# Major Site Upgrade



## Mike Bobbitt

All,

Today I completed a major site upgrade. There are some outstanding issues that I am aware of, and likely a whole lot that I am not aware of. Please use this thread to report any issues.

The Wiki is not working at the moment, for example. 

Thanks for your patience, we will be back to "normal" as soon as possible.


Cheers
Mike


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## Loachman

My ability to get in has been sporadic over roughly the last forty-five minutes (at least) on either MS Edge or Firefox, Mike. I keep getting "Forbidden" messages.


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## Flavus101

army.ca is not working for me (On a Mac using Safari - not tech savvy enough to get all the build numbers, etc...).

However milnet.ca is working without any issues.


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## Fishbone Jones

PC, Win 10, Chrome browser. 

Doesn't appear to be any problems.


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## Mike Bobbitt

There were definitely some stability issues earlier on. Likely some still to come, but I think I have a few of the big ones worked out.


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## George Wallace

Getting a lot of errors:



> The army.ca page isn’t working
> 
> army.ca is currently unable to handle this request.
> 
> HTTP ERROR 500



There are other error msgs as well:

======================

PC running Win 10 with Chrome


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## Kat Stevens

For the past week or so I've gotten sporadic "server stress" messages that were such a pain in the butt a few years back.  Been okay the last few hours on my iPad .


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## Mike Bobbitt

OK, after much ado, the upgrade has been reverted. There should be no data loss or issues at the moment.


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## GAP

:endnigh:

Well, I thought so......


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## Fishbone Jones

Mike,

Is it really that bad you had to remove it?. I don't think anyone will complain if we have a better platform in the end.

Pretend you're Microsoft, force the next version on us and wait til we complain about glitches and bugs, then you fix them.😉

When it's bug free, you stop supporting it and make us work like slaves testing your new project. 😎


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## Mike Bobbitt

Maybe next time. 

For now I wanted to get some stability back and I will inch forward instead of conducting a full on frontal.


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## Mike Bobbitt

Silver lining: our backups are confirmed to work.


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## George Wallace

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> OK, after much ado, the upgrade has been reverted. There should be no data loss or issues at the moment.



....but the order of the Forums has changed......I now have RECRUITING at the very top.....then The Quartermaster's Stores........


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## Edward Campbell

George Wallace said:
			
		

> ....but the order of the Forums has changed......I now have RECRUITING at the very top.....then The Quartermaster's Stores........



Me, too ... Mac/_OSX Sierra_ 10.12.1 running _Chrome_.


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## Mike Bobbitt

Fixed. At the end of the day I rolled back all changes and then re-applied some. I'm finding that middle ground where fewer things are broken.


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## Blackadder1916

For the past few days there have been several occasions when the site wouldn't display, however it usually did come on-line after a few re-tries.  Today however, it seemed to not want to display at all.  For a couple (or more) hours, all I got is this message when I tried any army.ca page (or the other branch versions).



> This page can’t be displayed
> 
> Turn on TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and TLS 1.2 in Advanced settings and try connecting to https://army.ca again. If this error persists, it is possible that this site uses an unsupported protocol or cipher suite such as RC4 (link for the details), which is not considered secure. Please contact your site administrator.



The advanced settings as suggested were already turned on.  I was wondering if this could be due to the recent upgrade.  I use Explorer as my browser.  During the same period my security program (McAfee) has also occasionally popped up a warning about blocking some of the content on the homepage as unsafe.  That had never happened before.

Thankfully, I was finally able to access the site.  Was starting to experience withdrawal symptoms.


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## Edward Campbell

Blackadder1916 said:
			
		

> For the past few days there have been several occasions when the site wouldn't display, however it usually did come on-line after a few re-tries.  Today however, it seemed to not want to display at all.  For a couple (or more) hours, all I got is this message when I tried any army.ca page (or the other branch versions).
> 
> The advanced settings as suggested were already turned on.  I was wondering if this could be due to the recent upgrade.  I use Explorer as my browser.  During the same period my security program (McAfee) has also occasionally popped up a warning about blocking some of the content on the homepage as unsafe.  That had never happened before.
> 
> Thankfully, I was finally able to access the site.  Was starting to experience withdrawal symptoms.




 :ditto:

I didn't keep track of the time, but two hours is a good guess. Nor did I try e.g. milnet.ca or navy.ca ... just clicked on the "reload" button every now and again and, eventually, less than five minutes ago, it came back.


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## Mike Bobbitt

Thanks, I have been attempting to tackle that issue over the last couple of days. Still some demons here in the server but I'm making progress. Hopefully in the right direction.


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## PuckChaser

Are we on the new upgrade, or sorting out gremlins from the restore from backup?


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## Mike Bobbitt

We are half way upgraded. Server OS was version 23, I went straight to 25 and it was messy... so I went back to 23 and then up to 24. Turns out that's still messy.


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## Flavus101

We all appreciate the work!  :nod:


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## mariomike

Flavus101 said:
			
		

> We all appreciate the work!



We can all show our appreciation for the work!  
https://army.ca/subscribe/


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## sandyson

For what it's worth, I am using Fedora Linux with Firefox and have had no problems.


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## Kirkhill

Mike

Please confirm that the slow responses I am experiencing with this site are a result of your heroic efforts and not the result of government agencies reacting to subversive activities on the part of Milnews.ca.

You know what I'm talking about Tony.


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## Mike Bobbitt

Hahah, I confirm nothing. 

Except that I have been making changes and the slowness is likely part of that. (Should be less and less as I make more fixes).


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## Mike Bobbitt

Sorry for the long day without green (and blue, etc.), the server was rebuilt from a new OS install, which took some time.

With this, I can *guarantee* some problems, please report them here. Hopefully they will be easier to fix than under the last server.


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## Edward Campbell

It's a bit slow, and I got one "Server too busy, please try again in a few minutes..." message when I tried to navigate to a new topic abut 10 minutes ago.

Thanks for all you do for us, Mike.


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## Rifleman62

Very slow and lots of times cannot connect.


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## vonGarvin

Extremely sluggish.

As stated, however, thank you for all you do in order to keep this site up and running!


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## AbdullahD

Extremely slow and error codes when trying to browse today, barely able to make this post, takes 30-45 seconds to load a page...

Abdullah


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## mariomike

AbdullahD said:
			
		

> Extremely slow and error codes when trying to browse today, barely able to make this post, takes 30-45 seconds to load a page...
> 
> Abdullah


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## Edward Campbell

Still very slow at 0615 Hrs (EST), but thanks again for all you're doing for us Mike    ... your wife is a saint!


