The site went down for 15 minutes today due to the fact that the SQL database became unavailable. The same thing happened at the same time with the new on test forums. This was down to the hosting company. I'm currently waiting for their explanation on this
Here's a copy of my online conversation with the hosting company's tech support... Please wait for a site operator to respond. You are now chatting with 'Elena Obilets' Elena Obilets: Hello, how may I help you today? you: Why are my forums suddenly giving database errors? What's going on with the servers? www.wfcforums.com Elena Obilets: Hold on, please, let me check... you: thankyou you: my test forum at www.****.com/testvb is also down you: can't open databases from control panel either Elena Obilets: Hold on, please... you: ok Elena Obilets: Let me investigate the issue. you: no problem (10 minutes passes) Elena Obilets: Please check now from your end. you: Working Ok now, can you please tell me why the SQL databases went down? Elena Obilets: Someone from your shared server was overloading the server, so thank you for notifying us about the issue, we had found the abuser and suspended his account Elena Obilets: So thank you for notifying us, we found the abuser quickly. you: I'd like more details please. I am the only hosting admin. Only other users are forum users of which there was one or two online when it happened. I need to know more details as this explanation is hard to believe. Elena Obilets: As you have shared server, your mysql server hosts 100 users. Someone from them was overloading the server. you: I see, thank you. Can you tell me where I can find server statistics like uptime please? Elena Obilets: We don't have such statistics, unfortunately. you: But you claim 99.9% uptime. How do you prove this or advertise this if you don't have such statistics? Elena Obilets: If your uptime was less than 99.9%, you can create a ticket on Billing to receive compensation on the issue. you: But how would I or you prove this was the case if you don't have statistics? you: Not trying to be awkward, but there must be a way of proving something that made me buy the package in the 1st place Elena Obilets: I will pass this notification tio our administrators. We need to have such on the site, you are right. you: Thank you for your time Elena. I appreciate your help. Elena Obilets: You are always welcome! Elena Obilets: Should have any further questions, please feel free to contact us anytime, we are available 24/7.
They are super helpful and I can chat live with them any time of night or day. I'm just slightly concerned about the claim of 99.9% uptime. According to my rough calculations that would mean 70 minutes a month downtime would be unacceptable. Can't say they've been that bad so far actually! (better than the main boards anyway )
