Site down today

Duke · 10-21-2004, 08:33 PM

Anyone else notice the problem today or am I the only one?

Actual error message in Internet Explorer:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: message_die() in /var/www/html/db/db.php on line 88

Translation of Error Message in db.php file:

Line 88 in db.php file: message_die(CRITICAL_ERROR, "Could not connect to the database");

In other words, Lifesupporters was down due to the sites inability to contact the database or database server (assuming it's different from the site server).

I'll post here when Canaca has an official response to the problem.

What time did you notice the site was down?

Stone · 10-21-2004, 08:44 PM

I had it several times, for about an hour. :?

Duke · 10-21-2004, 08:58 PM

I wonder what they were up to. I like the fact that they may be performing maintenance but I'm not too happy not knowing exactly what their doing, when their doing it or why.

Duke · 10-21-2004, 10:15 PM

Just as I suspected, the database server was down. I guess this means that the main site is run from one server and the database from another.

Is this correct Paul do you think? Seems kind of odd if it is to have two completely seperate servers for one site. It may also help explain all the internal server error messages we see.

When clicking on anything on the web, you click, your computer sends a request to a server, the server then searches the database, then sends a reply to the user. Now imagine if a user clicks the mouse button, a request is sent to the site server, the site server sends a request to the database server, the database server then replies to the site server, then the site server replies to the user. If this is the case, it may explain some of the problems we have with errors. Either that or I'm talking out my butt as usual.

Merika · 10-21-2004, 10:17 PM

I got the same Line 88 error for most of the evening Eastern Time.

Paul · 10-21-2004, 10:19 PM

That's strange, not exactly sure how that works. Funny thing is, at the same time it was happening here I was over on Fragtard and everything was working fine, I thought it should affect it as well seeing as how it's the same hosting company. Bizarre.

Duke · 10-21-2004, 10:22 PM

It's the same hosting company but you'll be on a different server than I am. If you were in Vancouver then your site would have been down as well.

Just as a side note, kidzone was also down. Sometimes it's good to have subdomains with database support. ;-)

It also helps narrow down what the actual problem could be and eases your mind at the same time.

Merika · 10-21-2004, 10:32 PM

Next time I'll email to let you know Duke. I just assumed you were aware and working on it.

Duke · 10-21-2004, 10:38 PM

I was actually quite suprised to not see any e-mail from anyone. I worked late tonight and didn't notice the problem until I got home at 9 PM EST.

I have no idea how long the site had been down for but got on the phone and emergency e-mail line to them right away. This site is new and receiving traffic plus the odd member here and there, I simply cannot afford down time.