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## Bruce Monkhouse

E.R. Campbell said:
			
		

> Still very slow at 0615 Hrs (EST), but thanks again for all you're doing for us Mike    ... your wife is a saint!



And then there's the putting up with the army.ca thing.  Oh wait,......is that wh,....umm,...never mind, carry on Mike. ;D


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## vonGarvin

The connection will often time out.  It will then put up a blank page saying that "army.ca failed to load" or some such message.

Actually, it says:

This site can’t be reached

The connection was reset.
Try:
Checking the connection
Checking the proxy and the firewall
Running Windows Network Diagnostics
ERR_CONNECTION_RESET


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## Nfld Sapper

Like Techno, I too am having issues:

This site can’t be reached

army.ca took too long to respond.
Try:
Checking the connection
Checking the proxy and the firewall
Running Windows Network Diagnostics
ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

Using CHROME 55.0.2883.75 m and Windows 10 ver 1607 OS Build 14393.447


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## larry Strong

I have just found out I could not log in or even access the page with Internet Explorer. Instant on with Google Chrome....

Hope this helps a bit


Cheers
Larry


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## FJAG

NFLD Sapper said:
			
		

> Like Techno, I too am having issues:
> 
> This site can’t be reached
> 
> army.ca took too long to respond.
> Try:
> Checking the connection
> Checking the proxy and the firewall
> Running Windows Network Diagnostics
> ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT
> 
> Using CHROME 55.0.2883.75 m and Windows 10 ver 1607 OS Build 14393.447



Same here intermittently for about a week now right up to the last few minutes. Problems both logging in to the site and changing pages within the site. Also running Windows 10 ver 1607 OS Build 14393.447 with Chrome Version 55.0.2883.75 m. Tried it on Microsoft Edge 38.14393.0.0 with same problems.

 :subbies:


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## Edward Campbell

Still, at 0530 Hrs, the same as the other are reporting ...

     + First, not connection at all, then intermittent and slow response; and

     + Using OSX Sierra and Chrome, both up to date.

But this is a report, *not a complaint* ... we all thank you, Mike, for all you do for us.   and  :subbies:


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## Mike Bobbitt

Folks,

Sorry about the roller coaster ride over the last week or so. Some of it was just poor server performance, and other times it was me tinkering. Unfortunately new ground for me (and apparently, the entire technical expertise of the Internet!) so there was a lot of trial and error, often going backwards before making small progress forward.

As of this moment, the last set of changes made seem to be positive. Performance is where it used to be, and the server is not kicking out errors. (At some points, it was throwing hundreds of error messages a second. There was some Machiavellian comedy that occurred when - on top of everything else I was fighting - the server disk ran out of space due to the torrent of error messages.)

I like to jinx myself, so I'm going to call this 'fixed' at the moment. Please report any issues and I will tackle them as soon as I can.

Thanks again for your patience, I realize how frustrating it is when things aren't working!


Cheers
Mike


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## Journeyman

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> Please report any issues and I will tackle them as soon as I can.
> 
> Thanks again for your patience, I realize how frustrating it is when things aren't working!


If you have time now that this is 'fixed' could you have a look at my Brigade HQ; it's really not working well -- you have no idea the frustration level.
     op:


Echoing ERC's post, many thanks; the site is addictive.   :nod:


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## kratz

Thank you for providing the site and all your hard work Mike.


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## Mike Bobbitt

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> I like to jinx myself, so I'm going to call this 'fixed' at the moment.



 :facepalm:

Still a work in progress, folks...


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## Edward Campbell

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> :facepalm:
> 
> Still a work in progress, folks...



 [  :rofl:


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## exspy

Technoviking said:
			
		

> The connection will often time out.  It will then put up a blank page saying that "army.ca failed to load" or some such message.



Technoviking doesn't log into the site, the site seeks out and connects with Technoviking!

PS: Thanks Mike, for the site.

Cheers,
Dan.


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## GAP

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> :facepalm:
> 
> Still a work in progress, folks...



Hmmm.....that's my line.....


 ;D


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## vonGarvin

2307 EST 9 Dec 2016. Running quite well.


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## vonGarvin

Dan M said:
			
		

> Technoviking doesn't log into the site, the site seeks out and connects with Technoviking!



Exactly ;D


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## PuckChaser

Just got a bad certificate error when trying to award milpoints. I trust you Mike, so I stored an exception.  [


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## IceBlue

Good day,

I keep getting errors when I try to search anything on the site.................... Perhaps it is the fact that I am searching for Borden  :rofl:


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## larry Strong

Same here "Unable to access the search daemon"


Cheers
Larry


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## PMedMoe

Is there a new layout, or is it just my phone?


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## Journeyman

PMedMoe said:
			
		

> Is there a new layout, or is it just my phone?


Why only the two options, ruling out self-medication?   

ps - site looks fine from here.    :cheers:


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## PMedMoe

Journeyman said:
			
		

> Why only the two options, ruling out self-medication?
> 
> ps - site looks fine from here.    :cheers:



Ha ha. Self medication has been limited since New Orleans...have to give the liver a break...


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## Old Sweat

PMedMoe said:
			
		

> Ha ha. Self medication has been limited since New Orleans...have to give the liver a break...



That must be quite a shock to the poor, battered organ.


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## PuckChaser

The Army.ca mirror is down for me. Milnet/Navy/Air-force all work fine.


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## The Bread Guy

PuckChaser said:
			
		

> The Army.ca mirror is down for me. Milnet/Navy/Air-force all work fine.


As of 1336 Eastern, same here.


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## Edward Campbell

milnews.ca said:
			
		

> As of 1336 Eastern, same here.




Ditto for me at 1635 Hrs EST.


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## The Bread Guy

milnews.ca said:
			
		

> As of 1336 Eastern, same here.


Army.ca's still blank screening for me as @ 1654 Eastern - milnet.ca OK


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## vonGarvin

1655 EST I had to delete the "s" from https in order to log in.


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## Edward Campbell

Technoviking said:
			
		

> 1655 EST I had to delete the "s" from https in order to log in.




That worked for me, too: 1705 Hrs EST.


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## The Bread Guy

E.R. Campbell said:
			
		

> That worked for me, too: 1705 Hrs EST.


Not for me - logging in from home ~1925EST


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## Nfld Sapper

Same here, had to use the milnet.ca address...


