Server is too busy

Several times today I have been unable to search the forums because of a vBulletin message that the server is too busy. Was this a planned outage? Is there somewhere that is normally accessible otherwise where such known outages (assuming it was known) can be posted so those who face such messages have an idea of a planned resolution time?

The powers that be are aware of the problem. No indication of when it will be resolved, however as of the time of this post, it seems normal again. I'm not sure if it's because it's fixed or if demand went back to normal.

RussellHltn wrote:I'm not sure if it's because it's fixed or if demand went back to normal.

My suspicion is the latter. Remember that the big CUBS changeover messages got sent to all of the United States units this weekend. I was trying to get on to maybe post the messages here. I'd bet that there were a lot of people at least trying to see what was going on.

The LDSTech database server is used for several functions beside just the forums. It was heavily utilized yesterday. It was a rare occurrence that likely won't happen again for quite a while.

Well the rare occurrence (sp?) appeared to happen yesterday as well. Whatever is taking down the tech server on a Sunday needs to be resolved. If processes share servers, perhaps it is time to reallocate server space. If there are random memory leaks or apps that are memory-hogging, perhaps they need a dedicated server. Whatever it is, having LDSTech down on Sunday when most of us are doing the work at Church and dealing with the Q&A is not the best day to have this forum down!

One thing that is difficult with the outages is that on
Sunday I want to go back to the Forum or Wiki to
confirm how to do something, and it is gone.

Is there any way that data-dumps, html-local copies,
or other periodic "snapshots" can be provided for
either the forum or the wiki so an offline version will
be available during these outages. I know that Wikipedia
offers huge datafiles so you can run a local version, is
there any chance a Clerkipedia datafile be provided ?

- Atticus

atticusewig wrote:One thing that is difficult with the outages is that on
Sunday I want to go back to the Forum or Wiki to
confirm how to do something, and it is gone.

Is there any way that data-dumps, html-local copies,
or other periodic "snapshots" can be provided for
either the forum or the wiki so an offline version will
be available during these outages. I know that Wikipedia
offers huge datafiles so you can run a local version, is
there any chance a Clerkipedia datafile be provided ?

- Atticus

I don't know if it's possible, but this would be a great resource. As of now, we don't have internet access in my building, so a way to access the wiki (and forum for search only) without going home would be a real blessing. I could put it on a flash drive or even my personal laptop.

Great idea!

As a recent new member of the forum I have been assisted greatly by the access to timely and for the most part accurate info here. However, this so called rare occurrence of "server too busy" events doesn't seem all that rare.

I tried about 30 times to get on during the 24 hours starting last Saturday evening and never succeeded. There have been at least 5-6 other times in the past few weeks I couldn't access the forum for the same reason. From my limited point of view it seems the access restriction doesn't really fall in the ignorable category.

Any chance this is getting worked on? I hate to complain but its a bit frustrating to have such a great info resource available, only not to be available.

ckmcdonald wrote:Any chance this is getting worked on? I hate to complain but its a bit frustrating to have such a great info resource available, only not to be available.

As stated previously, the server(s) that hosts the forums also hosts other services. I believe those other services include database support for the LDS Tools app (and/or Gospel Library app) for the iPhone, Android, and other mobile platforms. Many people have chosen to refresh the data in those apps on Sunday. (Why would anyone want a fresh copy of the ward directory on Sunday? ) The result is that the server is overwhelmed, and the forums are temporarily not accessible (and the data refresh on the mobile apps doesn't work well either, if at all) until the demand subsides.

While I have no authority to speak in an official capacity, I believe the powers that can do something about it are aware of the issue and are working on it. But adding server equipment and capacity, or switching services to different hardware generally isn't something that can happen quickly. I would expect the issue to persist through several more weeks if not months while capacity is added (or shifted) to meet this unexpected demand.

It's been unavailable at least 3/4 of the times I've tried to access it lately (past month?), and not just on Sunday. I guess Tuesday and Wednesday nights are probably busy too. I'll try on other days. But I just thought I'd add my input here in case they are listening.

I get the "Server is not available" error and am redirected to outofservice.lds.org frequently (at least twice a week) rather than the too busy message.
I must be hitting a maintenance window when I try (generally after 11PM Eastern) because it seems to happen fairly frequently.

Aaron Z

aczlan wrote:I get the "Server is not available" error and am redirected to outofservice.lds.org frequently (at least twice a week) rather than the too busy message.

I must be hitting a maintenance window when I try (generally after 11PM Eastern) because it seems to happen fairly frequently.

Almost every evening last week and so far this week, I have hit the database error page, then the server is not available page, followed by the closed for maintenance page. I am usually out of business shortly after 8:00 pm Mountain Time.

There appear to be some severe load balancing problems that have not yet been solved. I do not worry too much about it, because I have other things to do that I enjoy more.

Tom Welch informed me just the other day that the Church has been working on some new servers to help with the heavier loads that are now becoming commonplace for LDSTech, its sites, and web services.

mkmurray wrote:Tom Welch informed me just the other day that the Church has been working on some new servers to help with the heavier loads that are now becoming commonplace for LDSTech, its sites, and web services.

Good to know, since I am now starting to get the closed for maintenance come back at midnight slide on my lunch hour. [grin]