UKMIX Maintenance

[Wayne]

We will be making changes to the software tomorrow, installing the non-phar version of vBulletin to hopefully put an end to the phar fatal errors.

There shouldn't be any downtime, but I'll update via our social media if that situation changes.

[zaryhak]

site was slow but now its speed is good

[LastDreamer]

I need more than this? Works fine for me.

Many retro topics in 1950-1980s have the same wrong link
https : //www.ukmix.org/#
So it's impossible to watch them.

[Wayne]

I have temporarily increased the number of topics per page to 250 - this will result in a very slight lag when you click on a forum.

It will be reversed back to 50 per page later.

[Wayne]

We will be making changes to the software tomorrow, installing the non-phar version of vBulletin to hopefully put an end to the phar fatal errors.

There shouldn't be any downtime, but I'll update via our social media if that situation changes.

This has now been completed.

[Tansike]

btw have to say something positive, for the past two years or so the page was always down starting at 6am until 7am (plus minus, not always the same time) but for the past week, the page has been working during that time as well. That's cool!

[Wayne]

btw have to say something positive, for the past two years or so the page was always down starting at 6am until 7am (plus minus, not always the same time) but for the past week, the page has been working during that time as well. That's cool!

Yes, that's because the backup script was previously set to run at 5:15am GMT each morning (and it could sometimes take up to 2 hours to fully execute). On our old VPS, we were short on memory and space, and the database backup script therefore had a compression command (i.e. compress the file to save on space) but this was intensive and took the site down. Now, we have the resources to cope - we don't need to worry about space, so the backup script runs without the command and the site invariably is able to cope with it. Which is obviously great for user experience!

Also, the time has changed - the script now runs about 1am GMT.

[Blondini]

^ and it comes back on around 1:15 or earlier - in time for my Thursday/Friday iTunes updates.

[Wayne]

UKMIX should not be loading slowly for anyone - our move to a new server and the subsequent database work has fixed most of our problems.

Therefore, if you're experiencing any issues, it's important that you let me know - it's important that you distinguish between a genuine issue or glitch, and an improvement request (e.g. topics taking a long time to load is a genuine issue).

Please post any issues in here or the Helpdesk topic if you have them. Further, if you are experiencing issues with page loading times (no topic should take more than 1 second to load - and even then, 1 second loading times should be by exception as that's quite long), please check our FAQ entry here:

https://www.ukmix.org/help#community..._loading_times

That will explain how to fix the issue of slow loading topics.

[Wayne]

Today’s issue was not related to previous longstanding issues - it was an issue relating to many connections to the database. The number of permitted connections has been increased, hopefully the issue doesn’t occur again.

[bm08]

Today’s issue was not related to previous longstanding issues - it was an issue relating to many connections to the database. The number of permitted connections has been increased, hopefully the issue doesn’t occur again.

What does this mean? Sorry if it's too technical lol

Is it that too many people tried to visit the site at once?

[Wayne]

What does this mean? Sorry if it's too technical lol

Is it that too many people tried to visit the site at once?

it basically means that yes, in simple terms.

[Blondini]

What happened today? Was down all afternoon.

[Wayne]

What happened today? Was down all afternoon.

Sorry for the delay in responding, the site was offline for a few hours because one of the scheduled tasks to clear the cache had crashed - had to manually run the task and that fixed the issue.

I can't get to these issues as quickly as I'd like when I'm working, otherwise would've picked it up in a more timely manner.

[Blondini]

Sorry for the delay in responding, the site was offline for a few hours because one of the scheduled tasks to clear the cache had crashed - had to manually run the task and that fixed the issue.

I can't get to these issues as quickly as I'd like when I'm working, otherwise would've picked it up in a more timely manner.

Thanks for the explanation. Wasn't too bad an issue and thanks for getting it back by 5.

[Wayne]

The backup script appeared to crash, so I’ve just rebooted the server. I woke up randomly, almost like it was meant to be.

[Wayne]

The backup script appeared to crash, so I’ve just rebooted the server. I woke up randomly, almost like it was meant to be.

Same again.

[Wayne]

We are having a couple of issues today, the server is being a bit of a brat - I’m keeping an eye on it.

I’ve had to manually reboot it twice now, sorry for any brief but intermittent downtime.

[Blondini]

Is the site always going to be down between 1am and some time in the morning like it has been for the past week?
Really scuppered my iTunes albums updates on Thursday/Friday now.

[Wayne]

Is the site always going to be down between 1am and some time in the morning like it has been for the past week?
Really scuppered my iTunes albums updates on Thursday/Friday now.

How long is it down for?

It was down for a couple of hours this morning as I had to bring it back online when I woke up but I’ve had no other downtime notifications all week?

The database backup script runs at 1am but it shouldn’t take the server down for more than a few mins, at most (except on the odd occasion like today).

[InFamous]

How long is it down for?

It was down for a couple of hours this morning as I had to bring it back online when I woke up but I’ve had no other downtime notifications all week?

The database backup script runs at 1am but it shouldn’t take the server down for more than a few mins, at most (except on the odd occasion like today).

It was down for me for hours last night from 1. I dont think it came back up before i went to bed at like 5 am.

You did say that you woke up at least twice recently to find the site down and having to reset the server or sth.

[Wayne]

It was down for me for hours last night from 1. I dont think it came back up before i went to bed at like 5 am.

You did say that you woke up at least twice recently to find the site down and having to reset the server or sth.

Yes, and on both of those occasions, I had notifications telling me that the site was down - I haven’t had any of those this week except for the one I received in the early hours this morning.

So if you’re telling me that the site is offline, and I’m not getting the notifications, then there’s a glitch somewhere (or it’s going down but coming back reasonably quickly).

[InFamous]

Yes, and on both of those occasions, I had notifications telling me that the site was down - I haven’t had any of those this week except for the one I received in the early hours this morning.

So if you’re telling me that the site is offline, and I’m not getting the notifications, then there’s a glitch somewhere (or it’s going down but coming back reasonably quickly).

Well i mean it didnt come back quicly last night. I mean im not just making it up. Like I said it was still down when i went to bed.

My last post last night was at 23:51 and I checked back a few times and before i went to bed and it was still down.

But i guess you got a notification for that. I cant remember the other nights this week tbh.

[Blondini]

How long is it down for?

It was down for a couple of hours this morning as I had to bring it back online when I woke up but I’ve had no other downtime notifications all week?

The database backup script runs at 1am but it shouldn’t take the server down for more than a few mins, at most (except on the odd occasion like today).

It's down every night after about 1am til at least 3 am - usually til 5. Since i tried to post last Friday/Saturday but couldn't. Every time i checked again on a night it was down at that time. Not like the 20 minutes or so that it used to be but several hours. Last night was just another night of it.

You will notice that Kanga didn't post his New Release Schedule till about 10:30 when he normally posts it between 1 and 4 am.

[Blondini]

It seems to be back to the old 20 minutes downtime now