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## Mike Bobbitt

Some weird stuff happening with the server, Army.ca seems to suffer outages while the other sites (Navy.ca, Air-Force.ca, Milnet.ca) are OK. And odder still is that either the HTTP or HTTPS version goes out but the other is unaffected; then it flips.

I have been working on this issue as much as possible, but a solution has eluded me so far. Probably unrelated that IPs from Russia have been hammering the site all week...


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## Edward Campbell

OK, it all seems to be fine now (2040 Hrs EST) including the https://army.ca/for ... and so on.  :nod:

_Mike_: thanks for all you do for us ... and thanks to your family, too, and know that we all wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.  :christmas happy:


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## Mike Bobbitt

Thanks Edward, I have to admit it's been a challenge to devote the time needed without putting work/family on the back burner. Here's hoping for a slow down in the tempo soon! 

(P.S. Search is now working again.)


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## The Bread Guy

E.R. Campbell said:
			
		

> _Mike_: thanks for all you do for us ... and thanks to your family, too, and know that we all wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.  :christmas happy:


What he said, boss!


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## PMedMoe

Layout has improved somewhat (maybe it's data vs. Wifi?). Some emoticons and stuff showing as broken links...


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## Blackadder1916

When drafting a post, no smileys or BBC shortcut icons appear.  Attached image is all I get.


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## Journeyman

Blackadder1916 said:
			
		

> When drafting a post, no smileys or BBC shortcut icons appear.  Attached image is all I get.


Because there's nothing to smile about in that thread?


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## SeaKingTacco

Journeyman said:
			
		

> Because there's nothing to smile about in that thread?



That is just harsh...


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## Mike Bobbitt

I think the missing smileys/BBC happens when accessing the site from some secure networks. Used to happen from the DWAN but I took some steps to resolve it years ago. Might be back again.


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## mariomike

Makes a great last minute Christmas gift!  :subbies:
http://milnet.ca/subscribe/


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## George Wallace

Seems all the different fonts, font sizes, font colours, etc. have disappeared from the site (army.ca).....along with all the smileys.

Modified this post while on milnet.ca and the same 'problem' exists there as well......No selection of fonts, font sizes, font colours, etc.....Nor the Smiley options.


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## Edward Campbell

George Wallace said:
			
		

> Seems all the different fonts, font sizes, font colours, etc. have disappeared from the site (army.ca).....along with all the smileys.




Not for me.  :nod: [


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## George Wallace

I guess Mike is working on the site, as I now have all those missing bits again...... :gottree: :gottree:


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## Kat Stevens

Lots of "server under high stress" errors with desktop, laptop, and IPad when attempting to load the site.


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## Nfld Sapper

On a positive note it appears that https for army.ca seems to work with chrome 64bit.....


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## Edward Campbell

I am posting this from Navy.ca: neither Army.ca nor Milnet.ca will open from about 0600 to 0725 Hrs.


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## The Bread Guy

E.R. Campbell said:
			
		

> I am posting this from Navy.ca: neither Army.ca nor Milnet.ca will open from about 0600 to 0725 Hrs.


Same true for me as of this post (0744EST).


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## sarahsmom

Same for me as of 0900hrs EST.
Neither army.ca nor milnet.ca will open. 
Chrome says connection is unsecure and all I get is a blank page.


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## GAP

Same with Firefox on my computer, but chrome on my iPad works fine


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## The Bread Guy

Army.ca & Milnet.ca now working for me w/Firefox as of 1021EST.


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## PMedMoe

Posting from army.ca.  Milnet won't load...


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## Edward Campbell

PMedMoe said:
			
		

> Posting from army.ca.  Milnet won't load...



 :ditto: at 115 Hrs EST


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## the 48th regulator

army.ca
Milnet.ca

Kaput for last 60 minutes plus.

Navy.ca working.  I will need a shower after this experience....


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## The Bread Guy

Army.ca & milnet.ca still working via Firefox as of 0921EST


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## GAP

not as of 12:44pm today


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## ModlrMike

No army.ca for me. milnet and navy.ca work


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## Bruce Monkhouse

I'm kind of liking the colour scheme on navy.ca for reading purposes actually...........as long as my estrogen levels don't rise too high I might stay awhile.


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## ModlrMike

Bruce Monkhouse said:
			
		

> I'm kind of liking the colour scheme on navy.ca for reading purposes actually...........as long as my estrogen levels don't rise too high I might stay awhile.



That would only be a problem on the other blue site, which is also not working... thankfully.  >


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## dapaterson

I know there are known problems with TapaTalk; might that be rearing its head?


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## Edward Campbell

The three day old problem has reappeared: No Army.ca but, today, at 0600 Hrs EST I can use Navy.ca and Milnet.ca.  :gloomy:


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## Journeyman

I have a recurring issue, and a 'fix':  Army.ca will not load from my bookmark, but if I go to Google and type it in, it works fine (although my user name and password aren't remembered and I have to be typed in).
:dunno:


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## Edward Campbell

Journeyman said:
			
		

> I have a recurring issue, and a 'fix':  Army.ca will not load from my bookmark, but if I go to Google and type it in, it works fine (although my user name and password aren't remembered and I have to be typed in).
> :dunno:




Bingo! Worked for me, too ... it even remembered me. Thanks, JM.


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## the 48th regulator

I am beginning to like Navy.ca   Shudder.

It always loads, and the colour scheme is good on my aging eyes!


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## Mike Bobbitt

Good news, this morning I found and fixed what I believe is the source of much of our heartburn. Moving forward I'm confident we will see "less" issues than before.


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## McG

Thank you.


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## Mike Bobbitt

Good news: The fix definitely cleared a site bottleneck.
Bad news: With the flood gates open, the server is seeing increased load.


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## PuckChaser

Boards are loading super quick, almost faster than before all the changes.


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## Nfld Sapper

Getting lots of server under high stress errors .....


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## Loachman

Same here. I've only just been able to get on, finally. I could not get onto either Milnet.ca or Navy.ca, which I have been able to when Army.ca won't work.


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## George Wallace

Loachman said:
			
		

> Same here. I've only just been able to get on, finally. I could not get onto either Milnet.ca or Navy.ca, which I have been able to when Army.ca won't work.



Ditto

Couldn't get on from 2000 hrs last night - "Server stressed out - Try again"


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## dimsum

George Wallace said:
			
		

> Ditto
> 
> Couldn't get on from 2000 hrs last night - "Server stressed out - Try again"



Same here.  Thought it was just my VPN.


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## George Wallace

Server too busy, please try again in a few minutes...


