Late night downtime

Oriel

Hi,
I found no obvious answer after a brief seach, so:

Just wondering about the downtime on boards about 3am or so.
Seems to be a strange thing where, you don't get an error from the site or anything like that - just when you try to access boards, the page you're on stays the same and the status bar just says "done", with no further action.

When you do get on again, there are no posts for the past 30mins or so:
click

Just curious to know what's happening during that 30mins and why you don't get anything from boards at all?

S.

Tiriel

I think it's just backing up the system.. happens everynite me so sad on most nites! :eek:

feylya

Yup, it's the 3 am backup so that if Boards.ie crashes (I've seen it happen), at most, they loose a days posting. It only lasts half an hour or so.

Oriel

But why the complete non-response from the site at all?
Surely you'd expect some kind of error or "busy" message.

If this is the case however, may I suggest a time more like 4-5am? It just seems to be more of a time where late-nighters have just gone to bed where early-risers are just starting to get up, and more importantly, shouldn't admit to being on boards so soon after getting up...

S.

feylya

I think they stop anyone posting so that they can back up all the threads. I'm not sure exactly why. I agree with the slightly later back up time. Maybe the admins can look at the access logs and find out the average quietest time of night.

Oriel

Well,
I completely understand the principle uninterrupted backups.
But then - why is there no response from boards.ie at all? Even just a message to say what's going on?
The reason why I'm asking is just the fact that I've never tried to access a website before where nothing at all happens, yet I still get the response "done".

S.

feylya

I honestly don't know. Maybe the servers disconnect themselves or something. The admins will have to answer that one. I'm sure that was answered before...

Slutmonkey57b

It's because they hate you and want you to die.

John R

Sinecure wrote:

Well,
I completely understand the principle uninterrupted backups.
But then - why is there no response from boards.ie at all? Even just a message to say what's going on?
The reason why I'm asking is just the fact that I've never tried to access a website before where nothing at all happens, yet I still get the response "done".

S.

Probably something to do with your browser, I just get the standard "cannot find server" error.

Oriel

Firefox, by the way.

John R

feylya wrote:

I think they stop anyone posting so that they can back up all the threads. I'm not sure exactly why. I agree with the slightly later back up time. Maybe the admins can look at the access logs and find out the average quietest time of night.

Problem with that is they would have to keep the server online to get a full log of usage, would be running the risk of losing days of unsaved posts.

It really is pretty quiet from 2.30-5. I doubt there would be much difference between 3-3.30 and 4-4.30. And I am one of the few who are almost always online through the night.

As long as you remember not to post the epic multipart reply you have been writing for 4 straight hours at 3.02am it is not such a big problem.

1/2 hour away from boards at 3am, it is my nightly break from boards for some por.....(cough) work.

regi

3am is good. It reminds you to go to bed.

DeVore

I dont think we've ever had to restore from the backup but its worth having!

3am is our least busy time as from 4:30 it starts to build again for the day (afaicr!). It only takes about 10 mins and all the connectivity is blocked so that the scripts can get full access to the database to back it up.

Even at 4am we have several thousand pages served (you freaks!).

DeV.

amp

Regi wrote:

3am is good. It reminds you to go to bed.

FASCIST!

Pam: who may have spent too much time in The Thunderdome lately.

Sarky

DeVore wrote:

(you freaks!).

DeV.

I find that term offensive. We prefer to call ourselves "differently normal".

feylya

DeVore wrote:

I dont think we've ever had to restore from the backup but its worth having!

DeV.

Yes you have

seamus

feylya wrote:

Yes you have

No that time they had to attempt a restore *without* a backup. Just a freezer and a lot of patience.

feylya

Hmmm, intruiging. I wish to learn more about your methods.

jesus_thats_gre

Is it a full backup or an incremental backup that is done?

Winters

The daily 3am backup.

Its usually specificly designed to happen at that time to try and hinder drunken posting embarrisment following a night on the sauce. However this does not actually ever hinder my drunken posting, I wish it did sometimes though....

po0k

feylya wrote:

Hmmm, intruiging. I wish to learn more about your methods.

Disk "dies" due to overheating, which causes the platters to expand and touch the heads.
Put disk in a zliplock bag with very little excess air inside (to reduce any condensation effects).
Put disk-in-bag into a freezer for a couple of hours to contract the platters and increase the space between them and the heads. While you're doing this, you should be preparing the replacement hard disk in the machine.
When the drive is sufficiently cool, pop back into the machine, boot up and as quickly as possible, clone the data onto the replacement disk.
Then RMA the disk

/or/
Take the dead disk out of the machine, get a torx screwdriver, take off the cover and apply power via a 4-pin molex.
Apply a pointed metal object to the spinning platter and record the sounds it makes.
Wearing goggles is advisable.
Then you've had sufficient fun with the noises, strip the rest of the parts from the solid casing and use as an ash-tray and/or conversation piece.
Full/half-height SCSI drives make the best ashtray.
5.14" make even better ones.

ecksor

feylya wrote:

Maybe the admins can look at the access logs and find out the average quietest time of night.

I've checked the logs for the last year and the quietest time is consistently a period of time just after 3am when there are no log entries.

DeVore

lol... ecksor you fookin pedant, I like it!

DeV.

feylya

ecksor wrote:

I've checked the logs for the last year and the quietest time is consistently a period of time just after 3am when there are no log entries.

Good man yerself.

po0k

The junkies need their fix, even at such ungodly hours....