Disaster Strikes!

[Frederik Magle]

Yesterday evening, while I was away unfortunately, the disk of my dedicated web-server began to malfunction - taking down both Magle International Music Forums and talkclassical.com. When I arrived home a little before midnight I noticed something was wrong and tried to restart the server (after a failed attempt to get MySQL running again). It would not start and I lost all contact with it in the attempt - all my sites were down

Turns out the main hard drive had died. Beyond repair. But even worse, the daily backup from yesterday (the 26th) had gone wrong (Bad luck)! So it could not be easily fixed without loosing several days of forum activity.

Data had to be manually salvaged from the disk and installed on a new disk on a new system. Luckily the database for Magle International Music Forums could be salvaged with no errors, but no such luck with talkclassical.com. that database can be mostly read but not written to yet, and no one - including myself - can log in.

If any good will come from this mess, at least I will get a new server somtime next week. A brand new server, with more RAM, storage, and processor power which should speed up things compared to before and allow for other improvements as well. Oh, and it will be running as RAID 1 so a single disk malfunction will not be able to take down the whole thing...

Hopefully this nightmare will be over soon.

All the best,
Frederik

 

[marval]

Hello Frederik

I am sorry you have been having such problems, I noticed there was an error. Thank you for letting us know, I hope you are are able to have it sorted soon, as I am sure you have better things to do with your time.


Your efforts are much appreciated.


Margaret

 

[Frederik Magle]

Thanks, Margaret. At least MIMF works, but talkclassical is a mess.... sigh

Anyhow, things may be a bit slow at the moment. The site is running on an emergency server, but next week the new one will hopefully arrive.

 

[wljmrbill]

Appreciate your fixing/working on the problem. Hope your conert went well for you alsowith that fine new instrument. Take Care my friend.

 

[Frederik Magle]

Thanks, Bill!

My concert went very well! I will write an update about what's happening soon.

All the best,
Frederik

 

[rojo]

Oh dear!

Computer problems are so infuriating.

Thanks for all you do for this place, Frederik. Here's a nice pint for all your hard work. lol :cheers:

 

[Krummhorn]

Bravo, Sir Frederik :clap::clap:

Thanks for rescuing all of us from our MIMF withdrawal symptoms. I figured it had crashed as opposed to being hacked because of the way it suddenly went down.

None of this could ever be forecasted, nor could you have done anything in advance to prevent this crash - In the world of electronics, anything can happen at any time.

Glad to be back online.

Welcome back to Robin after her unplanned hiatus due to a different kind of bug :tiphat:

 

[Chi_townPhilly]

possibly helpful open question

On the topic of the upcoming new server...

...at least I will get a new server sometime next week. A brand new server, with more RAM, storage, and processor power which should speed up things compared to before and allow for other improvements as well.

I noticed a couple of "quirks" since the migration to the emergency server, both here and at our sibling forum. Fortunately, they're minor little issues that don't affect my ability to communicate. Do you think it best to refrain from reporting "quirks" and minor annoyances until after the migration to new servers is complete?!

 

[Dorsetmike]

Is the Magle Wiki still down, I'm still getting an error message when I try to access it.

 

[Krummhorn]

Hi Mike,

The MIMF Wiki is still not accessible. I believe it went down with the crash of the server awhile back. A vBulletin forum software update is forthcoming and will be installed as soon as preparations have been completed.

We're hoping the update will solve many, if not all, the problems we are experiencing since the server crash and restoration.

 

[Contratrombone64]

I think magle needs to upgrade to a HAL computer, they had a lovely human interface if memory serves me correctly ... (tongue firmly in both cheeks).

 

[Krummhorn]

Yah, but HAL was retired in 2001 ... :lol:

 

[Dorsetmike]

Pedant!!

 

[Frederik Magle]

Ok, just updated the software to the latest 3.8.x version (will wait a little to upgrade to 4.x - I want the current version to function correctly before doing that. This forum is too important for me to allow a software upgrade to jeopardize it... ).

It is my hope this will fix some of the annoyances that has plagued the forum since the crash, but please let me know if you encounter any quirks. I can give you my complete assurance that this site will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission...eh... forum!

I'm afraid the wiki will take a little longer to get up and running but it should happen soon as well. I can feel it.

Best regards,
Frederik

 

[marval]

Hi Frederik

Don't worry, thank you for all your hard work.


Margaret