....Seems to the the norm lately.


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## Edward Campbell

I've had _*no problems*_ over the past few days from either Ottawa (until 19 Jan) or from Hong Kong (20 Jan and beyond). Whatever Mike did seems to work for me using _*Chrome*_ on an older (2013) _*Mac*_.


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## Mike Bobbitt

There are still some server load issues to be tackled. Please bear with me while I work through those, and hopefully things will be back on track shortly.
Just because I like to challenge myself, I completed a major upgrade of the database server last night.


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## George Wallace

I guess Mike is working on the site again......



> Server too busy, please try again in a few minutes...







Or the site does not like my IP very much.

Then again:



> System Load is High: 29.39


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## The Bread Guy

George Wallace said:
			
		

> I guess Mike is working on the site again......
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Or the site does not like my IP very much.
> 
> Then again:


Methinks it's loads o' folks wanting in - not liking my IP much, either, at this hour.


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## George Wallace

Sometimes it leads to:








 [


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## dimsum

George Wallace said:
			
		

> Sometimes it leads to:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [



Weird, that's the most clothing I've seen Miley Cyrus wearing in a long time.   :bowing:


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## Journeyman

Dimsum said:
			
		

> Weird, that's the most clothing I've seen Miley Cyrus wearing in a long time.   :bowing:


So you've been forced to browse...._other_...sites when you can't get on here?


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## klacquement

Journeyman said:
			
		

> So you've been forced to browse...._other_...sites when you can't get on here?



Like MTV?


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## PMedMoe

Milnet saying server is busy but Army.ca is good to go....strange....   rly:


----------



## ringo

server busy server busy server busy


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## Scott

ringo said:
			
		

> server busy server busy server busy



Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe.

Folks, some of these issues can be helped with subscriptions and/or donations. Help us out.


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## Mike Bobbitt

Sorry folks, I've been working on some performance tuning... which for me is usually a process of:

1. Tinker.
2. Did it make things worse? Then go back to 1.


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## mariomike

Scott said:
			
		

> Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe.
> 
> Folks, some of these issues can be helped with subscriptions and/or donations. Help us out.



 :goodpost:

http://milnet.ca/subscribe/


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## George Wallace

Variety is the spice of life:



> This site can’t be reached
> 
> army.ca refused to connect.
> Search Google for army ca forums index
> ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED




 [:'(


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## Journeyman

George Wallace said:
			
		

> army.ca refused to connect.


Maybe the software is making a personal judgement of your posts here.    

 ;D


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## dapaterson

Journeyman said:
			
		

> Maybe the software is making a personal judgement of your posts here.
> 
> ;D



Clearly you're not a tech person.

That's not the software judging.

That's the whole internet judging.


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## Mike Bobbitt

I know it's been a frustrating few [days|weeks|months] however we are making progress, slowly. I'm optimistic that early this morning we managed another improvement, hopefully folks will be able to get on as a general rule instead of having to wait for the server load to go down.


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## Edward Campbell

Mike, we are all damned grateful for all that you do for us.


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## GAP

E.R. Campbell said:
			
		

> Mike, we are all damned grateful for all that you do for us.



:ditto:


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## Scott

<another reminder that subscriptions, swag purchases, and donations help>


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## Mike Bobbitt

> System Load is High: 30.07



Back to the drawing board I guess...


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## Scott

Maybe you changed permissions? I am not seeing the warning. Though the reply screen is taking a bit longer to load...

FYI, I did notice a difference once you took down the goddamned Christmas lights ;D


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## Mike Bobbitt

It spiked up to 30 and is now back down to <1 (where it should be). Sill seems an improvement, where we were often sitting around 15-30 and frequently spiking to 100+ which triggered a site cooldown (shut down until we got back down to a load of 3 or less).


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## Edward Campbell

All that being said, I like the new *NEW* buttons.


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## Mike Bobbitt

E.R. Campbell said:
			
		

> All that being said, I like the new *NEW* buttons.



Now that the server crisis is behind us*, I figured it was time to tackle some of the long-standing critical items. 

Chat is also working better (and green), with more site changes on the way.

* One more change this morning to help, overall server performance is much improved.


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## Mike Bobbitt

As an addendum, I almost went with the icon below, to make it clear that clicking on the "NEW" image brings you to the first unread post.  ^-^


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## Loachman

Right now, I can get into Navy.ca, but not Army.ca - and I do not particularly care for bodies of water bigger or colder than a hot tub.


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## Mike Bobbitt

Try https://army.ca instead of http://army.ca

The secure site works fine, I'll check into why the plaintext version is freaking out


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## Loachman

It does, yes. Thanks, Mike.


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## Mike Bobbitt

I've also redirected http to https for now, to reduce the impact to users. There may be a few brief outages while I try to track the source.


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## Loachman

https Army.ca no longer works for me, http Navy.ca still does.

Do you still have any hair left, Mike?


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## dapaterson

Same here - Navy.ca works - though I get a certificate error; army.ca presents a blank screen - not even an error.


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## Mike Bobbitt

Loachman said:
			
		

> https Army.ca no longer works for me, http Navy.ca still does.
> 
> Do you still have any hair left, Mike?



Still do, somehow, but it's turning 'arctic blonde' rapidly.

Because I jinxed it by saying "the server crisis is behind us" this morning, the server wanted my attention for the evening. Not being game for that, I decided that a good old fashioned database rebuild, software wipe and cold shutdown was a fitting response.

And here we are, so server 0, Mike 1.

It's your move, server.


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## dapaterson

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> And here we are, so server 0, Mike 1.
> 
> It's your move, server.



I know!  Let's start a discussion that gets put on the front page of Slashdot!


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## Loachman

I see soothing green again...

Danke.


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## George Wallace

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> Try https://army.ca instead of http://army.ca
> 
> The secure site works fine, I'll check into why the plaintext version is freaking out



I am finding that the opposite is true for all my pages, except: 

https://army.ca/forums/index.php?action=recent;start=0

Even when I delete the "s" in the https, it automatically resets to https and I can not access the first page of the recent posts.

If I go to    http://army.ca/forums/index.php?action=recent     I have no problem.


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

That's a true statement, Army.ca via HTTPS is randomly no longer working. For now, use any other site (Milnet.ca, Navy.ca, Air-Force.ca) or use Amy.ca via HTTP (no security).

Sadly, this clinches it: the server build we are on is irrevocably broken. I'm going to have to rebuild from scratch once more, which means a fair time investment and lots of downtime while everything is pulled together.

