OY VAY !! Such tsoris, MikeyD! IMHO you deserve a medal for your efforts. And you don't "look bad" - which one of us is all-seeing and all-knowing? Nobody down here that I know of! Thanks again for your efforts.
-Ben At 12:36 AM 2/11/03 -0500, you wrote: >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 Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
