Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ The Day That Never Was

3:00 AM EST on Thursday, 3/13/08, to 2:40 AM EST on Friday, 3/14/08, will now be known as "The Day That Never Was". As many of you know, the site began experiencing problems on 3/12/08 - leading to 4-5 hours of downtime starting at around 5 AM EST on both 3/12/08 and 3/13/08.

On both days, the site was able to be brought back online. However, tests from yesterday morning started to point towards a larger problem. While there was an initial belief that the problems may have been fixed yesterday morning, further review of the situation continued. Then, at around 3:40 PM EST yesterday, it became clear that a larger problem existed.

At that time, work began immediately to attempt to fix the problem and minimize the possible effects of the problem. After hours of testing and discussion, it was determined that the problem could not be fixed. The hard drive on the server died entirely.

Therefore, we needed to focus on utilizing the work that was done to minimize the effects of the problem. So, work began to move the site to a new dedicated server (as opposed to replacing the hard drive in the existing server and staying down longer) and restore from the full backup that is made each and every night at approximately 3 AM EST.

So, that is what was completed at 2:40 AM EST this morning. The site is now operational and stable on a new dedicated server. However, any data from the periods when the site was running yesterday has been lost. It's simply not practical to create backups of a site this size more than once per day, so we just have to accept the missing data from about 7 hours and move on.

With all that said, I'm aware that there are some additional issues related to the change. Specifically, the new dedicated server is using newer versions of mySQL and PHP - the engines that power the vast majority of the site. Those newer versions have created some compatibility issues with some areas of the site. That is what I'm now focused on correcting.

I've already made schedule changes so that I won't be working today and can spend as much time as is necessary over the next 3 days to address any and all issues.

When this process is complete, I'm confident that TCC will actually be better and stronger! More details related to that will be provided as work continues.

So, feel free to proceed with creating topics, adding replies, updating transactions and more. While our community suffered some damage from a severe "storm", repairs are underway!

Bob Williams
President & CEO
TradingCardCentral.com

Thanks Big Ears you are the king for a reason! Great work!

Hooray for Bob!

Thanks for all your hard work in running this site. It's really a wonderful place and we all appreciate the effort you put in to keep things running smoothly.

Kudo's out to Bob such dedication to the site

Hopefully PMs working sometime, should have wrote down that info from trader in that PM, it went poof with a few others
Completed trades list seem to be gone too, yet sales there, how odd.

Thanks for the skinny, Bob! I think every member here appreciated your efforts and dedication.

Just glad we're back.

Thanx bob


Your efforts here are wonderful......they will NOT go un noticed

Thank you

j5

"Lucky 13" strikes again.

Glad to have the site back. With no crops in the ground and no officer personnel buzzing around since they were laid off it gets boring here. I actually studied some formula changes we are going to use when doing crop adjustments, caught up on nearly 200 e-mails that were piling up, and went to the local Dodge dealership and started looking for a new company truck. Hard to believe that I accomplished something but I really did!

I almost died...for real (how do I stay away for 3 months? )

So....

owever, any data from the periods when the site was running yesterday has been lost. It's simply not practical to create backups of a site this size more than once per day, so we just have to accept the missing data from about 7 hours and move on.

Is that why some replies to topics were lost?


Thanks for fixing the problem Bob!

Thanks for the explanation Bob. I was not aware of any problems with the site until I got home yesterday (Thursday 13 Mar, 2008 "The Day That Never Was") and tried accessing the site around 6:30PM EDT. Periodically I tried to get to the site with no success since the site itself was down. I thought something was wrong with my cookies... must have been that box breaking thread with the Girl Scout Cookies... hmm did that one survive the day that never was?

If I was better at completing stories, not just getting SNL one-joke type ideas, I would spend some time to write a screenplay and call it The Day That Never Was

Bob you are very much appreciated!

Thanks!


Hopefully Ace will Redo his Break if it was anygood? Thats what I was reading when i crashed...

Is that why some replies to topics were lost?

Yes. All data from 3:00 AM EST on 3/13/08 to 2:40 AM EST on 3/14/08 was lost. While that's nearly 24 hours, the actual amount of data loss is about 7 hours since the site was down for extended periods of time during that same 24-hour period.

-Bob

Hopefully PMs working sometime, should have wrote down that info from trader in that PM, it went poof with a few others 
Completed trades list seem to be gone too, yet sales there, how odd.

I'm aware of both issues and will be focusing on the PM issue soon. That appears to be an example of where the newer version of mySQL is causing a previous query to fail. It's just a matter of determining what change to make to the query.

-Bob

Great job bringing it back from the dead Bob!!

Thanks!

Just throwing this out there in case any1 else is having a similar problem...

When I try to view my completed trades, they don't show. I can only see my completed sales. I also had a transaction completed today that for whatever reason, didn't add onto my total.

nice job bob! the newer versions of php and mysql should bode well for the future of TCC

Just throwing this out there in case any1 else is having a similar problem...

When I try to view my completed trades, they don't show. I can only see my completed sales. I also had a transaction completed today that for whatever reason, didn't add onto my total.

I had some closed yesterday that came pack as still open. PM's are also down.

Great work Bob!