Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

EarlG

(22,540 posts)
Fri Nov 1, 2024, 08:32 PM Nov 1

Friday night issues update -- some short periods of downtime are anticipated tonight, starting at 10pm ET (UPDATED)

Last edited Fri Nov 1, 2024, 10:27 PM - Edit history (1)

UPDATE: 11:30 PM Friday evening

Our initial testing tonight has been potentially promising, but we still have more work to do before we can re-open the site for everyone. Elad may test that a little later tonight, but even if the results look good, we will likely continue to keep the site open only for Star Members overnight, since we do not want to risk a crash.

So, there may be some time tonight when DU is open for everyone again, but overnight and tomorrow morning it is going to remain Star Members only. We're going to see how things look tomorrow, and we should be getting additional tech support tomorrow afternoon as well (if necessary). We are still hopeful that this is going to be resolved sooner rather than later, and we are glad that we can still keep the site open, even if it can't be for everyone right now.

Original message

Hello everyone,

I wanted to give you an update on the database issues we've been having over the past day or two. Today, we've been mostly waiting on tech support and discussing scenarios with our service provider. Database performance has improved somewhat, but we are still seeing underlying issues which indicate that the problem is not completely resolved.

This evening we are going to be performing some maintenance in an effort to see if we can fix these issues. This will require some brief downtime.

We expect to take the site offline at 10pm ET for approximately 15-30 minutes. After we come back up, we will perform some testing. If things look okay, we will attempt to re-open the site to all users. If the site starts to crash again, we will revert to Star Members only.

While it is possible that the maintenance we're about to perform will fix the issue, we're not confident that it will -- nevertheless, this is an important part of the testing process and it will help us determine what to do next.

Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience while we work through this, and we appreciate your patience.
37 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Friday night issues update -- some short periods of downtime are anticipated tonight, starting at 10pm ET (UPDATED) (Original Post) EarlG Nov 1 OP
Thank you. Quiet Em Nov 1 #1
I've been wondering about a DDOS (or similar) attack OKIsItJustMe Nov 1 #2
We don't have any indication that this is an attack EarlG Nov 1 #25
Mahalo Again FOR All You & Elad DO For DU! 🕯️🕊️💙🌊🌊🌊🇺🇸🌈😇 Cha Nov 1 #3
Dude do the business. I'll be fixing breakfast posts when I can irisblue Nov 1 #4
Thank you! Tansy_Gold Nov 1 #5
7 PM Tucson. Ptah Nov 1 #6
Thank you for all your hard work. Mike Niendorff Nov 1 #7
Thank you so much for all you do! nt Phoenix61 Nov 1 #8
Wishing everyone the best! Think. Again. Nov 1 #9
Thank you both. sheshe2 Nov 1 #10
Thank you for all that you do, and thanks for the update. love_katz Nov 1 #11
EarlG and team YOU ROCK Alice Kramden Nov 1 #12
Thank you Earl and Elad irisblue Nov 1 #13
Many thanks for communicating with us and your hard work 🙏 Deuxcents Nov 1 #14
thanks for the info and for all you do! Skittles Nov 1 #15
Whew! Back on! berniesandersmittens Nov 1 #16
back on? did du go offline yet? nt orleans Nov 1 #21
It was offline for a bit berniesandersmittens Nov 1 #24
Many thanks! chia Nov 1 #17
do what needs to be done (apologies to G. Keilor) OldSWODog Nov 1 #18
I was logged in on my isp at home Marthe48 Nov 1 #19
Thanks for all you do ornotna Nov 1 #20
Thanks so much, EarlG. greatauntoftriplets Nov 1 #22
Thank you! 2naSalit Nov 1 #23
Obviously, it's them thar inner tubes I've heard tell of getting clogged with gifs. Hermit-The-Prog Nov 1 #26
They're eating the IO. They are eating the bandwidth. They are eating the remarks of the people who post here. nt Gore1FL Nov 1 #27
Thanks for all of your hard work! ❤️ littlemissmartypants Nov 1 #28
Thank you to you and your team LNM Nov 1 #29
tank you for the alerts AllaN01Bear Nov 1 #30
Sincere Thanks for letting us know . . . IndianaDave Nov 1 #31
Thx for the updates, and cheers Hekate Nov 2 #32
As an IT professional, I can relate! Thanks for all you do... CousinIT Nov 2 #33
We safe for Tuesday? I still have flashbacks to 2016. ZonkerHarris Nov 2 #34
Thank you EarlG and Elad Ruby the Liberal Nov 2 #35
It's been working fine except for my post avatar Rocknation Nov 2 #36
Hopefully no pets were harmed while the moths were cleared out of the database. Aussie105 Nov 2 #37

