Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

philzilla · Nov 19, 2003, 05:54 AM

every morning, the server spits it's dummy and throws up a database error between approximately 09:30-09:40 GMT. it used to start at 09:15, but i guess the error gave itself a 15 minute lie-in.

i know i'm not the only UK person to witness this, and it's been happening for months. when it does work again, i seem to be the only person here, so is it really locking other people out too? look:

i'd have posted this in Suggestions, but i know it's going to get more traffic here, and maybe some answers

Cipher13 · Nov 19, 2003, 05:58 AM

Yeah, every freakin' day, on a schedule.

Maybe there's some errant cron script being execute at that time?

Maybe even an intentional one, purging/rebooting the mysql daemon or something if it's getting too heavy?

PacPerson · Nov 19, 2003, 06:00 AM

Well, it happens at around four thirty AM EST, which is like a low point in internet attendance.

I've seen similiar things happen at other forums every day at around this time, I would assume theyre doing the daily maintainence/backup/restart or what not.

philzilla · Nov 19, 2003, 06:18 AM

Originally posted by PacPerson:
Well, it happens at around four thirty AM EST, which is like a low point in internet attendance.

incorrect. have you heard of "the rest of the world, outside of America" at all?

PacPerson · Nov 19, 2003, 06:22 AM

Yeah, I have heard about the rest of the world, lol.

But considering most main servers and stuff are in the USA, and the major backbones are here, I would assume that it is more likely that people would choose the 4:30 AM EST time to backup/shutdown/restart/archive, than the other way around.

I could be wrong of course, but we'll hear the explanation when a mod steps in and offers an answer

You people can't even buy itunes songs yet, of course the US comes first, others afterwards, it's simple common sense.

Mediaman_12 · Nov 19, 2003, 07:07 AM

I just thought it did some sort of scheduled reboot. It wild be nice to have a confirmed answer though.

dillerX · Nov 19, 2003, 08:14 AM

Originally posted by philzilla:
incorrect. have you heard of "the rest of the world, outside of America" at all?

WHAT?

Timo · Nov 19, 2003, 08:22 AM

Originally posted by philzilla:
incorrect. have you heard of "the rest of the world, outside of America" at all?

there's your clue, philsan. I happen to know at that time the server runs a cron script called "sudo piss philzilla off".

- - e r i k - - · Nov 19, 2003, 08:34 AM

It happens right smack in the middle of my morning surf-routine too... Annoying that...

philzilla · Nov 19, 2003, 08:38 AM

Originally posted by Timo:
there's your clue, philsan. I happen to know at that time the server runs a cron script called "sudo piss philzilla off".

PacPerson · Nov 19, 2003, 03:27 PM

No official reply on this one yet ?

I still think my theory is correct, regardless of "the rest of the world".

philzilla · Nov 19, 2003, 03:53 PM

the admins are all at Admin School, and the mods probably aren't qualified to answer it with any more than guess work, unless they're on extra special terms with the server.

whatever the reason, i don't have the same problem on other boards. maybe once in a while, they'll spit out a db error, but not every day, at the same damn time. that's just plain daft.

Xeo · Nov 19, 2003, 04:05 PM

Like phil said, I can't say any more on this other than what I'm guessing. However, I did start a thread on this subject in the mod forum back at the beginning of October. No one ever replied. But I do bring it back to life every once in a while just to find out if anyone will answer. I suggested a nicer error message so it's not confusing as to why it's happening.

But it seems to happen at 3:15-3:30 AM CST. I think they chose that time because there is less traffic, regardless of what Phil says. Of course there is the rest of the world running on different times, but the fact is, at 3:10 AM CST, there is a lot less traffic around here. Usually it's less than 10, closer to 5. That's a big difference from the times when there's 100 or even 50 on.

Why does it happen? It's clear that the MySQL database is purposely taken offline via a script most likely for the purpose of backup. You're not supposed to backup a MySQL database if it's being written to at the same time, so to avoid that it's just taken down.

And server time is EST. I just posted the times relative to myself.

lil'babykitten · Nov 19, 2003, 04:06 PM

Originally posted by dillerX:
WHAT?

ROFLMAO!

maxelson · Nov 19, 2003, 04:07 PM

Originally posted by Timo:
there's your clue, philsan. I happen to know at that time the server runs a cron script called "sudo piss philzilla off".

Oooo. SOMEONE's been reading Learning UNIX for Mac OSX...

dcmacdaddy · Nov 19, 2003, 04:09 PM

Originally posted by philzilla:
every morning, the server spits it's dummy and throws up a database error between approximately 09:30-09:40 GMT. it used to start at 09:15, but i guess the error gave itself a 15 minute lie-in.

i know i'm not the only UK person to witness this, and it's been happening for months. when it does work again, i seem to be the only person here, so is it really locking other people out too? look:

Originally posted by PacPerson:
Well, it happens at around four thirty AM EST, which is like a low point in internet attendance.

I've seen similiar things happen at other forums every day at around this time, I would assume theyre doing the daily maintainence/backup/restart or what not.

Originally posted by Xeo:

But it seems to happen at 3:15-3:30 AM CST. I think they chose that time because there is less traffic, regardless of what Phil says. Of course there is the rest of the world running on different times, but the fact is, at 3:10 AM CST, there is a lot less traffic around here. Usually it's less than 10, closer to 5. That's a big difference from the times when there's 100 or even 50 on.

Call me crazy but aren't you guys talking about the same time?
Isn't 9:30 GMT = 4:30 EST (GMT -5) = 3:30 CST (GMT -6)?

Just my $.02

Xeo · Nov 19, 2003, 04:12 PM

Originally posted by dcmacdaddy:
Call me crazy but aren't you guys talking about the same time?
Isn't 9:30 GMT = 4:30 EST (GMT -5) = 3:30 CST (GMT -6)?

