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Re: trouble logging in??
The UKW server’s main RAID5 array died last night, GMT, about 7pm 10/05/09.
Since then EVERTHING has been down.
A backup image was restored, the last “good” one before the RAID array started to fail from the morning of 09/05/09.
Needless to say I’m not a happy puppy and, even if I were in the UK, there would have been nothing I could have done to help the situation. However steps are being taken to ensure that a similar failure never reoccurs by way of at least one back up server which is due to be installed in the next couple of weeks.
To be fair it was sort of planned but delayed due to the cost of it. Turns out that was an error of judgement. 😕
Mail should be back up shortly, it is being worked on now.
We’re actually running on an alternative server, ours is “in the shop” getting fixed as it is not really convenient to do it in the data center. This may lead to minor errors here and there and, I’m sorry, but there’s not much I can do about it for now. That said, if there are any that you come across that are critical please let me know so they can be looked into.
I’ll update as I get more info.
K.
Re: trouble logging in??
It’s probably all my fault….. Just for once, I wanted some help, typed in “inolreM” (That’s backwards, just in case it does it again) and the whole thing borked. Sorry.
Anyway, going to post the question again, so if it goes off-line in the next five minutes, it’ll be my fault, Again.
Chris.
Re: trouble logging in??
kwatt wrote:The UKW server’s main RAID5 array died last night, GMT, about 7pm 10/05/09.
Google’s last ‘cache’ on the site was at 20:10 GMT 10/05/09. Also the WTA site, ISA and ukwspares.com were all off line as well. The WTA site and ukwspares.com is still off line at the moment.
eastlmark wrote:one way to get Dave Conway posting on UKW I suppose! :waving:
Hi Dave :waving:
Good to see the site up and running again
Thanks admin :tup:
Re: trouble logging in??
kwatt wrote:The UKW server’s main RAID5 array died last night, GMT, about 7pm 10/05/09.
A backup image was restored, the last “good” one before the RAID array started to fail from the morning of 09/05/09.
K.
I have no idea what those first two sentances meant. I like to think I have an inquisitive mind but some things I am happy to be ignorant about.
Re: trouble logging in??
Basically, big cheap discs used for data storage, possibly not that cheap these days. 😥
Re: trouble logging in??
They’re not cheap as we used pukka server class SCSI disks. 😉
We had two drives fail which was okay, we recovered from that but it looks as if the SCSI RAID controller is fried, so non-recoverable and the array looks to be shot.
Like most things IT, regardless of how much effort you put into it in order to protect the system, it can and will fail at some point. It is inevitable as they are machines and, as we all know, machines break eventually. It’s only the timing that varies.
What I’m doing now is trying to build in as much safety as possible to ensure that it never happens again, you live and learn as they say.
What is most annoying about it is that I’d already more or less signed off on having a backup server built on the 3rd June as I knew this could and, probably would, happen at some point. Now I’m looking to take it one step further than that even although it will cost.
There is however a lesson for all of you in this debacle…
Backup, backup and then do a backup of all data that you need. Do it regularly and don’t skimp on it.
So many times I’ve been asked by friends and family to try to recover data after a failure, email, photos, documents, programs and a more all gone in the blink of an eye. Often, especially where people rely on a single drive in a PC, it’s gone for good.
If you run your business off a PC in any way at all though, it is IMO, essential to backup that data.
The way to think about it is twofold, how much hassle would it be if you lost all your data that you have on your PC? How much is having a backup of that worth to you?
Simple backup solutions can cost as little as a hundred quid or so although I tend to advise and use more robust solutions than that as well as those that are automated so it doesn’t get forgotten about. But, anything is better than nothing. And, trust me, if you need it, you REALLY need it and you’ll be glad you invested a bit of time and money is saving your own a$$.
K.
And the outage we just experienced was the BT backbone falling over!!
Can we get any more problems in one single week? :rolls:
K.
Re: trouble logging in??
Murphy’s law…. if it can go wrong, it will!
I run a home network including my business PC, all files are backed up on each pc automatically. That way if four fail, I still have one left.
Safety first 🙂
(Watch my house burn down now just to spite me ) 😛
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