Tappistry Server Crash 11/14/2006

[traktor]

The primary drive of the Tappistry.Org server died on Tuesday 11/14/06, killing all websites, email, and tappistry.org.

A replacement drive was installed, and the operating system installed.

Unfortunately, (a) the program installer had a bug and took a long time to re-install stuff and required some hand-fixes; and (b) the automatic backup had secretly died back in 2005, so the initial restore showed no posts from 2006!

This whole process took about 24 hours, and we probably have some problems remaining. Email for example is still not working.

But the Tappistry.Org database has been recovered from early on 11/14/06 from the damaged drive, and appears to be functioning again.

A few posts made on 11/15/06 were of course wiped out by restoring the database from 11/14.

But it appears to be working again, and hopefully we'll be free of trouble for a while. If any new members got wiped by the restore, please be so kind as to sign up again, thanks.

[Ammatt]

Originally posted by traktor

Email for example is still not working.


It does work for me now, which means the forum is working even better than before the crash! :)

[rjgoos]

I think that personal settings may have been lost.

After "the crash", I began receiving postings as individual e-mails. I have changed my personal settings to stop this...and I'm posting this to see if such changes "took."


Jay

[traktor]

Oddly enough, several things that were not working before crashing appear that they may be working now. Lose some, win some.

[traktor]

Well, I am appalled to announce that the ISP who hoses our server -- oops! did I say 'hoses'? -- I meant to say 'hosts.'

Yes the Network Operations Center that maintains our server, has declared, a week after they replaced the primary hard drive, that the 'new' drive was in fact, not new, and has in fact, gone bad.

And therefore last night they replaced the primary drive ... again ... and reinstalled the operating system, and reinstalled all the programs ... and restored the data (sort of).

Although we have backups which appear to have been made on November 20, when the techs restore from those backups, the data only goes up to November 14. In other words, we've lost the last week of postings and pictures.

I don't know what's so screwy, but it appears that the last week is gone for good. On behalf of the volunteers here at Tappistry.Org and on behalf of the server and the ISP, I apologize that these interesting posts were lost.

This time, they've promised me that the new drive is a *new* seagate drive, and although of course a new drive can occasionally give trouble, I'm hoping that it's a long, long time before we have to do this again.

I would respectfully request that anybody who's posted photos please re-post them, and anybody who's signed up during the last week and suddenly is not a member any more, please sign up again. Thank you.

-- Traktor, site engineer

[rjgoos]

It seems that the law that governs the farm, governs the "server farm" as well....if it can go wrong, it will!

Thanks for your work, and the board, Trak.

[traktor]

After a tweak, which I do not really understand, at the Network Operations Center where our server resides, we seem to have recovered data up through November 19, which means that we've probably lost only the posts from November 20.

"It's not perfect, but it's pretty good." -- Buzz Feiten, at the 'What's the Buzz about Tuning' event at January NAMM 2001

[Ammatt]

Originally posted by traktor

Yes the Network Operations Center that maintains our server, has declared, a week after they replaced the primary hard drive, that the 'new' drive was in fact, not new, and has in fact, gone bad.


Didn't someone mention Murphy's law after the first crash?
I guess sometimes the facts are really too observant of the law...

Originally posted by rjgoos
Thanks for your work, and the board, Trak.


Agreed.

Matthieu