ApolloImperium Posted July 19, 2011 Report Posted July 19, 2011 As some of you may or may not have noticed, over the past few weeks we've been experiancing some issues with page loads and site slowness between 11pm and 1am EST. This is historically our busiest time of the evening, yet the issue is new. After some discussion with our Hosting company Nexcess, it was determined that the hardware we used was causing the issue. So of course, this means that it's time to upgrade the beast that keeps AFF running. Over the course of the next week the hardware will be upgraded, ideally it will for the most part be transparent to you our users, but as always we want to make sure that you are aware of what is going on. The new server will be coming online between 6am and 8am EST the morning of the 19th (today or tomorrow depending on your timezone) and the data migration will happen the 20th, again between 6am and 8am EST, this time with approximately 1 hour downtime as the data is moved. As we are also upgrading the OS and a few other odds and ends at the same time, there may be some additional strangeness as we ensure everything is configured correctly for approximately 1 week from today. While the entire staff as well as Nexcess will make sure that everything goes smoothly, if you experience any issues with the site outside of the 6-8am timeframes I mentioned above, please either comment in this threat or in the technical support forum with specific details and if possible screenshots of any issues you may have, or if you have questions please feel free to ask here. Once again, we thank you so much for your understanding and support! Hats off to Nexcess for their quick and speedy resolution!
DemonGoddess Posted July 21, 2011 Report Posted July 21, 2011 The upgrade for the hardware (replacement part) wasn't actually done 'til this morning, because of the faulty switch in the data center. That, of course, had to be addressed before our upgrade, as that affected many, many sites hosted by this company. Part of what is being upgraded as well is the OS. It's being changed from 32 to 64 bit. The server is now a Dual Core Xeon, rather than the Xeon P4 we've had for quite a few years. Also, the drives are being changed to SATA disc arrays, and the RAM is being changed to something more current as well. In other words, total system replacement.
Guest drarryluver45 Posted July 22, 2011 Report Posted July 22, 2011 I don't know if this has anything to do with the new hardware or if it's just me but Aff is making my Firefox crash....and on google chrome the pages wont load sometimes. It't not only during the mentioned times. It happens randomly throughout the day.
DemonGoddess Posted July 22, 2011 Report Posted July 22, 2011 As the hardware was just set up yesterday morning (as far as I know, I've not confirmed it yet with Nexcess). The next step is migration of data from the old server to the new one. If you would, while this is ongoing, keep track of when this happens, and let us know. That would be helpful. As to Firefox crashing, what version do you have? If you have 4, either roll it back to to 3 (if you have XP or less), or upgrade to 5. I've not yet tested FF5 on an XP machine myself, but I do know it works quite well on a Win 7 system; whereas I also know it does NOT work on a Win 2k system. Which is why I'm unsure as to whether or not it'll work right on XP. If it doesn't work on W2K, chances are it won't work right on XP. Pages not loading in Chrome, would indicate there was no data being sent for a variety of reasons. Usually, Chrome will TELL you why a page won't load. So, let me know what that error is.
ApolloImperium Posted July 22, 2011 Author Report Posted July 22, 2011 The new hardware has been brought online, migration is starting today with the final migration set up for 6-8am EST Saturday the 23rd.
RogueMudblood Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 (edited) DG, if you still want to know, Chrome error: Error 324 (net::ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE) But as soon as I hit refresh it was fine. Edited July 23, 2011 by RogueMudblood
DemonGoddess Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 yes I do. As the data and whatnot are in the process of being migrated, I do expect to see this.
Guest drarryluver45 Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 I'm using a Mac Version 10.4.8 Well I downloaded Firefox 5 early yesterday and after 15 minutes it crashed again.
DemonGoddess Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 The data migration is not yet complete, so I expect to see issues. Why aren't you using Safari? I know for a fact that is stable, and has no issues. FF 5.01 is the version I'm using, with no issues, with Windows 7 as the environment. As software is written differently for different OS, it could be you've found an issue that's Mac specific.
DemonGoddess Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 from Nexcess: The file move was completed approximately 2 am this morning. The last phase of the data move is the migration of the database. This will take a couple hours, as the database is enormous. I expect that while the data is being migrated, and config files pointed to the new physical location, that we may start developing connection issues until the database migration is complete.
DemonGoddess Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 The last of the databases is in the process of being imported. There will likely be one more short amount of issues, while config files are repointed. I expect it all to be done now, within the next hour.
DemonGoddess Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 I can tell you for certain the config files are being repointed as I type this. You'll be seeing a "500 internal server error" while this is happening.
Guest Nanashi Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 The site is down and it is reading error when ever I get online
Guest Nanashi Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 Internal Server Error The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@adult-fanfiction.org and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log This is what I am getting
Melrick Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 DemonGoddess explained why you're getting those error messages. You just need to scroll up to read it.
DemonGoddess Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 The issue is fixed, and migration is complete. There is a conf file which only the hosting company has access to, which needed a tiny little change, in order to be "seen". However, we wouldn't have known that, but for the migration to begin with. AND AND AND, instead of the 2 x dual core we were thinking we were getting with the new hardware, we got 2 x QUAD CORE!!!!
DemonGoddess Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 Some of you may still be experiencing a "500 internal server error". That would be because your DNS filters have not yet updated. This may take an additional hour or two for some of you, but I seriously doubt it'll take that long. That would be because when a NS record is changed (as this one was), it will cycle through a certain amount of users per every 5 minutes or so, until they're all caught up. This usually doesn't take more than an hour or so, as I said. One other thing, as the programs, while the DNS records are updating for everyone, are actually parsing read data from two servers, you may have slowness issues yet for a time. Simply refresh your page, and it will go away shortly.
Guest drarryluver45 Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 lol not a big fan of Safari but i'll try it. thanks! oh and the site's a bit slow for some reason....maybe it's just me?
BronxWench Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 DG, I'm still having a boatload of issues myself. I've refreshed, running FF5 on Win 7, and no joy here. My cache has been emptied multiple times, and I'm stuck with a Profile dropdowm menu locked open, no ability to access my setting, no RTE, and no SB or PMs...
DemonGoddess Posted July 23, 2011 Report Posted July 23, 2011 I'm having the same issues. It looks to be some php.ini settings, which I can't access. I've informed Nexcess, they'll let me know when those settings are tweaked
DemonGoddess Posted July 24, 2011 Report Posted July 24, 2011 We thank you for your continued patience. With a good deal of help from Nexcess (our hosting company) everything is back in working order. Now, with the many changes, I do expect for there to be some random weirdness popping up. So please do tell us, and give exact details. Without details, the issue can't be tracked down and fixed.
RogueMudblood Posted July 24, 2011 Report Posted July 24, 2011 (edited) DG, the only thing I'm still having trouble with is the search function. Things that I know should return topics are not - such as the word "Typos" - I get I've emptied cache, from "the beginning of time" on Google Chrome, OS Win7, and rebooted twice. (once after each browser cleanout) browser version: 12.0.742.122 Edited July 24, 2011 by RogueMudblood
DemonGoddess Posted July 24, 2011 Report Posted July 24, 2011 I rebuilt the search index, and I'll recheck search settings and make sure nothing else weird happened during this.
DemonGoddess Posted July 27, 2011 Report Posted July 27, 2011 One thing which needs to be addressed, is that with the hardware and DNS changes, any user visiting will have to reset their cookies. The cookie strings are no longer valid. That being the case, if you've not done that, I'd expect unexpected behaviors from any of the software. To do this, you clear history, cookies and etc in your browser. CLOSE the browser. Restart it. You will have to re-do the age verification page, as it is a cookie setter.
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