Server Hardware Fault
- Thread starter Dragoneer
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No one likes your site being down, that's why they're here. You also gotta keep in mind that business is done through your site, mostly via the note system. If FA is down, then so is the note system. This means that business arrangements has to manage, through extremely limited contact, to find a way to continue. Most people have two emails, one for their personal email, one for paypal emails. Having said that, it's possible that if I go and commission an artist and send money to their paypal account, I won't be able to get a hold of them until the site is back up.
Not only that, but certain hardware issues reared its ugly head just a couple weeks ago. One would think that you guys would have been thorough enough to make sure everything was ok. Having said that, if this is an entirely new hardware related issue, then I could understand...but given how long it had been since the last hardware issue, I strongly doubt that to be the case.
I'm not here to be negative, or even positive. I'm saying it how it is, if a bit too strongly. Sorry you don't see it that way.
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pikachu_electricmouse
Member
Daym! Over $1000 more raised on amazon last night since I donated myself. Hopefully this means we get the good server. 
Ceceil Felias
Never have I seen fail so huge
In which case the "Pi shouldn't get away with being able to not give a fuck" factor is very apparent.
Lt_Havoc
SPADS Commander
So, can anyone at least tell me, what is borken? Hardware failure can mean everything, from broken HDS, to kaputt CPUs, to exploded power supplies etc. So, what IS broken and why cant it be simply changed? I mean, I said eariler that you people made mantaince just shortly after the whole server was moved to another location and it was working.
So, what happend? Overlooked the posasible malfunction of certain hardware? Its just hard to belive that thing get broken from one moment to another without any sign of the forbodding malfunction.
Again, how much will a new server cost anyway? 7000 Dollar or more? And what brand will you guys get?
I´m just puzzeld that it was happeing now, after all the other faliures the site had in the last months. Maybe that was the indication that something might go wrong soon?
As I said, I expect the site to be offline for at least, 4 weeks if not longer. Bulding a server is a time consuming process and first you need the parts, so delivery time must be caluclated too and then we first need the cash and that will also take some time until the amount of cash is there.
Cant the time be used to get Ferrox done so it can be installed and used with the new server?
So, what happend? Overlooked the posasible malfunction of certain hardware? Its just hard to belive that thing get broken from one moment to another without any sign of the forbodding malfunction.
Again, how much will a new server cost anyway? 7000 Dollar or more? And what brand will you guys get?
I´m just puzzeld that it was happeing now, after all the other faliures the site had in the last months. Maybe that was the indication that something might go wrong soon?
As I said, I expect the site to be offline for at least, 4 weeks if not longer. Bulding a server is a time consuming process and first you need the parts, so delivery time must be caluclated too and then we first need the cash and that will also take some time until the amount of cash is there.
Cant the time be used to get Ferrox done so it can be installed and used with the new server?
What? Ferrox development is going to go at the same speed regardless of whether or not the site is up.
Pi
Member
Eh, people argued me into taking the database down. I might strip the data out for interoperability purposes, but the code is staying up.
Veritas
New Member
Far as I know the problem was exactly that they couldn't tell WHAT the problem was, the difficulty being a sporadic one.
Anyway...
Here's the devil's deal about paying for the service - either on a mandatory or a donation basis:
Whatever the reasons behind it, FurAffinity has a woeful reliability record. Yes, it's a busy site, but so is Slashdot... and, at least as significantly, a number of the problems have seemed to be stuff that just plain shouldn't happen, or at least shouldn't last nearly as long(more than twelve hours to get in touch with the colo?!).
If I could be assured that sinking money into it would help with the reliability problems, I might consider seeing what I can scrounge up(which would not be much, mind, but the usual argument about "everybody chip in $1" still holds).
Given how many times we've been told that such-and-such change or upgrade is the end of FA downtimes... this would be a very hard assurance to believe.
Anyway...
Here's the devil's deal about paying for the service - either on a mandatory or a donation basis:
Whatever the reasons behind it, FurAffinity has a woeful reliability record. Yes, it's a busy site, but so is Slashdot... and, at least as significantly, a number of the problems have seemed to be stuff that just plain shouldn't happen, or at least shouldn't last nearly as long(more than twelve hours to get in touch with the colo?!).
If I could be assured that sinking money into it would help with the reliability problems, I might consider seeing what I can scrounge up(which would not be much, mind, but the usual argument about "everybody chip in $1" still holds).
Given how many times we've been told that such-and-such change or upgrade is the end of FA downtimes... this would be a very hard assurance to believe.
Do you think we don't know that?
I personally have business arrangements on the site too... before I am an admin I am a user, and I am in the same boat as EVERYONE. We are WELL AWARE of all the issues regarding FA's downtime because it effects us ALL exactly in the same way it effects the users. So by "Telling" us these "Problems" you are being completely redundant and not helpful in the least. We KNOW about the personal issues people have with the site being down.
You know what they say about assuming things? It makes an "ass" out of "u" and "me"
As far as "New hardware issue" Yes it is NEW hence the reason we didn't know Diddly squat about it till it hit us.
Hard drives fail for no reason, Power supplies Short out for no reason, Things happen spontaneously and For the life of us we could have checked this yesterday before the site would have gone off and we STILL wouldn't have had any warning. You are asking us to be able to "Tell" what problems are going to happen before they do, and I am sorry, but thats impossible.
again Logic is key here. Before jumping down our throats for things out of our control think a little first.
