Why the site went down
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 3:07 pmHello!
If you're reading this thread, welcome back. As nearly everyone noticed we've had some days of downtime which are loosely related to the server change that was done last weekend.
Quick explanation:
It was my fault and I didn't realise because it took a few days for the problem to hit me, and then another day or so for the fix to go through. Everything is okay now
Long, boring detailed explanation:
Interlopers has been on three different dedicated servers, the latest change last weekend being the third. When we moved onto the first server I updated the domain nameservers to point that server and all was well with world.
When we moved to the second server 2 years ago, it also came with new nameservers. Instead of updating the domains my host told me they could simply forward the old nameservers to the new ones and once again all was well with the world
When we moved to the new server at the weekend it too came with it's own nameservers but until we were ready to launch, my host set them as the current server at that time, so the sites continued to work. After a day or so they emailed me and said they were changing to the ones that came with the new server, and I agreed without a thought, neglecting the vital issue with the interlopers domain, there would now be nowhere for the nameservers to forward to because the ridiculous forwarding chain had broken.
People started to report to me on Monday that the site was inaccessible and I thought that they had to wait for their DNS records to update and they would get access. What had actually happened was these people had updated first and couldn't see the site, whereas the problem didn't hit me till Tuesday and that's when the realisation of what I'd overlooked kicked in.
From there I got in to the domain, changed everything to be correct and then had to wait another day.
Finally I can access the site again, it was mostly my fault. Very sorry!
It was worth it, honest.
If you're reading this thread, welcome back. As nearly everyone noticed we've had some days of downtime which are loosely related to the server change that was done last weekend.
Quick explanation:
It was my fault and I didn't realise because it took a few days for the problem to hit me, and then another day or so for the fix to go through. Everything is okay now
Long, boring detailed explanation:
Interlopers has been on three different dedicated servers, the latest change last weekend being the third. When we moved onto the first server I updated the domain nameservers to point that server and all was well with world.
When we moved to the second server 2 years ago, it also came with new nameservers. Instead of updating the domains my host told me they could simply forward the old nameservers to the new ones and once again all was well with the world
When we moved to the new server at the weekend it too came with it's own nameservers but until we were ready to launch, my host set them as the current server at that time, so the sites continued to work. After a day or so they emailed me and said they were changing to the ones that came with the new server, and I agreed without a thought, neglecting the vital issue with the interlopers domain, there would now be nowhere for the nameservers to forward to because the ridiculous forwarding chain had broken.
People started to report to me on Monday that the site was inaccessible and I thought that they had to wait for their DNS records to update and they would get access. What had actually happened was these people had updated first and couldn't see the site, whereas the problem didn't hit me till Tuesday and that's when the realisation of what I'd overlooked kicked in.
From there I got in to the domain, changed everything to be correct and then had to wait another day.
Finally I can access the site again, it was mostly my fault. Very sorry!
It was worth it, honest.
Always nice to read how these things happen though, good for preventing similar things happening to yourself.