Not sure when I will have the time to attempt this, so for now we live with at the mercy of the gremlins.  :-\


----------



## Nfld Sapper

Told ya not to expose the mogwai to bright lights or sunlight which will kill it, do not let it get wet, and never feed it after midnight

 [


----------



## Loachman

My sympathies, Mike.

Navy.ca works, Army.ca does not, again.


----------



## deskjockey43

I am not getting anything but Canada in winter (white screen) for army.ca https:// or http. So I wandered over to Milnet.ca which is working fine but in shades of grey. I prefer the green.


----------



## Loachman

Just how many Shades of Grey...?


----------



## dapaterson

Same here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SubpzqswJRE


----------



## observor 69

Accessing army.ca via Google presently works.


----------



## Kirkhill

I have been forced to revert to Senior Service mode - but it appears to work first time, every time (jinx, inx, jinx)!


----------



## Scott

I was doing the same as Chris, now back to army.ca as I was having no luck on the other.

It's a game!


----------



## dapaterson

Neither army.ca nor milnet.ca are working for me, and I am getting "not secure" for an https connection to navy.ca


----------



## George Wallace

Finally got on with navy.ca.  It was offline for a bit there.


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Everything should be back, for now. What really confuses me is that all the sites (Army.ca, Navy.ca, Air-Force.ca, Milnet.ca etc.) are just aliases. They run the same content off the same server, so it's not like one can goes down while the others are still up. Either the service as a whole is available or it's not, for all domains. Our server's inability to conform to reality is why it will be destroyed and rebuilt. Looking at late April for that. Apologies that it is so far out, but I am planning to merge in a network restructure and possibly platform upgrade at the same time, so it's a pretty big task.

Right now, only Army.ca has a secure version... in short it costs to get security certificates for each domain so there is only one for Army.ca at the moment. Plans are to address this come Sept.


----------



## dangerboy

Right now I can only get on with Navy.ca. Milnet.ca and Army.ca are not working for me, have not tried Air-Force.ca.


----------



## brihard

dangerboy said:
			
		

> Right now I can only get on with Navy.ca. Milnet.ca and Army.ca are not working for me, have not tried Air-Force.ca.



Same.

I feel... Dirty. (Sorry Brad)


----------



## dapaterson

Right now, army.ca is working, while navy.ca does not.  HTTPS connection.


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Well that's a new one. Same over-arching problem though. In future, the general solution to the "white screen" is to try all of the following, until you get one that works:


http://army.ca
https://army.ca
http://navy.ca
https://navy.ca
http://air-force.ca
https://air-force.ca
http://milnet.ca
https://milnet.ca
http://cdnarmy.ca
https://cdnarmy.ca
http://armee.ca
https://armee.ca

The secure versions (http*s*) will generate warnings/errors/be unusable for sites other than Army.ca. If you can accept/ignore these warnings it doubles your chances.

This is ridiculous advice frankly, and I will keep working on a solution, but I am convinced we simply need a clean slate.


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Hmmm, progress. Please report when the issue happens again, and for which host(s). I have a tentative fix.


----------



## brihard

I just tried every one of those links, and they all worked. So whatever weird ass yoga position you're doing while holding the antenna, Mike, you'll need to keep holding it. We'll bring you water at some point this evening.


----------



## GAP

Brihard said:
			
		

> I just tried every one of those links, and they all worked. So whatever weird ass yoga position you're doing while holding the antenna, Mike, you'll need to keep holding it. We'll bring you water at some point this evening.



Hey Hey....he's got lots of snow now.....let him melt some, but don't put down the antenna!!


----------



## dapaterson

I'll even spring for a beer...







What's that?  Something for Mike, too?


----------



## George Wallace

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> Everything should be back, for now. What really confuses me is that all the sites (Army.ca, Navy.ca, Air-Force.ca, Milnet.ca etc.) are just aliases. They run the same content off the same server, so it's not like one can goes down while the others are still up. Either the service as a whole is available or it's not, for all domains. Our server's inability to conform to reality is why it will be destroyed and rebuilt. Looking at late April for that. Apologies that it is so far out, but I am planning to merge in a network restructure and possibly platform upgrade at the same time, so it's a pretty big task.
> 
> Right now, only Army.ca has a secure version... in short it costs to get security certificates for each domain so there is only one for Army.ca at the moment. Plans are to address this come Sept.



So?  Are we now talking about "quantum computing" and no longer binary?   [


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

George Wallace said:
			
		

> So?  Are we now talking about "quantum computing" and no longer binary?   [



We already are! I think it's the solid state spin qubits that are the problem!


----------



## GAP

Don't feed them .......they will slow down......


----------



## Fishbone Jones

Brihard said:
			
		

> I just tried every one of those links, and they all worked. So whatever weird ass yoga position you're doing while holding the antenna, Mike, you'll need to keep holding it. We'll bring you water at some point this evening.



Brian,

My dad made me do that when I was a kid. I'd get it perfect until I let it go. I grew up holding the rabbit ears while looking over the top of the set and upside down at the screen. 😵


----------



## Old Sweat

recceguy said:
			
		

> My dad made me do that when I was a kid. I'd get it perfect until I let it go. I grew up holding the rabbit ears while looking over the top of the set and upside down at the screen. 😵



That explains a lot.  :cheers:


----------



## cupper

Anyone else having problems with the html buttons and smilies not showing up? Also having issues with my avatar not showing up, and avatars of others seem to be randomly showing up.


----------



## Fishbone Jones

Old Sweat said:
			
		

> That explains a lot.  :cheers:



You know me OS, I've always been upfront and open and readily admit I'm damaged goods. 😱


----------



## Journeyman

cupper said:
			
		

> Anyone else having problems with the html buttons and smilies not showing up?


Buttons haven't shown up in a while, and the smilies were periodic (I just typed in the key strokes or the :WHATEVER: ).  

Also, my log-in password always takes at least two tries. 

I figured they were/are minor irritants compared to the "site unavailable" or white screen, that Mike didn't need the extra issues to address.   :nod:


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Hmmm, I haven't seen the missing icon/smilie or double login problem before.

For the buttons, do they show as broken images or just not at all? If they appear as broken images, you can right click and select "open image in new window" or something similar. From there can you copy the URL from the address bar and paste it here?

Thanks
Mike


----------



## dapaterson

I was having issues with the "New" icon, but they have cleared up.  Fingers crossed, the goat you sacrificed seems to have done the trick.

