DU had unexpected downtime this afternoon (March 6)

[Skinner]

This discussion thread was locked by Skinner (a host of the Announcements group).

The Democratic Underground website had unexpected downtime this afternoon from approximately 4:30PM to 5:30PM ET. This downtime was an unintended consequence of a minor configuration change we made to our database server earlier today. This configuration change caused us to run out of hard disk space for some of our server logs, which in turn caused the site to crash. The problem has now been fixed.

The site has not been compromised in any way. We were not hacked. No data was lost.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Skinner
DU Administrator

[krispos42]

1. Ah, that's what happened.

I thought maybe the firewall at work got updated.

Carry on.

[wcmagumba]

2. Thanks! nt

[littlemissmartypants]

3. ♡ Thanks.

[herding cats]

4. Glad to know all is well again in DU land.

Sorry about the hassle you guys had to deal with.

[malaise]

5. Thank you guys

We did panic

[winstars]

13. Ditto on the panic, we are living in a strange time. Thanks Skinner!

[Hortensis]

6. Glad to hear you're fine and not going through THAT again.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. Thank you, Skinner! I am relieved we weren't hacked.

And thanks too for the explanation of what happened.

We addicts need our DU fix!

[Laffy Kat]

8. Whew! nt

[sheshe2]

9. Phew!

Thank you all. I was

[Aristus]

10. Thank you Skinner, EarlG and elad!

You guys rock! Thanks for getting us up and running again.

[csziggy]

11. OOPS! nt

[spanone]

12. the old 'minor configuration' excuse....sure, sure....

Great News!!!!!

[Maeve]

14. Appreciate the info!

Only a little scared for that hour

[Rhiannon12866]

15. Thanks so much for the explanation!

Whew!

[LeftInTX]

16. I get those error messages every so often at other sites

I'm glad that it was corrected quickly.

[yuiyoshida]

17. okay.. phew and I thought it was something worse..

I kept trying to log on and then checked to see if anyone else logged on. The weird thing was, i went to this website: "IS IT DOWN.COM" AND it kept telling me the website was up. I guess they got it wrong too. Good to see everyone back

and thanks again @ismnotwasm

[mountain grammy]

18. Thanks..

appreciate the quick fix.

[3catwoman3]

19. Big sigh of relief here.

I was afraid we had been hacked again. DU is a sanity lifeline.

[sagetea]

20. Thank God! (or whomever...looking at you, Skinner and EarlG.)

I seriously thought the thought police were shutting me down....whew, though!!! I will continue my mean thoughts on flaccid #45!

sage

Oh and ps...

tell EarlG I'm sorry for my lengthy life stories in the emails I sent, please!

[MrScorpio]

21. Cool

[greatauntoftriplets]

22. Relieved to hear it was a relative simple problem.

I was afraid it was a repeat of November 8, a day which will live in infamy for multiple reasons. h/t to FDR.

[DinahMoeHum]

23. Thanks for the info. Thought it was another hack job.

n/t

[BumRushDaShow]

24. Thank goodness

I was thinking it was a maintenance window that I missed an announcement for!

[democrank]

25. Thanks for all you do, Skinner.

Onward and upward!

[lamp_shade]

26. Whew!

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

27. Thanks for letting us know :) n/t

[LuckyLib]

28. Thanks! My tolerance for the dismal websites that are out there is zero.

DU has spoiled us for everything else!

[obliviously]

29. хорошая сделка

NT.

[liberal N proud]

30. I was afraid it was the Russians or their operatives in the White House

Glad it wasn't.

[Bear Creek]

41. Same Here

Just read an article today about russians targeting liberal site then blackmailing. Over what not sure.

[Ken Burch]

31. Thanks for the heads-up.

Wasn't on the board when it happened, but good to know.

[japple]

32. Thank fucking god. I was out all afternoon, and when I tried to connect at 5:15,

I got an error message. This really sent me into a panic. Bless the DU managers for keeping us up and running.

[Alice11111]

33. Thank you for all of your work!

You make the world better.

[furtheradu]

34. Golly! Thanks Skinner & Team!

I just signed up last night with new username.
#1) thought I broke the DU
&/or
#2) another hack by creeps
'bout triggered an anxiety attack !
So relieved DU is back. .& I am, too!

[GP6971]

45. Were you a previous

member that couldn't get back in after the hack?

