Admin Group
Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078
| Posted: 12:50pm 25 Jun 2019 |
The forums old access database is not healthy. I've removed the search functions from the forum unitl I get a chance to look at the database in a couple of days.
Glenn
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ
Guru
Joined: 07/10/2011
Location: AustraliaPosts: 1329
| Posted: 01:20pm 25 Jun 2019 |
Thanks for the notification Glenn, I wondered why I couldn't get in a couple of hours ago.
Greg
Admin Group
Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078
| Posted: 10:28am 28 Jun 2019 |
Yep, definitely got problems.
Big tip, before you click save on a post, copy it to Notepad, just in case the forum crashes and loosed your post.
Glenn
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ
Guru
Joined: 03/01/2018
Location: AustraliaPosts: 1062
| Posted: 10:56am 28 Jun 2019 |
Yep, had a reply saved for most of the day waiting for a chance to post successfully.
ChopperP
Admin Group
Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078
| Posted: 12:02am 29 Jun 2019 |
Good plan Chopper.
I've disabled the forums email functions, so for now no one will be getting email notifications of new posts.
I'll be going in and cleaning up the database. Lot of members signed up and never posted anything, so I'll clean those up. A lot of inactive members have the email notifications enabled for various topics, which means every time someone posts a post, the forum needs to send out hundreds of emails. So I'll reset everyone's email notifications to off, then you can go in and enable them as you like.
The forums own search function is still disabled for now. The forum uses a Access database, and the posts are stored in a field type called Memo. Memo fields are great for storing a lot of data, but bloody slow when it comes to searching. As there are now over 137,000 posts, that's a lot of slow memo fields to process every time someone does a search.
Glenn
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ
Admin Group
Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078
| Posted: 02:37am 29 Jun 2019 |
I've reset everyone's email notifications. There were over 24,900 notifications set up, so clearing those will mean the server isn't wasting resources sending emails to members who no longer visit the forum.
Email notifications is back online, but you will need to click the "Watch this topic..." link to set up your own notifications again.
See if this helps the forum.
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ
Admin Group
Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078
| Posted: 07:51am 05 Jul 2019 |
Yes, the database is on its last legs.
Working on a fix. If there are any MS Access guru's out there I could use some help to keep this database kicking for a couple more weeks until I port it to MySQL. Currently to keep it alive I need to stop the IIS process to release the database, then to a compact and repair on the database, and fire the IIS back up.
Glenn
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ
Guru
Joined: 18/10/2016
Location: AustraliaPosts: 847
| Posted: 01:38am 06 Jul 2019 |
Hi Glenn,
I don't have any expertise to offer but if I may add my gratitude and thanks to others' you have have all that I can give.
Please don't fret - we all know how you are trying and are happy to be patient.
Many regards,
Andrew
Guru
Joined: 22/02/2006
Location: AustraliaPosts: 1351
| Posted: 05:37am 19 Jul 2019 |
Over the last few days when I've clicked on my bookmark link to this forum I got the dreaded 404 page everytime I clicked on it. Today I did a google search and found the forum was still here and that link worked. So I'm not sure if this is firefox playing with my computer or the site actually was down.
Cheers Bryan
Admin Group
Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078
| Posted: 06:10am 19 Jul 2019 |
The site was probably taken down for a while. When the database starts to time out, I shut down the site and leave it off for a hour or so, until all the search engine persistent connections drop put. While its off line I do a compact and repair on the database.
Until the new forum code is in place there is nothing I can do to avoid these down times.
Glenn
In an attempt to give a few more days life to the failing database, I've blocked access to the forum for everyone except members. This may help.
I've also totally blocked France, there is a search engine there hammering the site.
Work on the new forum is progressing. End of the weekend it should be usable.
Glenn
Seams I can edit a post, but not add a new one. Sick little database.
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