Hardware issues happen, but not without warning ( save for some extreme physical impact or surge ). Parts will either start to over heat, click, not produce enough watts/amps, or whatever. Stuff like this is just plain hard to miss. If a hard drive starts to go out, it will start to hang with the seek, the spindles will click, then resume before going kaput. In the case of overheating, the parts will initially shut down before frying. Powersupplies will either start to push out more watts/amps before blowing up OR will start to produce less and less watts/amps, causing instability in the system before simply dying out.
These things, if paid attention to and cared for, is easy to avoid. It's just that simple
Edit:
Sorry but no. Anyone with basic knowledge of computer hardware will know this. Saying "something breaks without reason" is merely shifting the blame. If I told a mechanic that my car's engine blew up or my transmission fell out for no good reason and without warning, they would laugh.
See the body above my quoting you
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Pi
Member
If you are who I think you are you should know this answer already. If not, yhbt yhl hand.
Donryu
Suffers from mentally AWESOME
After lightly perusing the pages I just have a little input here. I'm sure it will be lightly passed over or deemed irrelevent but I figured it was important.
As per what I have seen there seem to be quite a bit of complaints directed toward the people running the site. "Why can't they work faster!?"
"Help me!"
While the site isn't run by everyone, it does however belong to everyone who is involved in the site. Outtages are to be expected when you have really just a small group of people doing this. This isn't a multimillion dollar corporation in which they have the time and money in order to do this. Most of these people are doing this out of the free time of their day in order to make this site work.
I don't wish to sound like some certain president, but since it does belong to you, why not take ownership. Instead of insisting that the moderators and technicians move their butts, how about you ask instead "What can I do?"
This question will not only get an answer but will surely speed up this process of repair. They have also in fact stated what they need. Donations! Every little bit counts, so why not contribute? you know there's a lot of people on this site. One dollar from every user would surely be more than enough.
Instead of complaining about the problem, be part of the solution.
As per what I have seen there seem to be quite a bit of complaints directed toward the people running the site. "Why can't they work faster!?"
"Help me!"
While the site isn't run by everyone, it does however belong to everyone who is involved in the site. Outtages are to be expected when you have really just a small group of people doing this. This isn't a multimillion dollar corporation in which they have the time and money in order to do this. Most of these people are doing this out of the free time of their day in order to make this site work.
I don't wish to sound like some certain president, but since it does belong to you, why not take ownership. Instead of insisting that the moderators and technicians move their butts, how about you ask instead "What can I do?"
This question will not only get an answer but will surely speed up this process of repair. They have also in fact stated what they need. Donations! Every little bit counts, so why not contribute? you know there's a lot of people on this site. One dollar from every user would surely be more than enough.
Instead of complaining about the problem, be part of the solution.
Firehazard
I can fix it!
Another point: I would make sure there's some kind of long-term guarantee on any server you buy, even if you have to pay extra for it. From the kind of luck you guys seem to have with hardware, it sounds like it would be worth the extra dough. It sure would have been worth it last time.
Refresh my memory: What all hardware do you guys have right now, when did you get it, and what is/was it used for?
Refresh my memory: What all hardware do you guys have right now, when did you get it, and what is/was it used for?
gliengul
Member
It is not unusual for certain parts of a computer to go without a detectable warning. Harddrives click, Power supplies get a subtle dissonant hum and boot sequences start to have strange pauses in odd parts of the BIOS initialization, but just as often the chipset will decide it doesn't want to initialize or a drive just won't spin-up.
The staff cannot reasonably be expected to monitor the microscopic subtleties of hardware that is many miles from their homes and under the care of colo techs.
The very same colo techs that can hear a thousand little 60mm fans spinning in unison and little else aside from their boss cranking at them for fussing over some server too much.
To put it in short, many computer components on a server with little or no on-site supervision can blow without giving any sort of detectable warning and they do so with a dependable enough frequency that most server parts are marked with a MTBF(Mean time Between Failures) value.
The only real failing in the FA community has been a lack of drive to put up enough funds so that there can be some amount of redundancy in the site's hardware to allow for fault-tolerance.
That being said I'll be making a much-belated donation come payday.
you have been trolled you have lost have a nice day
Given how much more often FA's server has had a "Hardware Fault" ( and the frequency between said faults ) than other large communities and the servers they're being hosted on, it's a much bigger issue than them not being able to routinely check the condition of the server.
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icehawk
Member
That sort of thing can get expensive very quickly. Configuring the cheapest dell server possible adding anything beyond their basic next-day support can cost anywhere from $149 to $899.
Ceceil Felias
Never have I seen fail so huge
drpepperfiend
New Member
Listen... i'm not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to software, though I'd put myself next to the rake and shovel. On the flipside I've built multiple computers from parts, multiple simple robots from scratch, and I made my friend's idea for hardware that didn't exist real by SOLDERING a shitton of stuff. If you point and tell me where I can solder damn near anything to damn near anything else without frying it.
Still. I think the BEST and most probable solution is to donate $$. i just got my very first paycheck, and I'm opening an account today, but it's gonna take time for me to set up paypal having done it only once before and with issues. Do I have to do that thing with paypal where they give me, like, 8 cents and 3 cents and I tell them how much? I don't trust bank computers to help me so soon... The money's coming, just give me a week.
Arshes Nei
Masticates in Public
High School debates continue after Post #374
A harddrive is much different from a circuit problem. And we are working to fix this the PROPER way right now.
Ahh shit, it was a trap.
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