[furtheradu]

53. Not exactly

I was a member in the early DU days, * war days. I doubt I would have survived, without DU. I rarely posted, but read, learned, laughed & healed with DU.
Since Nov 8th, been dealing with the similar, overwhelming depression, knew it was time for DU Therapy again. That hack was hurtful..! to SO many.
After DU ~finally! ~ came back,
I tried to get back with my old username, emailed admins a few times, & no luck. Finally figured out it was a sign, time to start again, with a new handle.

[GP6971]

58. Thanks and Welcome Back!!

There have been many changes since you were last here...all for the good IMO.

[Judi Lynn]

35. Glad hacking wasn't part of this! Thanks. n/t

[lpbk2713]

36. It's good to know there was an attributable cause.

And it's good on you guys that you got the site back in short order.

[kentuck]

37. Thanks for that info, Skinner!

[byronius]

38. GOD EMPEROR, after all, is likely going to die in jail. Bigger fish to fry and all that.

[nolabear]

39. It's hard not to freak out these days! Welcome back everybody!

[Mr. Ected]

40. I was certain the shoe had dropped

And I wouldn't be among the first to know.

DU is my lifelink.

Thanks for all you do Mr. Skinner.

[Hoyt]

42. Thanks, thought Trump/Bannon raided the place. Appreciate your efforts.

[alfredo]

43. Shit happens. Glad you're back.

[defacto7]

44. Glad all is well...

Lookng forward to DU going https one of these days in any case.

[madokie]

46. I'm sure this explains

somewhat the slow as molasses that the site was running at for me early this morning.

Thanks for the update

Luckily for me I napped through the whole thing

[VOX]

47. Thanks, Skinner.

As always.

[Yavin4]

48. Have you considered using a NoSQL database for the logs?

Disregard if you have done so.

[47of74]

49. Thank you for all you do.

[warmfeet]

50. Thank you.

Thank you.

[xor]

51. Why are minors making configuration changes anyway?

Seems like a labor law violation.

[Orrex]

52. Not that kind of minor, you fool.

Miners. They dug the changes out from beneath 800 feet of bedrock. Have a little respect!

[xor]

56. Ohhhhh, now I get it. Makes more sense now.

[Kolesar]

54. I will relay this information to Vladimir ... eom ... da

[sabbat hunter]

55. Always expect the unexpected

when making server changes. That is my motto.

[hibbing]

57. Glad you're back....whew

[Mountain Mule]

59. Thanks for all your hard work!

To keep this place going.

[ohheckyeah]

60. Thanks for the explanation.n/t

[magicarpet]

61. THX Skinner and back up team.

Saw.... Felt.... Experienced the DU web hiccup today. Was praying some fascist did not cause another two week crash. THX for being here and up an running so we can bring failure and change the course of the tsunami of team DT's decimation of democracy - and preserve same for future generations.

[tavernier]

62. When I was in kindergarten in the '50's

I set off the fire alarm at school, encouraged by an upperclassman second grader. Since then I've always felt that somehow I have been responsible for unintentional accidents.

Thank you for exonerating me on this one.

[turbinetree]

63. Great to know...........

Thank you

[CBHagman]

64. You were back up quickly, but it's still good to have clarification.

I had visions of a repeat of the November experience, especially given how intensely the news cycle has been churning. All bets seemed to be off! But I'm glad all is well.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

65. Nice work getting the site back up so quickly!

[BlueMTexpat]

66. Thanks to you all

for being there and ding what you do! Being bereft of DU on Election Night was - almost - as bad as "losing" the election.

Since then, of course, losing the election has proven catastrophic. But thank heavens that DU is still here!

[Lady Freedom Returns]

67. Don't scare me like that!

I was for sure it was Election night all over again.

[raven mad]

68. Not hacked is good news.

Inconvenience is unremarkable - it happens. Not hacked is better!

The work you do is so necessary. Thank you.

[niyad]

69. glad it was not anything serious.

[MADem]

70. Given that wikileaks just released some stuff that likely Snowden gave to Russia,

that IS good news.....

Do be vigilant, though. I imagine you saw this:


http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/03/07/world/politics-diplomacy-world/russian-hackers-target-u-s-liberal-groups-bid-get-hush-money/#.WL72Bfnys2w

[NamesDave]

71. Russia

is oj the run niw

[xeodtech]

72. Damn SQL Log files

I run a small IT outfit out of Syracuse NY and have a good managed services platform. If you need a few servers (which I am sure you have many of and I am blowing in the wind here) monitored every month I would be happy to volunteer some time...