stenning Forum Admin/Owner and BVWS Committee Member

17th May 2012, 2:43 pm	#115
Robert Darwent No Longer a Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK Posts: 856	Re: Server Busy or Unavailable Hi Paul, Don't know whether its feasible or if you would be even receptive to the idea but considering a large proportion of the forum members are also members of the BVWS, would not an arrangement with the BVWS to share their website be possible as regards alternative hosting for the forum? Regards

17th May 2012, 2:48 pm	#116
paulsherwin Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Oxford, UK Posts: 6,991	Re: Server Busy or Unavailable GPL forum software is much more sophisticated than it used to be and a switch shouldn't be too traumatic once people adjust to the new interface.

17th May 2012, 3:28 pm	#117
Paul Stenning Administrator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 5,438	Re: Server Busy or Unavailable Upgrade to the new vBulletin is £109 plus VAT. I don't like vBulletin 4 though - I have used it on another website for a client and was not impressed. This price is just for an upgrade to version 4, if/when they release version 5 there will be a further upgrade cost. vBulletin 3.x was the last version written by Jelsoft in the UK. vBulletin 4.x was released after they were taken over by Internet Brands (USA company) and got rid of most of the UK based developers. There are still a lot of people using vBulletin 3.x or moving to other solutions because they don't like vBulletin 4.x and/or the way the organisation is now run. phpBB is well established and does have a vBulletin 3.x importer available. As vBulletin 3 has been around for a long time I would expect the importer to work well and be fully debugged. I plan to download the full forum site (attachments, database etc) to my local development server and and see how the importing etc works. Then I will be better placed to make a decision. __________________ Paul Stenning Forum Admin/Owner and BVWS Committee Member

22nd May 2012, 3:32 pm	#118
Paul Stenning Administrator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 5,438	Re: Server Busy or Unavailable I understand we have had a brief outage or slow period, can someone please confirm times etc?

22nd May 2012, 3:53 pm	#119
Dave Moll Octode Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK Posts: 1,920	Re: Server Busy or Unavailable I was getting "database error" a little before 16:30 - sorry, I didn't note the exact time. __________________ Mending is better than Ending (cf Brave New World by Aldous Huxley)

22nd May 2012, 4:29 pm	#120
Darren-UK Dekatron Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Blackpool, Lancashire. Posts: 4,216	Re: Server Busy or Unavailable The latest outage was just now; 17:20hrs to 17:25hrs. There's been a few over the last hour or so but, like Dave, I didn't note the exact times. __________________ Darren.