Server needed to be rebooted

[yeppie]

Sorry folks, sexsoundlovers.cc has been down for about 18 hours (noticed by the time span without spammers´registrations). The server had to be rebooted, this happened two or three times before.
Very annoying but no serious problem seems to be the cause, so no need to panic.

[yeppie]

Ok, now I really have to apologize.
Sexsoundlovers has been down twice again during the last days (pretty long time during my weekend break). I can´t deny a serious lack of understanding on how to administrate a complex server.

But I am learning hard and improving. Meanwhile I found the reason for the problems and I am working to solve them. While writing this message, the control panel software is updated and the troublemakers have been identified. There has been no security issue - the server´s harddisk has reached its capacity limits. After deleting error logs and some other files, there is some space left but sooner or later I will have to switch to a larger (and unfortunately significantly pricier) virtual server.

So if anybody is looking for a Christmas gift ... a few extra archive subscriptions would be welcome

[yeppie]

Access to the archives has also been affected by today´s server crash. The password file was open when the crash happened and so it could not be saved with the result of an empty file. The archive themselve and the membership database weren´t affected and so this could be repaired easily with the help of CCBill´s support team.

[sc0tt-uk]

Roughly how much does it cost to host this place for a year? Might be worth setting up a donation page or something. Doubt you'd get many takers, but every little helps. I'd throw a few quid in the pot

[yeppie]

Thanks Scott, I appreciate that.
Donations aren´t necessary for hosting sexsoundlovers, there´s always a surplus at the end of the year thanks to the archive subscriptions. And there will still be a smaller surplus after upgrading to the next server-level. My lack of money isn´t caused by the site but by the one everything began with, my sweet moaning soon-to-be-ex-wife. Donations for a ripped off administrator anybody?

[sc0tt-uk]

Shit, I don't really know how to prevent that from happening. Have you considered growing a terrifyingly big mustache? It might help to send the message that you're a man to be feared.

[yeppie]

I might consider that Will ask my lawyer when I meet her next week. These Brits are crazy!

[yeppie]

It seems to become a bad habit

This weekend´s server crash was induced by the previous one which left a table crashed in the blog´s database. I repaired the forum´s database but didn´t recognize that the crash had also corrupted the blog. So the error log accumulated a few gb which again resulted in a failure of the MySQL server. Without MySQL no database, without database no forum, no blog, no website.

This could have been easily fixed ... if the crashed MySQL wouldn´t have left a corrupt MySQL.sock file hidden on the server. The Server refused to start, support was slow on the weekend and so it took which felt like forever to find the reason and the downtime didn´t last for 2 hours but for 2 days. Fuck.

The only good thing on this completely spoiled weekend: The archives weren´t affected this time as they don´t run on a MySQL database.

[yeppie]

It seems to become a bad habit

Another long weekend with the server crashing again and again. Sorry for that!

We obviously experienced server overloads, the server´s cpu and sql showed warnings every few minutes. This could have had "normal" causes like too many visitors or somebody causing overflows intentionally to force the site to its knees - or a combination of both. As the hosting company experienced similar problems, we might have been affected by these general attacks.

So far I didn´t see any data loss or corrupt files and databases which means no long-term damage. But everytime the server went down it had to be restarted before the site could be accessed again and that caused many downtimes during the last days.

In the meantime I tried a few things to reduce serverload and hopefully this will keep the site alive for a longer period now.
Should you experience any problems I didn´t mention, please let me know.

Keep your fingers crossed and thanks for your patience!

yeppie

[yeppie]

As a result of one of the measures to reduce the serverload you might see a message saying "forum deactivated" from time to time. This will happen automatically as soon as the forum exceeds a certain percentage of the server´s cpu usage.

[yeppie]

If there is an expert in server management amongst us, please holla back!
I could need you -at least during my coming absence in May.

[heinz1809]

I think this new. When I want to search user post's, this messsage appears: "Sorry but you are not permitted to use the search system."
In the past it worked.

[yeppie]

You´re right, heinz, this is new but accidentally. As the problem with the server is a cpu overload, I tried different measures to reduce this. Switching off the search function (temporarily I hope) is one of them. Sorry for that.

Update: Search function reactivated.

[d2009sd2009s]

Do not know whether it is the right place to post it here, but I have problems with viewing the forum: when I try it from PC, I see the Apache test page like server was just installed. From the Android phone all works properly. I have tried different browsers, the result is the same. Does anyone have the same problem?

[sc0tt-uk]

That was the start of another server crash. Just rebooted and all seems to be well for now. Sorry folks, might be a bumpy ride while Yeppie is traveling.