DB Issues Continued

[Jason Clark]

Well, it appears as though when the previous DB server was having drive problems and system freezes, it corrupted the database. This is why once and awhile it just stops accepting connections, It may appear as though its "busy" but its not its not even there Which causes the webservers to stack up requests as they cannot contact the DB. This is a bit of a tedious process so we will keep you posted but I would imagine we are going to have to take the db down for a few hours to begin repairing the damage that the other db server did

Just a heads up

 

[Adul]

I had a hunch that the databse was corrupt, do to threads disappearing from the forums archive. I am sure you guys will get it fixed.

 

[Adul]

One more question. Wouldn't it be wise to move the archives onto a seperate drive?

 

[Jason Clark]

That actually wouldn't help.. The issue was a crippled db server, which corrupted the file. We are on it fun fun

 

[Gorgonzola]

thanks for the info zuni. you know how to keep us happy...even if it's bad news that you're reporting

 

[Jason Clark]

Well, we think you guys have a right to know what is happening. The corruption lies in the users table, we are going to lose some users. We will not know how many until we do a test run, which should be very soon. The test run will be done in our dev environment. This issue could not be helped, it was just a result of a failing database server.

 

[nateholtrop]

what happens if you lose a paltinum member will tehy be granted their status back?

Nate

 

[Adul]

Well if they are inactive users, then that not to bad ofa problem. Maybe a courasy e-mail would be nice. God I would hate to get dumped before I reached 10k

 

[IBhacknU]

just let me down easy

 

[Yeeny]

Hey your not getting rid of me that easy buddy...

Thanks for the heads up Zuni, and thanks for all the work your doing keeping this place going. I don't envy you at all lately, your working your fingers to the bone!

 

[Train]

hey Zuni,

since the DB is SQL Server, did you ever think of going to stored procedures for all the queries? I know this wouldnt be compatible with other databases, but at least for the SQL server version it would make an imporvement.

I moved all the db access on one of my sites to stored procedures and the performance took a huge jump, i didnt realize until after the fact what a big difference it makes.

 

[snow patrol]

Zuni - are you saying that the users who will be 'nuked' will be totally random? It could be someone who signed up yesterday, it could be Russ...that kind of thing? :Q

 

[kami]

Well if they are doing a test run I guess they could find out who would get nuked and mayeb grant them their post count back again when they restore the uncorrupted DB?

 

[Train]

i think the post count is an actual count total of topics and replis by a user, not an actual number that gets incremented, im not sure, but if so, you wouldnt be able to "grant" a post count without creating bogus records.

 

[Jason Clark]

We won't know what records are damaged as once its corrupted thats it.. we may be able to cross reference who isnt here etc.. Train, we have done extensive load testing and stored procs do nothing for performance. MDAC 2.6 and Coldfusion work very well together when talking to SQL, the queries are running very very fast, the place that sees load first is the web servers. It has nothing to do with stored procs . It's all about a server that shut down in the middle of transactions and had a bad drive. So it corrupted part of the database.

 

[snow patrol]

Zuni - should it occur that we're deleted, will we be able to be re-instated with our original user name, signup date, post count etc. ?

 

[Jason Clark]

Snow, that will be up to the user.. as I will have no idea who got wiped and who didn't I don't know anymore at this point as we haven't started trying to export the userbase.. to see where the break is. It may just be one record who knows.

 

[snow patrol]

ok, thanks for letting us know.

Keep us posted!

 

[narzy]

that sounds like a pain zuni Good Luck to all of us may our member names Live on!

 

[Wedesdo]

keep us up to date please.