Just my $.02

Yes, of course we are. I thought that was clear by use of the time zones.

PacPerson · Nov 19, 2003, 04:14 PM

Yes, it is the same time, which was my point.

Phil thinks its strange that the the server is down at his time, I'm simply saying that it's 4:30 AM EST, and everybody is sleeping.

Even the mod who stepped in backs this up.

dcmacdaddy · Nov 19, 2003, 04:18 PM

Originally posted by Xeo:
Yes, of course we are. I thought that was clear by use of the time zones.

Originally posted by PacPerson:
Yes, it is the same time, which was my point.

Phil thinks its strange that the the server is down at his time, I'm simply saying that it's 4:30 AM EST, and everybody is sleeping.

Even the mod who stepped in backs this up.

I guess I didn't make my point very clear. So we all know it is the same time. What I was trying to get at is that in some sense you are right, it is a slow internet time in the USA. But Phil is right too because for late night users on the West coast and morning user in Europe it is prime web browsing time. So, everybody is NOT sleeping. Aw hell, I'm not making any sense. Just ignore me.

Xeo · Nov 19, 2003, 04:19 PM

Originally posted by PacPerson:
Even the mod who stepped in backs this up.

Just as long as you're clear on the fact that I have no official knowledge on this subject. Even the thread I started in the mod lounge has been ignored.

philzilla · Nov 19, 2003, 04:21 PM

excuse me while i just ring mastrap for his best cake recipe.

Xeo · Nov 19, 2003, 04:22 PM

Originally posted by dcmacdaddy:
I guess I didn't make my point very clear. So we all know it is the same time. What I was trying to get at is that in some sense you are right, it is a slow internet time in the USA. But Phil is right too because for late night users on the West coast and morning user in Europe it is prime web browsing time. So, everybody is NOT sleeping. Aw hell, I'm not making any sense. Just ignore me.

Well, you didn't really make a point at all. All you did was state that it's all the same time. Now, however, you've made your point.

And I'm often a late night user and get affected by this quite often. The fact remains that there are very few users of the forums at that time compared to other times of the day.

philzilla · Nov 19, 2003, 04:29 PM

i surf boards which probably have at least twice the traffic of NN, all the time that i'm on this one. none of those seem to have this daily down time. that was the main reason i thought it was a bit odd.

i gotta go and bake this cake for SmugPerson now, brb...

gorgonzola · Nov 19, 2003, 06:10 PM

Thanks, I'm looking into it. I'm baffled as to why it's going down at the same time every day (no cron scripts or anything running at that hour), but I do see some relevant errors. Oddly, they're at a different time, but presumably if that's cleared up it will fix the whole thing.

philzilla · Nov 19, 2003, 06:24 PM

action! cheers, gzl

Kenneth · Nov 19, 2003, 08:10 PM

Did you feel lonely?

The Placid Casual · Nov 21, 2003, 05:41 AM

Happened again at about 9.15 this time.

Drives me nuts every morning.

philzilla · Nov 21, 2003, 06:21 AM

wasn't a problem for me today, Marc: i stayed in bed until 09:30

mrfrost · Nov 21, 2003, 06:26 AM

And here I was thinking it was just me.

J. Christ · Nov 21, 2003, 11:30 AM

Originally posted by philzilla:
every morning, the server spits it's dummy and throws up a database error between approximately 09:30-09:40 GMT. it used to start at 09:15, but i guess the error gave itself a 15 minute lie-in.

i know i'm not the only UK person to witness this, and it's been happening for months. when it does work again, i seem to be the only person here, so is it really locking other people out too? i'd have posted this in Suggestions, but i know it's going to get more traffic here, and maybe some answers

That is the time when the Admins come together for their secret meetings. They discuss profits from weapons dealings and under the table agreements with foreign diplomats. All Moderators have been lied to, they are working for the enemy but believe they are working for a covert branch of the CIA...known only as...(fill in the blank.)

DemonHood is really...

Demonhood · Nov 21, 2003, 12:21 PM

Originally posted by J. Christ:
DemonHood is really...

i have more hair.

philzilla · Nov 21, 2003, 12:30 PM

Originally posted by Demonhood:
i have more hair.

same color as that guy's tie too... or is it, this week?

tooki · Nov 21, 2003, 05:57 PM

I wish i could tell you what's going on, but I dunno... I'm a forum admin, in the sense of "super-moderator" + "guy with the ability to modify user accounts" -- I don't have access to the server OS's login, just to the forum software's admin interface.

It does sound as if some kind of script or something is happening, or maybe the hosting facility does something at that time.

tooki

SomeToast · Nov 21, 2003, 08:04 PM

Whatever it's doing, it's not flushing the bbthreadview cookie, that's for sure.

CaseCom · Jan 20, 2004, 03:32 PM

Originally posted by gorgonzola:
Thanks, I'm looking into it. I'm baffled as to why it's going down at the same time every day (no cron scripts or anything running at that hour), but I do see some relevant errors. Oddly, they're at a different time, but presumably if that's cleared up it will fix the whole thing.

Did you ever find anything out about this? Still fails every day between 3:15 and 3:45 a.m. here in the central U.S. (as if I should still be awake at that hour anyway).

philzilla · Feb 7, 2004, 09:52 AM

DING DONG!

anything yet?

mitchell_pgh · Feb 7, 2004, 10:21 AM

I say we screw Russia and have it back up when they are in prime time!!!!

philzilla · Feb 7, 2004, 11:53 AM

i've screwed a russian. that was a couple of weeks i'll not forget in a hurry. zoiks, she was hot!