Planned Server Downtime (8th Feb - 9th Feb PST)

[Alcar]

The Oddworld Forums, OddChat, Oddworld Universe, and Oddworld-Web will all experience planned downtime beginning at 10PM (PST) 8th of February and will last until 6AM (PST) 9th of February if all goes to plan. I will be closing the forums temporarily (a day or two before the downtime) as I back up the database and filesystem in case we encounter problems when we are brought back online.

For further detailed information, I have included the message we were sent from our server provider.

Due to continued space and power constraints in our primary data center,
we will be moving the “randy” cluster to one of our newer data centers.
This move will begin Friday, February 8, at 10PM PST, and is expected to
last up to 8 hours, until Saturday, February 9, 6AM PST. All web servers,
mail servers, file servers, and MySQL servers in the randy cluster will be
unreachable during this time.

The following web servers will be off line during this move:

alexander arkanoid attila baht bam bob bomberman breakout caesar centipede
contra cornelius cortes crack cruisin cssmania deblume defender digdug
dinar dinero dollar donkeykong ellipsis euro fidget forint franc gage
galaga gap go grant guilder happy herod ikari ike io ivan jezebel joust
karnov katamari khan klax korben kroner lamlam leeloo lei limbo-randy
limbo-randy2 limbo-randy3 lira lucky mark marvin morgan napoleon nexus
nimitz orbital pacman paperboy patton peso pizarro pound qbert quid rhod
ruble rupee rygar scagnetti schilling scipio shekel slaughter slimy tetris
ugh ultima venice vex vito wasabi yen yoda zorg

We do apologize for this inconvenience. Rest assured we will do everything
possible to keep downtime to a minimum.

If you have any questions regarding the server move, please contact our
support team.

Alcar...

[Hobo]

Which one of those servers are we on?

[Alcar]

We're hosted on limbo-randy2.

Alcar...

[Havoc]

Lol, goofy names.

[abe is now!]

Thank you for this information, Alcar. But will the Forums be like before the downtime? What will change?

[Alcar]

There will be no change to the forums, they will merely be shut for a period to back-up, and then completely inaccessable for a planned period of eight hours.

Alcar...

[abe is now!]

Is this downtime useful for security of OWF?

[Alcar]

abe is now!, read my first post in the thread. Our server provider needs to move one of their clusters to a new data center, as the old one is becoming overloaded. We happen to be hosted on said cluster.

To do this they need to shut down the servers.

Alcar...

[abe is now!]

Thank you. Excuse me if I asked that, but I didn't understand the first post. You know I am not the best about English language.

[T-nex]

Hm.. Will you put up the temporary OW forum in the meantime, or is it not worth it?

[Wil]

For eight hours? So not worth it. Everybody should see this as a holiday.

[T-nex]

For eight hours? So not worth it. Everybody should see this as a holiday.

Oh I didn't realize it was just 8 hours... *smacks self* Bad Nikki!

[Bullet Magnet]

I'm living out of a suitcase anyway, this should be easy.

[abe is now!]

NO, I can't leave OWF for eight hours!!!! But I think I'll be at school !!!

[Alcar]

Wil, TOL is hosted on DreamHost too. Are you on the offending servers to be moved?

Alcar...

[Wil]

No, I got a good server.

[Alcar]

I'm on the first cluster (limbo-randy), that's how long I've been a happy customer. You came later

Alcar...

[Wil]

It’s not the length, its the functionality. And mine will be functioning when yours gives up and needs a rest.

[Alcar]

It's the width, silly.

Alcar...

[Wil]

Mine expands and narrows to suit the audience. Yours is fixed‐width.

[mitsur]

From the recent activity going on between Max, Alcar, and Nate, I approve of our server's name.

Thank you for informing everyone before-hand Alcar, because otherwise I'm sure people would be flailing about (including me), wondering what the hell was going on. You saved me an hour of trying various ways of making sure my computer and internet connection was okay.

[Bullet Magnet]

Holy mother of God and all her wacky nephews, you guys...

[Leto]

Downtime? in my OWF? It's more likely than you think.

Anyway, I hereby resign my place in this forum to commit suicide. I can't take the thought of these forums being out of my life for 8 straight hours. I'll read a few of the old threads for some laughs, then I'll pass away peacefully in the bathtub.

[Nate]

Will you be able to put up an explanation message on oddworldforum.net or will the site be completely down?

[Salamander]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! 8 hours! What ever will I do with my life!?

[Leto]

End it.

Will you be able to put up an explanation message on oddworldforum.net or will the site be completely down?

Well, I'm not sure, I'll see how dedicated I am to this suicide. lol eye had 2

[Wil]

I think Nate was asking Peter if he can put up a message explaining why the Forums are down. Way to assume we care about you.

No, SM, don’t do it! I love you too much!

[Alcar]

Will you be able to put up an explanation message on oddworldforum.net or will the site be completely down?

Our DNS records only point to our limbo-randy2 addresses, and with the entire cluster being physically removed, an 'away' message isn't possible. My DNS knowledge isn't too crash hot, but I know you are able to specify at least four domain name servers - so it could be possible that I could re-route traffic to a message on say, TOL, if the previous three name servers fail to establish a HTTP request.

Unfortunately oddworldforums.net is handled by a different DNS provider that I don't have access to (Abe Babe handles said domain), so effectively that idea is moot.

Alcar...

[Strike Witch]

I think I'll probably sleep through the whole thing.

[Laser]

aaaaaaaaand stopped caring