So why was CFC down (on and off) the last 3 days?

[NickyJ]

I've had it happen only twice today

 

[Furiey]

Been down most of the evening for me.

 

[SouthernKing]

Been down twice today, both about 30-45 min periods

 

[GenMarshall]

It would be a shame if people started doing something else permanently, don't you agree? At some point, people may just decide to not bother coming back.

If it weren't for the auto refresh addon for firefox. This would be my route if the servers keep on going busy every day/every two days .

 

[hoplitejoe]

I say we get Christopher Tin to buy us a server!

 

[FeiLing]

Noticed the last few days downtimes from about 18:00 gmt+1 to 22:00 gmt+1.
Of course I haven't hit F5 all the time. But about every time I came here during these times it didn't work.

 

[ainwood]

Remember: If it is down at around midnight EST (I think...) on monday & friday (well, NZ time, that is) then its probably site backups. Otherwise, I am interested in knowing specific times that you have problems, and I can look back and see if it a particular scheduled task or what it is. We're not convinced it is a server problem, but need information to confirm or otherwise.

To help, please record any times, ideally post here with the times, based on US E.S.T. You can find that time >>USING THIS LINK<<

I am also interested if you have problems when logged-in vs visiting as a guest (I found that I couldn't access whilst visiting as a guest, but was OK when logged-in; that would suggest its a software issue, not a server one).

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

wow, that would have helped a lot a week ago.

ive had more than 20 site drops in the last 10 days. for a fair time on when that happened look at the previous complaints and subtract 10-30 minutes to see the times when it is happening. no one has bothered to address this until way too late i think.

 

[GenMarshall]

Remember: If it is down at around midnight EST (I think...) on monday & friday (well, NZ time, that is) then its probably site backups.

I recall they happen around 3:00am EST Tuesdays and Fridays IIRC. backups that is, I don't usually count them anyway (Unless they go on longer than usual).

Of course reporting these outages is easy for me since EST is kind of my default time .

 

[Mise]

You could rather easily make a script that looked up the website every 30 mins or so to see if the "server is too busy" message came up, then log that. Maybe I'll do that for shoots and googles and stick it on my phone, so I can do that without sucking too much extra power from my PC...

 

[kiwitt]

You may want to install a trial version of this program

Network Server Monitor

HTTP function, checks availability of HTTP and HTTPS sites; passes credentials if required
Website content checking, checks website content by specifying a text pattern

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Personally I just use this for my own website
http://uptimerobot.com/

Spoiler :

 

[Boundless]

Is Thunderfall even alive? Does he even care about this site anymore? Who is at the helm?!?

 

[Maniacal]

I'm concerned that the CFC staff, after well over 6 months of this, don't have any monitoring system already.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Maybe they have enough on their hands right now.

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

mmhh...it seems it's not really a server problem, but rather something with the vbulletin software.
Because I just made some changes in the Modiki, which is on the same server like the forums, and did that while it said "too busy". So it's not the server which is too busy...not that this helps in any way, but it explains why the hosts can't see anything.

This suggests that we are looking at a software problem with the forums, rather than a hardware problem, but I have no idea. I almost never get to see the downtime, because it mostly occurs when I am asleep.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I'm with Lefty; evenings in the MT zone seem pretty trouble free.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Did anyone look at the memcache as I point out.

 

[ainwood]

To clarify a couple of points and answer a couple of questions.

Yes, Thunderfall still visits. He doesn't post much in the public forums, but he was here as recently as yesterday. Regardless of whether he is here or not, Plotinus, Padma and I have his delegated authority.

While I appreciate the monitoring suggestions, we have, of course, been discussing it with the hosts and have been looking at server logs etc. Our hosts have, I understand, automatic outage reporting and are therefore notified whenever there is a server issue. They are professional hosts! Why we are having trouble diagnosing things, and why we are asking for more specific, detailed information, is because it appears to be some sort of configuration or some other vBulletin system issue, not a server one. Plotinus made a change that we hope has helped, but we need more info. If we can get reports on when it is happening, then that helps us pin it down.

For what its worth, my timezone appears fine - I can only recall about 1 or 2 outages / go slows affecting me in the last few months. Again, something that makes it hard to diagnose.

 

[GenMarshall]

Just happened to me at 10:52 AM EST.