Accessing army.ca through https.


----------



## Journeyman

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> Hmmm, I haven't seen the missing icon/smilie or double login problem before.



_This_  time, just to be contrary, I logged in successfully on first try.  As for the buttons, one day they just disappeared (I'm not discounting that I ticked a wrong box somewhere).  The only thing I actually miss, is "Unread posts."  As it is, I just scroll through the forum looking for topics from "yesterday" or "today."

:dunno:    

No worries; you've got other things to worry about.  :cheers:


----------



## dapaterson

Journeyman said:
			
		

> The only thing I actually miss, is "Unread posts."  As it is, I just scroll through the forum looking for topics from "yesterday" or "today."



Try: https://army.ca/forums/index.php?action=unread 

Or go to https://army.ca and you'll see a short list of the most recent posts - and at the top of the page once you're reading a post, you can click on "Show unread posts since last visit."


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Sometimes the "shrink header" button gets clicked automatically and it hides stuff until you click it again to expand.


----------



## George Wallace

dapaterson said:
			
		

> Or go to https://army.ca and you'll see a short list of the most recent posts - and at the top of the page once you're reading a post, you can click on "Show unread posts since last visit."



I just use:  https://army.ca/forums/index.php?action=recent


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Just observed the "white screen" problem and confirmed the fix. I even took a "snapshot" of the problem before clearing it. Now to figure out how to prevent it...


----------



## Loachman

Today has been problem-free.

Very pleasant.

Thanks tons.


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Glad to hear it! It's nice for me too!


----------



## jollyjacktar

Had the white screen all day, figured it was all the snow that has dumped in the Maritimes...   ;D


----------



## cupper

Below are screen shots of the issues I mentioned.


----------



## Journeyman

dapaterson said:
			
		

> Try: https://army.ca/forums/index.php?action=unread


It says I have nothing unread, which is obviously wrong since there's a whole stack of threads I don't follow.

Anyway, it's fine;  I'm used to scrolling through the limited number of topics I care about.


----------



## PMedMoe

Missing the "Spell check" button on posts....   :dunno:


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Spel check is back, thanks.


----------



## Fishbone Jones

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> Spel check is back, thanks.



Sure about that?


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Heheh, I saw that before submitting, shrugged and left it. Seemed fitting.


----------



## Edward Campbell

Just reporting that everything seems to be working very well for me ... I'm 12 hours out of synch with many (most?) users, so maybe that's why I have not seen many "overload" messages. I certainly have not had serious problems for the past several weeks although, clearly, many have.

Thanks, again, Mike ... we cannot say that often enough.


----------



## larry Strong

Every morning     "no new content".....



Cheers
Larry


----------



## George Wallace

E.R. Campbell said:
			
		

> Just reporting that everything seems to be working very well for me ... I'm 12 hours out of synch with many (most?) users, so maybe that's why I have not seen many "overload" messages. I certainly have not had serious problems for the past several weeks although, clearly, many have.
> 
> Thanks, again, Mike ... we cannot say that often enough.



 :christmas happy:

You are watching while we (and Mike) are sleeping....

 :subbies:


----------



## Fishbone Jones

E.R. Campbell said:
			
		

> Just reporting that everything seems to be working very well for me ... I'm 12 hours out of synch with many (most?) users, so maybe that's why I have not seen many "overload" messages. I certainly have not had serious problems for the past several weeks although, clearly, many have.
> 
> Thanks, again, Mike ... we cannot say that often enough.



Then you have the advantage of seeing our problems 12 hours before it affects you!


----------



## Journeyman

George Wallace said:
			
		

> You are watching while we (and Mike) are sleeping....


Well _that's_  not creepy   rly:


----------



## Kat Stevens

Unable to log in on the https side.  Have to log in on the unsecured site, then it hops over when logged in.


----------



## George Wallace

Journeyman said:
			
		

> Well _that's_  not creepy   rly:



Sorta like he is Santa Claus and ensuring that you are a good little boy.   :christmas happy:


----------



## Edward Campbell

recceguy said:
			
		

> Then you have the advantage of seeing our problems 12 hours before it affects you!




In a way, _I guess_, except that I have not had the _*https*_ problem, and while I have seen a few "server too busy" messages ~ maybe a half dozen, even ten over the past month, and a tiny handful ~ two, three four ~ of "white screens," it appears that I have been spared 90% of the angst; I'm guessing it's because I log on at non-peak hours ...  :dunno:  ... or maybe it's because I'm such a good boy!  ;D


----------



## GAP

E.R. Campbell said:
			
		

> :dunno:  ... or maybe it's because I'm such a good boy!  ;D



Don't get carried away..........


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Larry Strong said:
			
		

> Every morning     "no new content".....



Can you expand on that? I don't have enough detail to go on... E.G. What links are you clicking? What are you expecting to see that you don't? A screenshot and copy/paste of the URL always helps too.



			
				Kat Stevens said:
			
		

> Unable to log in on the https side.  Have to log in on the unsecured site, then it hops over when logged in.



When you try to log in over HTTPS does it give an error?


----------



## larry Strong

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> Can you expand on that? I don't have enough detail to go on... E.G. What links are you clicking? What are you expecting to see that you don't? A screenshot and copy/paste of the URL always helps too.



Sorry about that Mike...might have solved my problem by re-saving the site in my favorites. 

I could get my subscribed content but it would not show any new content. It would show the page as if you have just erased all the notices....


Cheers
Larry


----------



## Kat Stevens

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> Can you expand on that? I don't have enough detail to go on... E.G. What links are you clicking? What are you expecting to see that you don't? A screenshot and copy/paste of the URL always helps too.
> 
> When you try to log in over HTTPS does it give an error?



It just refuses to log me in, gives me the incorrect password message.


----------



## Bruce Monkhouse

It almost never logs me in first attempt....."password incorrect".....always logs me in the second time.


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Bruce Monkhouse said:
			
		

> It almost never logs me in first attempt....."password incorrect".....always logs me in the second time.



That's very fishy sounding (or maybe even phishy sounding). Some browsers pre-fill in passwords, and if you have changed passwords, they still pre-fill the old one causing a first-time failure. Are you manually typing the password each time? Could be good old-fashioned typos, though most folks find that inconceivable. 

My recommendation is to never enter your password unless you see the "secure" notice in the address bar, as indicated below. Yep, that means always HTTPS/SSL and that implies always Army.ca (or accept the security warning when you use HTTPS with the other sites).

