Avast WEBforum

Other => General Topics => Topic started by: chocholo on May 02, 2012, 11:21:48 AM

Title: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: chocholo on May 02, 2012, 11:21:48 AM
Hello,

As I've promised in the very brief error message, I am going to explain what happened and why it took us two days to get the avast! Forum back.

Neither our forum nor our provider was hacked or DDOSed. The forum is currently hosted on our own servers, connected to our own network (we have our own AS numbers and peerings) in our rack, currently in our HQ in Prague.

On Monday morning, the forum server crashed during backup, and it unfortunately somehow corrupted the mapped iscsi volume with the forum data (we are investigating with the vendor how that could happen). What was worse, the backup iscsi volume also was mapped to the forum server and corrupted. So, because of this, we didn't have a fresh (few hours old) backup to restore. We had only a backup a few weeks old.

However, I found that it would be possible to get access to the freshest (online) data from the time when the server crashed. Because of this, I didn't restore the old backup and waited to see how the restoration would finish. Fortunately, it finished OK, so we now have the forum back as it was on Monday morning, just before crash.

I was called on Monday around 11:00 that the forum was not behaving normally, and it took approximately two hours to investigate what exactly was wrong. Some eight hours I was trying to find out how we could fix it by ourselves, then I contacted the vendor. That was the most time-intensive aspect, and after a few e-mails we managed to fix the iscsi volumes. That was some 30 minutes ago.

I apologize for all the troubles,

Petr Chocholous
jabber/xmpp: chocholous at avast.com
email: chocholous at avast.com
IT crowd
AVAST Software a.s.
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: chocholo on May 02, 2012, 11:23:29 AM
I forgot to thank you all who notified me about the problem.
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: Asyn on May 02, 2012, 11:27:20 AM
I forgot to thank you all who notified me about the problem.

NP Petr. ;)
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: CraigB on May 02, 2012, 11:28:43 AM
Thanks for letting us know Petr :)
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: DavidR on May 02, 2012, 12:32:15 PM
Thanks for the update, though I was getting the server is under severe load, try again later for searches/show last topics, etc. error message when I first managed to get on-line.

This was also happening some time before the crash, so I don't know if that was a prelude/warning of any imminent problem/crash.
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: jeffce on May 02, 2012, 01:35:36 PM
Thanks for letting us know.  :)
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: Lisandro on May 02, 2012, 01:50:41 PM
Petr... Thanks for your hard work. Glad that the data is safe.
But... Would we go for a Plan C backup scheme?
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: iroc9555 on May 02, 2012, 01:56:30 PM
Thanks Chocholo.

Hell of a labor day, ah!
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: RejZoR on May 02, 2012, 02:31:16 PM
I only had Vlk in my contacts that i could remember right away so i've sent him a mail. :)
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: schmidthouse on May 02, 2012, 05:22:44 PM
Yes, missed the reading. ;)
Hard work,
THanks
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: NON on May 02, 2012, 06:22:14 PM
Thanks for the hard work chocholo, we are glad to see the forum is back. :)
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: chocholo on May 02, 2012, 06:39:04 PM
Petr... Thanks for your hard work. Glad that the data is safe.
But... Would we go for a Plan C backup scheme?
Yep, we already changed the backup scheme.
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: CharleyO on May 02, 2012, 06:43:21 PM
***

My thanks also, Chocholo, for the hard work and quick response by you and those who helped.


***
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: polonus on May 02, 2012, 06:54:17 PM
Hi chocholo,

That meant some struggling with the back-up "table". Thanks for bringing it back up again,

polonus
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: MikeBCda on May 02, 2012, 08:26:10 PM
Many thanks from me too, and welcome back.  Still getting your error message yesterday was surprising, since repairs don't usually take that long, but we certainly appreciate the detailed explanation.
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: jadinolf on May 02, 2012, 08:40:27 PM
Thanks Chocholo.

Having my two favorite forums down was not a pleasing experience for me.

DSL Reports has been down for over two weeks. We have gotten a promise that it will be back up today. Fingers crossed.
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: Coolmario88 on May 02, 2012, 09:22:34 PM
Thanks for letting us know! :)  I was worried that i was the only one seeing it.  ???
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: Bluesman on May 02, 2012, 09:25:10 PM
Thanks for the info chocholo!  :D

But it was a trauma and exhausting to not be able to check the forum when it's was down...  ;)

But now I'm relaxed as the forum is working! :)

Keep up the good work!
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: giogio on May 02, 2012, 10:40:34 PM
Happy to see again the forum,
Thank's for restoring the forum chocholo!  :)
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: !Donovan on May 02, 2012, 11:44:49 PM
Glad we can trust someone that maintains the forums as theirself. :)


For an unsuspected crash, 2 days was fast! ;)
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: HDW38 on May 02, 2012, 11:55:27 PM
1. Glad we can trust someone that maintains the forums as theirself. :)


2. For an unsuspected crash, 2 days was fast! ;)
Hi!

1: Excepted.  :)
2: What happened really? Is it secret?  ;)  :-X

Greetings from

HDW38
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: TerraX on May 03, 2012, 12:02:06 AM

What happened really? Is it secret?  ;)  :-X

Greetings from

HDW38
Only for you... :-*
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=97902.0

Best regards
TerraX

Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: DavidR on May 03, 2012, 12:05:33 AM
<snip>
2: What happened really? Is it secret?  ;)  :-X
<snip>
You have read the first post haven't you ???

Quote from: chocholo
On Monday morning, the forum server crashed during backup, and it unfortunately somehow corrupted the mapped iscsi volume with the forum data (we are investigating with the vendor how that could happen). What was worse, the backup iscsi volume also was mapped to the forum server and corrupted. So, because of this, we didn't have a fresh (few hours old) backup to restore. We had only a backup a few weeks old.
Title: Re: Recent forum.avast.com problems
Post by: Dwarden on May 09, 2012, 06:00:27 AM
thanks for the explaining and good job on the restoration :)