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=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq 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=89.70.4