When you don't use HTTPS, the username/password you enter goes in the clear and you risk it being picked up by The Bad Guys.

If there's a problem with HTTPS then, I'd like to address it... but I can log in and out repeatedly with no rejections so I'm not sure what you're experiencing.


Cheers
Mike


----------



## Journeyman

Bruce Monkhouse said:
			
		

> It almost never logs me in first attempt....."password incorrect".....always logs me in the second time.


That's still happening with me as well. I'm always on the Army version. The autofill dots are there, showing the number of character strokes, but I always clear and re-type (in case it's an old password).  98% of the time, it works on the second attempt.

And again, it's very minor heartache; I'm just glad the site's up and running.   :nod:


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Hmmm, that's me stumped. And you're starting from https://army.ca/forums/index.php?action=login, not some other link?


----------



## Journeyman

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> Hmmm, that's me stumped. And you're starting from https://army.ca/forums/index.php?action=login, not some other link?


Yep, that's the start point.


----------



## Bruce Monkhouse

And for me as well.  I have no pre-typed passwords.....it just give me an "password incorrect" message almost everytime.


----------



## FJAG

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> Hmmm, that's me stumped. And you're starting from https://army.ca/forums/index.php?action=login, not some other link?



I've been having the "incorrect password" problem as well the first time I tried to log in. It almost always worked on the second attempt. 

Your discussion about the https above had me look t things closer and I noted that the shortcut I had brought me to an "unsecure" version of the login page. I've now deleted that and replaced my link with the one above and so far it seems to log me in properly the first time. I'll keep an eye out.

 :cheers:


----------



## Sigs Pig

FJAG said:
			
		

> I've been having the "incorrect password" problem as well the first time I tried to log in. It almost always worked on the second attempt.
> 
> Your discussion about the https above had me look t things closer and I noted that the shortcut I had brought me to an "unsecure" version of the login page. I've now deleted that and replaced my link with the one above and so far it seems to log me in properly the first time. I'll keep an eye out.
> 
> :cheers:



WOW! 
I have not been @ army.ca in awhile and not using a shortcut, I typed army.ca in the location bar, hit enter and the page brought me to the "Guest" page and I thought I must have deleted my cookies, so I clicked on 'login'. It also gave me that the login username was not secure and sure enough at the location bar (Firefox) it indicated it was not a secure page. I did not attempt to login, but looked in the Admin folder and found your post. 
Using the link provided gave me a secure Login page and here I am!
Something must be amiss.   ???

Stay cool


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

It's this:

https://www.thesslstore.com/blog/firefox-chrome-warning-about-insecure-login-pages/

In a nutshell, use https://army.ca, not http://army.ca. Solutions for Navy.ca, Air-Force.ca, etc. are planned for Sept, when we have to buy new security certificates.


----------



## tbendubois

Not sure if update related but my password reset took a week to be emailed out.


----------



## Scott

Reminder: subscribing or donating helps Mike keep the lights on, and the upgrades coming - much as we may cringe when that happens ;D


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

tbendubois said:
			
		

> Not sure if update related but my password reset took a week to be emailed out.



Sort of related. We had mail flow issues, and for a period of time all the mail just piled up until the log jam was fixed. The mall room got pretty messy!


----------



## kratz

I'm love the site, enjoy sharing professional information, support of each other ....

I've been loath to mention this hiccup...lived with my work around instead.
But if Mike is looking at certificates, and Navy.ca upgrade issues I will support them.

My problem from the http:/navy.ca, (ACK issues), as a paid member, I can't enjoy 
simple filtering services. 

Example: The top screen "Show unread posts since last visit" will offer no posts. 
yet there are multiple posts on the site. I work around this by going into each area
that I'm not interested in and clicking on "clear messages". 

This item has been ongoing since last fall. I did not want to add to the list.


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Hmm... if you click this link, does it show unread replies to your posts?

https://navy.ca/forums/index.php?action=unreadreplies

Or the non-secured version:

http://navy.ca/forums/index.php?action=unreadreplies


----------



## kratz

Both links work, but did not show any unread replies.


----------



## George Wallace

Is it my imagination or am I reading posts one day, "Yesterday", and then seeing them twelve or so hours later as posts time stamped having changed to indicate a post for "Today"?


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

kratz said:
			
		

> Both links work, but did not show any unread replies.



Is it possible you don't have any unread replies? 

Bear in mind that unread replies to your posts (https://army.ca/forums/index.php?action=unreadreplies) is different from unread replies since last visit (https://army.ca/forums/index.php?action=unread) and different again from all unread posts (https://army.ca/forums/index.php?action=unread;all;start=0).


----------



## sarahsmom

I've been having the same issue with "Show Unread Posts since last visit" never showing any posts.
I have tried logging out, making sure I am logged out of the various computers I read this forum on, and nothing changes.
Thanks for all the hard work you guys put into this site, btw! A wealth of resources!


----------



## dapaterson

That happens rarely to me; usually clicking on "Show all unread" then works for me.

I think it may be related to Tapatalk (as I access the site both through a desktop computer and through my phone); do other people having that experience also use that program?


----------



## Bruce Monkhouse

I don't use Tapatalk and I have the issue.
But only on my home computer....


----------



## Fishbone Jones

I've had the same happen to me. Like others, I just click 'Read all Unread Topics'.


----------



## George Wallace

I just scroll down to the bottom of the page where it says "RECENT POSTS" and click on that.  I have actually saved page 1 of RECENT POSTS on my Favourites Bar. -->  https://army.ca/forums/index.php?action=recent


----------



## sarahsmom

I tried a variety of different ways, I don't access the site using Tapatalk, just IE and Chrome.
"Show" unread posts would show no new posts, no option to click to see all unread. "Show new replies" sometimes worked, but there were not always posts for people to reply to.

The problem seems to be fixed today, so crossing my fingers and going to read as much as I can.


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

paleomedic said:
			
		

> The problem seems to be fixed today...



Sadly, I can assure you this is coincidence and not through active fixing of an problem.


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Made a change this morning to stop the error log from filling up. Side effect: nobody could post or possibly even log in.

Fixed, error log is back to growing fast enough to run us out of space in about a week. (I just have to remember to empty it, weekly, until I find a better way.)


----------



## Colin Parkinson

thanks for the work


----------



## Kat Stevens

Connection Problems

Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.

Getting this continuously, to the point of aggravation.


----------



## dapaterson

Kat Stevens said:
			
		

> Connection Problems
> 
> Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.
> 
> Getting this continuously, to the point of aggravation.



