33 replies to this topic

[pjar]

I really need my files by next monday because I have to earn some college credits using them. So panic is overcoming me!
Could you possibly give any unconfirmed estimate of when Stevie (or at least the FTP-server) will be back? Just as many of us I have forgottend to make the important backups and I'm praying that my precious files will be retrievable by monday...
Hope to hear soon, thanks in advance!

[xwinuser]

So all that may need to be done is a reboot? No one has spoken to djbob since this started?

byron, on 26 November 2011 - 11:43 AM, said:

I posted on djbob's wall at facebook. Surely he saw that?

[cl58]

xwinuser, on 26 November 2011 - 04:15 PM, said:

So all that may need to be done is a reboot? No one has spoken to djbob since this started?

We have already done a reboot which did not solve the problem.

[xwinuser]

Ok. Is this a Windows box (I doubt it) or a Linux box? FreeBSD? Surely the services and servers on the box were restarted when the machine came back up? Apache, DNS, virtual machines if any but I think only Johnny has VM.

Anyway you cannot just boot up a server and expect it to work. Not saying that is what you guys did. Just asking.

Xwinuser

[xaav]

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Anyway you cannot just boot up a server and expect it to work. Not saying that is what you guys did.

The server is running CentOS, which automatically starts all services on boot. This means that after a reboot, sshd, httpd, mysqld, and postgresd should have all started up within a few minutes. Even if the other services didn't start up for some odd reason, sshd is packaged with CentOS itself, so it should have started regardless of any other problems, unless the OS is corrupt or something. This suggests that something more serious may have happened, but without SSH access, it is impossible to find out what.

[xwinuser]

Ah, now there is some good info! Thank you!

Still could be anything but I like getting actual facts instead of pondering. heh

Do you know the RAID config? May have to break the mirror.

Is the server at a colo or at djbob's home? Office?

xaav, on 26 November 2011 - 05:00 PM, said:

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Anyway you cannot just boot up a server and expect it to work. Not saying that is what you guys did.

The server is running CentOS, which automatically starts all services on boot. This means that after a reboot, sshd, httpd, mysqld, and postgresd should have all started up within a few minutes. Even if the other services didn't start up for some odd reason, sshd is packaged with CentOS itself, so it should have started regardless of any other problems, unless the OS is corrupt or something. This suggests that something more serious may have happened, but without SSH access, it is impossible to find out what.

[xaav]

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Is the server at a colo or at djbob's home? Office?

Of course it's at the colocation center; you can't get 100Mbps connection anywhere else, that is unless you are a rich person or something.

[xwinuser]

Ah. I did not know the connection speed.

Some colos have support people that do a range a services depending on the colo and the amount you pay. Some flip switches for you, some will actually log into your server and start services and do basic troubleshooting. Then there are places like Sungard who specialize in disaster recovery and hot sites that can do whatever you need them to do including rebuilding and configuring a server.

http://www.sungardas.../Solutions.aspx

xaav, on 26 November 2011 - 05:19 PM, said:

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Is the server at a colo or at djbob's home? Office?

Of course it's at the colocation center; you can't get 100Mbps connection anywhere else, that is unless you are a rich person or something.

[Lena]

xwinuser, on 26 November 2011 - 05:29 PM, said:

Some colos have support people that do a range a services depending on the colo and the amount you pay. Some flip switches for you, some will actually log into your server and start services and do basic troubleshooting.

I suppose that djbob created Heliohost in order to learn how to do all that himself, how to run a paid webhost.

[Wizard]

We've already rebooted the server. Didn't work.

We did get into contact with djbob. Last I checked, he's working on it.

In the event of something becoming completely FUBAR, we'll do our best to recover your data, but don't cry and yell at us if we can't. TOS told you up front that we're not responsible for data loss.

[jje]

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how to run a paid webhost.

HelioHost is a free web hosting company - not paid/premium host

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I was just thinking. I keep getting these emails that say my ACH transfer has been cancelled or rejected. But I didn't make any transfer. They're viruses. They always come with an attachment for you to open that appears to hold additional information. I filter them out and delete them. I noticed that when I ignored them, they increased in number. They come infrequently in a little wave. The last batch I saw was just before stevie went down. A couple of years ago these same types of email were saying they were from the post office. I downloaded one and opened it and lost my computer. So now I know better but what if other users are actually opening these attachments in webmail and unleashing these viruses on the whole system?

The mail system on the server will not open/run any attachments sent via email, therefore the 'virus' is probably powerless over the server. However, if the attachment was a virus and the webmaster downloaded it, it would still affect the webmaster's computer but not the server.

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Could you possibly give any unconfirmed estimate of when Stevie (or at least the FTP-server) will be back? Just as many of us I have forgottend to make the important backups and I'm praying that my precious files will be retrievable by monday...

Unfortunately we do not have an estimate - at this time we are waiting for our root administrator, djbob.

[n30n]

@wizard ... I think it will be better if we should hope for the best and also for you guys if you should focus on reminding users to create backup (using some mechanism) rather than reminding of the TOS :-) ... Its a natural thing people do get mad when they lose their data.... This way you will let them know their mistake without making them yell at you. Anyway my point of this post was to understand the state of damage that has happened. If you do get contact with djbob again. Can you let us know the state of damage? so we can be prepared rather than waiting 4,5 days more and then knowing that our data is lost.... I think this is a fair call....

[xaav]

Merging thread...

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Can you let us know the state of damage? so we can be prepared rather than waiting 4,5 days more and then knowing that our data is lost.... I think this is a fair call....

At this time, we are not sure of the full extent of the damage. Our root administrator has determined that the problem may be a "disk consistency issue," but we are not completely sure about this.

[n30n]

hmmm ... m not a pro when it comes to linux ... but in windows i find EaseUs suites of data and partition recovery the best... unfortunately i don't know if its possible to run that on linux using wine but at the event of data loss . I would suggest giving it a try as I myself have used it on multiple occasions 100% recovering TB of data on servers easily and successfully ....It does support Ext2 and Ext3 file systems though

[ibtisam]

Can you guys post some screenshots of the error. maybe we can help..