Michael, it happens man! :) You're doing a good job and we are all very appreciative of it (so everyone give Michael a hand for all his hard work (NOW DONATE!!!! :)
Keep up the good work Michael... (and Judith too.... not forgetting you :) Pablo ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Michael Dinowitz)> To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 11:36 PM Subject: List status > What follows is just about a full account of what happened over the weekend to > the HoF server. It is honest to the point of making me look bad but that's just > me. :) > > Basically, the post server got jammed when I tried to update its settings on > Friday. To the task manager it was still on but to the server itself, it was > hung. This caused a TON of mail to back up. Normally, this should not be a > problem but either I made a mistake with the mail settings or the new post > server didn't like something and when I restarted it Sat. night, it started to > work and then really hung. I mean hung to the point of stopping ALL net > communications to the box. It could be pinged, but no HTTP, FTP, VNC, etc. I > think this is due to it using CF as its engine and it trying to use an unlimited > number of CF threads or the equivalent. (I'm still not sure why). The end result > was every now and again, the server was good for about 3 requests before getting > hung up. > I wrote some code to watch for these openings and used it to kill a bunch of > services and get back on the box. On the box there was 59,000+ messages in the > out dir. I tried new settings and restarted. Same problem. Eventually around 4am > Monday morning the box was totally unresponsive and I crashed for a few hours. I > then called CFHosting (who provides the service) and asked them to kick the box > while I was watching remotely and then wait there till I got it up right. The > did so. > I replaced the new (beta) post server with the older released one and then > slowly moved the now 61,000+ messages into different directories by hand to > start getting them out (didn't want to lost anything). I had also turned off all > receipt of mail by the box on Sunday so there were about 100+ messages still > waiting to be processed and turned into thousands more. > With the old post server in and more tweaks to the settings, I sat on the box > all day watching mail get put into the queue, sent out, watching the logs, etc. > Finally, around 5 or 6 the queue was cleaned and everything looked good. I then > unlocked the receipt code and started to process backed up mail. Everything > seemed to work and after a bit of time watching that, I took a nap. > It all looks good now. > > Questions: > Why didn't I see what was up till Sat night? > >From sundown Friday to an hour after sundown Saturday night is the Jewish > Sabbath and during that time I'm totally out of communication with anyone > electronically. The only way I could even answer the phone is if it was > literally life or death and I heard it on the answering machine. Loooooong story > there but basically no phone, no computers, no 'work' that can take me away from > God and family on the day of rest. > > Why did the post server fail? Is iMS faulty? > The post server in use was a beta given to me by Howie because I and others > noticed that some messages were being lost randomly (so it seems). This is > greater on high traffic days and less so on low. In order to make sure everyone > got their messages and there were no problems, I put in the new server. We're > looking into why this happened but on the whole, iMS is very solid. A side note > in this is that I've heard similar complaints from other lists not using iMS. > Complaints that mail messages are going missing which worries me greatly. Is > this a net thing? Is carnivore eating them? Is the problem still around with the > new setting? All will be looked into. > > Am I blaming iMS, Howie or anyone/anything else for this event? > NO! The blame for this falls squarely on my shoulders. I put the beta post > server into use. I changed the settings. I didn't see a need to call CFHosting > till Monday morning. All in all, I'm happy that Howie was able to get me the > beta post server and keep in contact with me while this was happening. I'm happy > CFHosting was able to get what I needed done quickly and effectively. I'm even > glad that people on the list were so concerned that they emailed me. Of course, > in almost all cases I didn't see the email till the server was back up, but.... > :) > > Can people email me directly for information or assistance? > Yes. A number of list members emailed asking what was up, is all was ok and if > they could help. (I even got 2 donations through paypal.) During out times of > this sort where the HoF website is down as well, you can ask me directly about > the list status at my alternate address of [EMAIL PROTECTED] This is a > rarely used backup that becomes my primary when the site is down (luckily this > is very rare). > > Michael Dinowitz > Master of the House of Fusion > http://www.houseoffusion.com > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. 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