I start pounding on F5 to refresh the page when it comes up.  Very intermittent - it will come up continuously for a while, but then go away.


----------



## PMedMoe

dapaterson said:
			
		

> I start pounding on F5 to refresh the page when it comes up.  Very intermittent - it will come up continuously for a while, but then go away.



Same experience here.


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Unfortunately a known issue. We simply hit too many connections for the database server to handle, and new connections are deferred until things ease up. Been looking at way to optimize database access for as long as the screen has been coming up, but clearly haven't made significant progress yet.

The issue sort of stems (ironically) from the recent server upgrade. We have two pieces, the front end (web server) and back end (database). We upgraded the front end a couple of months ago, giving us room to stretch our legs a bit more. Doing so is now overloading the back end, which has not been upgraded in 2+ years.  :-\


Cheers
Mike


----------



## SeaKingTacco

Thanks Mike! Keep up the good work.


----------



## Kirkhill

Ditto to SKT, Mike.

On your own time!   :nod:


----------



## kev994

For the past ~3 weeks I've been unable to connect with Tapatalk during peak periods but usually have no issues using Safari on the same phone. Fair assumption it's the same capacity issue?


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Yes, we are hitting a high number of concurrent database connections, so the "last in" time out or are dropped outright depending on how far over the limit we go. Tapatalk adds more connections. As a test I may temporarily disable it to see if it is a key contributor to the issue. I suspect it is not though.


----------



## Kat Stevens

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> Yes, we are hitting a high number of concurrent database connections, so the "last in" time out or are dropped outright depending on how far over the limit we go. Tapatalk adds more connections. As a test I may temporarily disable it to see if it is a key contributor to the issue. I suspect it is not though.



No skin off my rump if TapaTalk never comes back.  How it`s supposed to make forums easier beats me, I hate it.  8)


----------



## Fishbone Jones

I installed it and took it out within the hour. It wants too many permissions and wants to filter all your internet activity through the program. I wish there was a way to kill the banner request to 'enjoy tapatalk'. I hate turning it off everytime I visit.


----------



## Colin Parkinson

Getting lot of these on Government supported (ha!) Firefox 

"Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later."


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

It's our server, not the browser. Still tweaking the configuration to try to get the maximum out of it, but we are hitting some hard limits.


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

Folks,

I am converting our database from (slow) magnetic to (fast) SSD. This will have an adverse effect on performance during the conversion but "should" help long term. I'll post again when the conversion is complete.


Cheers
Mike


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

...and it's complete. Fingers crossed this will be a "good" change.


----------



## Infant_Tree

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> Folks,
> 
> I am converting our database from (slow) magnetic to (fast) SSD. This will have an adverse effect on performance during the conversion but "should" help long term. I'll post again when the conversion is complete.
> 
> 
> Cheers
> Mike





			
				Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> ...and it's complete. Fingers crossed this will be a "good" change.



Yeah just noticed the site's no longer down and it seems to be running smoothly  I appreciate the hard work you did upgrading the site for us all.


----------



## mariomike

Infant_Tree said:
			
		

> I appreciate the hard work you did upgrading the site for us all.



A way to show your appreciation,

Milnet.ca Subscriptions
http://milnet.ca/subscribe/index.php?action=profile;u=16


----------



## Loachman

And it only took thirty minutes between the two posts.

You make it look _so_ easy, Mike. You should work on your Scottyness a bit more - "I canna do it in less than three days, Captain".

It may be (I hope) the DWAN connection, but I got a "Server too busy, please try again in a few minutes..." message when trying to compose this response.


----------



## kev994

It's working much better for me, everything has loaded instantly, I normally have to wait a while at this time of night.


----------



## Mike Bobbitt

In the recent past, the "big" problem is overwhelming the database with connections. Basically the database starts to fall behind when things get busy, and connections stack up, eventually hitting our max (700*) at which point new connections are flat out refused. That's wen you see the "could not connect to database" error, which I am trying to resolve.

Yesterday's conversion will _hopefully_ allow the database to respond faster, preventing a large "lineup" of connections from forming. Watching the performance, I did see it approach 700 yesterday, then immediately drop to ~400 as the requests were processed. I won't be so daring as to say the problem is fixed, but I believe things are improved. We will find out how much as we move forward.

Note that this does not in any way solve the "high server load" issue... in fact it may make it worse. Before, when processes were languishing about waiting to be served by the database, they weren't causing load. If we improve the database response time, the server has to do more work, faster to keep up. See the attached technical diagram for a more detailed explanation.


Cheers
Mike

* 700 does not mean only 700 users can be visiting the site. It's significantly more complicated, but essentially the web server forks processes to handle requests (each process handles many simultaneous and sequential requests), and each process then generally creates one connection.


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## kev994

I wasn't following until I saw the diagram


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## dapaterson

Having big issues connecting with TapaTalk; the mobile site on Chrome works fine.  Mind you, I stopped updating TapaTalk several versions ago; it wants too much access and I do not have a good sandbox in system for Android.


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## kev994

dapaterson said:
			
		

> Having big issues connecting with TapaTalk; the mobile site on Chrome works fine.  Mind you, I stopped updating TapaTalk several versions ago; it wants too much access and I do not have a good sandbox in system for Android.


Updated iPhone version is working for me.


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## Mike Bobbitt

Currently at 72 connections so "all is good" in that regard.


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## Mike Bobbitt

A quick update with good news... Immediately after the conversion, there was not much difference in the performance and number of connections (we even peaked at our max of 700 at least once). However we are now looking much better.

For those who care, the database uses I/O credits to allow bursts of activity, but limit prolonged high-utilization. (I.E. when you use all your credits, things slow to a crawl until the credits regenerate.) Yesterday's conversion consumed all available credits, as it was a pretty hefty operation. The credits regenerate over time, but the backlog took some time to burn off. Today, we are finally hitting our normal operating state, with I/O credits regenerated and the server running normally.

With over 700 active users, we hit a max of 60 connections, but right now are sitting at zero. As in no pending connections at all. When I first checked, I thought the site was down (the only other cause for seeing zero connections in the past.)

So this is great news, it means that yesterday's change was very effective.

Now we just need to put wheels on the donkey so it can keep up. 


Cheers
Mike


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## Mike Bobbitt

A couple of weeks with only the regular amount of issues... I think we can put this one to bed and move on to the next one.


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## BeyondTheNow

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> A couple of weeks with only the regular amount of issues... I think we can put this one to bed and move on to the next one.



Thanks for the update Mike!


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