OKIsItJustMe

(20,733 posts)
2. I've been wondering about a DDOS (or similar) attack
Fri Nov 1, 2024, 08:38 PM
Nov 1

Is there any indication that these outages are intentional? Or are there simply a lot of DUers trying to access the site?

EarlG

(22,540 posts)
25. We don't have any indication that this is an attack
Fri Nov 1, 2024, 09:31 PM
Nov 1

Our traffic is definitely up overall, but that was anticipated due to the election, and we were prepared for it. This issue with the database was definitely unexpected. It's possible that the increase in traffic has caused the problem, but it's not as simple as there just being too many people trying to access DU and the servers not being able to handle the load. It's a technical issue.

Mike Niendorff

(3,545 posts)
7. Thank you for all your hard work.
Fri Nov 1, 2024, 08:43 PM
Nov 1

This is much harder work than most non-techies appreciate, especially since it has to be done in real time on a live site.

Do what you gotta do, keep fighting the good fight. And thanks for keeping everyone in the loop.


MDN

love_katz

(2,799 posts)
11. Thank you for all that you do, and thanks for the update.
Fri Nov 1, 2024, 08:51 PM
Nov 1

I will do my best to not panic, while the site is down.

Just kidding.

I will have a bit of trouble with withdrawals while you are away

OldSWODog

(71 posts)
18. do what needs to be done (apologies to G. Keilor)
Fri Nov 1, 2024, 09:19 PM
Nov 1

Earl and Elad, greetings...I appreciate your efforts...have a figurative Powder Milk Biscuit on me...cheers, OSD

Marthe48

(18,986 posts)
19. I was logged in on my isp at home
Fri Nov 1, 2024, 09:23 PM
Nov 1

I am away from home, using my kids' isp. I couldn't get on DU at first, but doing ok right now. 10:21 pm est. Just fyi.

Gore1FL

(21,883 posts)
27. They're eating the IO. They are eating the bandwidth. They are eating the remarks of the people who post here. nt
Fri Nov 1, 2024, 09:51 PM
Nov 1

IndianaDave

(627 posts)
31. Sincere Thanks for letting us know . . .
Fri Nov 1, 2024, 11:35 PM
Nov 1

and for all you do on a regular basis to keep DU running - it is a place of wisdom and sanity in a truly weird world of misinformation.

CousinIT

(10,180 posts)
33. As an IT professional, I can relate! Thanks for all you do...
Sat Nov 2, 2024, 10:08 AM
Nov 2

...to keep this place running constantly, particularly at the most critical times!

Rocknation

(44,883 posts)
36. It's been working fine except for my post avatar
Sat Nov 2, 2024, 03:12 PM
Nov 2

It was still on my DU profile page but not showing in my posts, and I couldn't re-upload it from my hard drive because it was no longer there. Thankfully I was able to download it from the profile page, re-name it, and save it to my hard drive. All I had to do then was re-re-upload it, and now all is well!


Rocknation

Aussie105

(6,254 posts)
37. Hopefully no pets were harmed while the moths were cleared out of the database.
Sat Nov 2, 2024, 04:57 PM
Nov 2

Them bugs get in amongst the vacuum tubes and create all sorts of problems!

I missed the endorphin rush from reading the posts in the pet section!


Latest Discussions»Help & Search»Announcements»Friday night issues updat...