2012-01-01: AikiWeb Server Back Up

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[akiy]

Hi folks,

So, as you can see, the server is back up!

Here's the story, in case any fellow geeks are interested:

Back in the evening of December 17th, I noticed that the server wasn't responding. Unfortunately, it was already after hours at the colocation facility and I was hosting an event the following day so it was Sunday by the time I got into the server room. When I got there, the console was displaying disk errors and the operating system was hung. When I rebooted the server, two drives in the RAID-6 array were rebuilding, so I left it to rebuild and I came back a couple hours later to find the rest of the disks had "disappeared" from the array. I put the word "disappeared" in quotes, as the drives would come back online for a little bit (seconds) within the RAID bios, then they would disappear, then reappear, and so on without any discernable pattern.

I contacted the server manufacturer for hardware support the following Monday (the 20th) outlining these issues. I actually had issues very similar to this with this server back in May which was on their records. Despite that and my thoughts that the drives themselves weren't at fault, I had to go through the process of sending them logs, doing tests, trying to "retag" the drives, and so on until late last week (around the 30th) when a technician came out to replace the server's entire SCSI chain (which didn't work) and, the following day, to replace the risers for the RAID card (which seems to have worked).

After spending a day testing out the hardware configuration (drive verification tests, etc), I reinstalled the OS and restored things from my off-site backups. There are a few more things I need to get running, but I think and hope the server is working well for everyone again!

If you run into any issues, please use the contact us (http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/sendmessage.php) page and let me know details.

Thanks, everyone, for your support, concern, and thoughts!

Best,

-- Jun

[SeiserL]

Welcome back! Missed you.

[LinTal]

Love your work!! Thanks a heap for all you do!

[JRY]

WOOHOO!! back up!

Thanks Jun for all your hard work! :)

[sorokod]

I think that the restored content is incomplete, for example, compare:

http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?p=300064#post300064

with

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:s5X9HKREmHEJ:www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php%3Fp%3D300094+gandhi+aikiweb+hitchens&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=il

[Demetrio Cereijo]

Thanks Jun.

Happy new year.

[hughrbeyer]

Yay! Starting the new year by slaying a dragon FTW.

[zivk]

Hi folks,

So, as you can see, the server is back up!

Here's the story, in case any fellow geeks are interested...

As a matter of fact I did try to follow the details but, quite expectedly, got lost pretty much at the beginning. All in all, what's important is that you succeeded in getting aikiweb back up, and I for one am grateful. Thank you for your work in maintaining this wonderful website.

[GMaroda]

Huzzah! It's back!

[David Yap]

I think that the restored content is incomplete, for example, compare:

http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?p=300064#post300064

with

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:s5X9HKREmHEJ:www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php%3Fp%3D300094+gandhi+aikiweb+hitchens&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=il

I believe the last backup of the server was done on 16th December 2011. All posts from the 17th have gone missing.

[phitruong]

i got aikiweb withdrawn symptoms. keep checking the url every hour, walk around mumbling "must post on irimi", wake up in cold sweat screaming "there is no aiki in aikido!!!" checked into rehab but they said there is no cure for it and advised that i might check with the local AWA (AikiWeb Anonymous) to see if they could recommend something, like a bokken beat down session or some sort. all in all, it was ugly. glad aikiweb back to normal, so i don't have to get beat up by a big ugly bokken wield by a good looking woman in a red clown suit. :D

[Cady Goldfield]

i got aikiweb withdrawn symptoms. keep checking the url every hour, walk around mumbling "must post on irimi", wake up in cold sweat screaming "there is no aiki in aikido!!!" checked into rehab but they said there is no cure for it and advised that i might check with the local AWA (AikiWeb Anonymous) to see if they could recommend something, like a bokken beat down session or some sort. all in all, it was ugly. glad aikiweb back to normal, so i don't have to get beat up by a big ugly bokken wield by a good looking woman in a red clown suit. :D

Not to mention that Phi had all that pent-up "Humor Qi" and nowhere to let it out!