Done Status updates on recent downtime

Hi, Sorry about the title of this topic, but this is the 3rd time in a short period (that i know off) that the servers have been unavailable for multiple hours.

It's nice you put a banner on the forums stating there is an issue and it will hopefully be fixed soon, but could you perhaps create a topic about what has happened and what you are doing to fix the issue?

Just a locked topic in which you put a short, but regular update of what is happening and if possible what caused the issue. It (hopefully) prevents people (like me) from making posts like this and will make people stay both up to date and in touch with the staff doing their very best to fix the issue.

It also creates a sense of awareness and people can estimate for themselves when to check the forum again for an update. It may even help reduce the number of failed login attempts on your servers and maybe take a little strain of the servers that you are working on to fix (just guessing).

Could you please consider this?

Kind regards,

Deepcage.

 

For example what one could post is like

"the server crashed because SirWill (or someone else) forgot to feed the hamsters. Because of that we suffered a major power failure. We have just gotten more food pellets and are feeding the hamsters right now. We expect that the hamsters will be running frantically again in under an hour. After that we should have the server back up and running again. Thank you for your patience"

This explains:
- the cause.
- what is being done about the problem
- Timeframe

And hopefully creates understanding and patience

 

Ay, would be nice to know what's going on! Glad to hear you're working on the issue, but I've got no clue what's going on, what broke (again? apparently, just came back yesterday), and how the fix is progressing.

 

At least guesstimate would be nice. So far "soon" meant 4-12 hours which is quite a range... at least for someone like me who plans his day hour by hour (working from home). But yeah, I do understand how hard it can be to tell when something's going to be fixed. More often than not it's going to be fixed when it's fixed

 

We would if we had any type of timeframe. We provide updates as we can. We are still discussing the issue and steps to correct. It's like standing at a split in the trail with lots of choices...we are sending our dog down each to get a better idea of which way makes the most sense.

 

Now I have even less of a clue about what's going on
Here's hoping it doesn't involve too much of a roll-back, at least.

 

Well I could explain about multi master Galaera SQL clusters across multiple datacenters with auto eviction process in place and wsrep statuses...or I can go back to working on it =)

 

Ooh, now you have me intrigued! Buut yeah... I'll leave you to it!

 

I understood the first half of that, maybe.

 

Looks like technobabble to me. Something something dilithium crystals and warp matrix, something something. Might as well typed the words in latin, LOL. Thanks for helping make this place run well.

Only thing I know how to do in data centers is install the heating / cooling / plumbing systems and run them.

 

well i didnt mean it as "post technobabble" i meant it as:
- Problem in lamens terms
- We estimate -insert time here- to resolve it

and maybe later on give a status updat of the progress...

 

I forgot to water the gerbils and it was my day, they were thirsty and refused to work.

 

Except it was only one of the gerbils that was thirsty, but they all refused to work. And that one gerbil only wanted the mineral spring water from the alps, not the half a dozen other bottled waters. But some one removed the labels, so we had to first test each gerbil if they were thirsty, and find out which water they liked... And it gets complicated from there. And this is why you do not give a mouse a cookie.

 

Whoa Kaze, easy with the heavy technical description of how our network works, you may be pulling the curtain back to far. This is also why hiring unionized gerbils may not be a good idea.

 

Would be nice if we could get another serious staff comment on this topic... Or maybe even a decision wether you would or wouldn't consider implementing this.

 

Mine was serious. You have to understand a lot of the backend systems we don't talk about in public because it's trade secrets. This isn't something where we did something and now its crashing. Its a system that has been running a long time that started locking up in a way we can't figure out whats causing it, just the ability to identify and correct. Hours of logs and troubleshooting has been spent along with fixes discussed.

 

You're missing my point. Im not asking you to reveal trade secrets, im asking for more frequent status updates on major issues and an estimated timeframe untill a solution. Im sure there are more than just me alone who would appreciate that.

 

Please understand that we, as Staff, are just as frustrated as you are by these issues. We are after all Players and MyM Community members as well as Staff. To our Admin team, these issues can only be double frustrating as it prevents them from playing, working on other issues or improvements, and demands their time and effort to fix.

With that understanding, please know that we provide what information we have to the community at large as quickly as we are able to. But the simple fact is that giving an Estimated Time is not always a simple matter, or even a possibility. The issues are varied and have to be tracked down and corrected to get the system back up, I'd rather our Admins were doing that important task than trying to guess how long it will take them to do just that.

Additionally, any ETA given would be taken as a guaranteed time by some and just frustrate or anger them further if not met. Sorry the recent spate of downtime is interfering with your gameplay, at least as much s it is interfering with my own, but again, a little patience and understand all around will make it all go much much smoother.

 

And everything is down again... Guess we're going to have to expect this to be a recurring issue (if it's in fact the same problem as a few days ago)

 

Rekalty this is not the right thread to post new issues, thats not what this thread is meant for. Please create a new thread for new issues.