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Thread: Geocaching.com down?

  1. #51
    scottpa100 Guest

    Default Failover computer systems cost a lot more than you'd think

    Fail over site recovery costs massive money. This is a project that we are just starting in work. I work for a modest sized county council and the cost with infrastructure, hardware, software licensing, support, maintenance, additional utility costs just to keep 'key' systems up and running (payroll, e-mail, social services, education etc etc) are big numbers. We're looking at over £100,000. And we get preferential Government pricing rates! Remember, this is not just a spare box to switch on again in someone's bedroom. This is BANG, your data centre has gone, I'll have my key systems up and running in the next 5 - 10 minutes at this other data centre.

    That's what we're all asking for here, and $30 per annum doesn't go very far at all. Hell, people complain about the $30 (£22 for me this year) as it is!

  2. #52

    Join Date
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    We are off to Cornwall tomorrow and desperate to plan some caches!!! What a nightmare! Staying at TR20 8YN so anyone who has a PQ for that area would be the bestest friend ever!!!!!:cheers:

  3. #53

    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    New generators arrived on site at the data centre, maybe we'll be back up by the morning

  4. #54

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    Quote Originally Posted by SaltercreaseRangers View Post
    New generators arrived on site at the data centre, maybe we'll be back up by the morning
    Excellent news!!!!:cheers:

  5. #55

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    Quote Originally Posted by Middleleaze Moles View Post
    We are off to Cornwall tomorrow and desperate to plan some caches!!! What a nightmare! Staying at TR20 8YN so anyone who has a PQ for that area would be the bestest friend ever!!!!!:cheers:
    I ran a load of cornwall PQ's last week, I'm not sure which one would cover the area you need, but I'm happy to forward on all 6 if you want.

    PM me if you want them

  6. #56

    Join Date
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    Bedfordshire, UK
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    My GSAK database was updated yesterday. It covers the whole of the UK. I'm not prepared to swap or share PQs but I can generate a search of my database and create a GPX file if anyone is desperate. Not too big an area, though or the file will be too big to email. E-mail me... !
    John
    Age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

  7. #57
    Mr.Coffee and the Coffee Clan Guest

    Default

    For those that want to be kept up to date, just keep checking Jeremy's Twitter Feed. (no...you don't have to have a twitter account)

    http://twitter.com/locuslingua

    He has also done a blog post about what has been going on and how GC are affected. http://locuslingua.blogspot.com/2009...za-outage.html


    When I get a phone call at 3am it is one of two things - either a relative has passed away or a server has gone down. Looking at those two options I would always take the latter. Bryan was on Caller ID, so I knew it was the latter. What I didn't realize was that this wasn't the ordinary check, reboot and "all's good" kind of server issue.

    I tried to VPN into the machines and nothing was resolving, which is generally a Bad Thing. I dusted off my cardkey (unused for at least a year), grabbed my car keys and headed out the door in that daze that only a mom or dad knows during a 4am feeding. The usual fearful thoughts went through my head about the worst case scenarios.

    Once I arrived at the Fisher Plaza building I circled the block and drove to the entrance to the parking garage, passing my keycard and receiving a satisfying beep and green light, but the gate didn't raise to let me enter. Through my dozy haze I realized that the parking garage was a dark maw with only the peek of a car in the shadows. It dawned on me that this was no longer just My Problem but Someone Else's Problem. This is one part frustrating and one part relieving. Although a power outage was a shock to the machines we've had similar problems at Fisher Plaza* and the machines were restarted with some coaching. So I settled into the parking lot across the street and walked over to the entrance.

    Arriving at the entrance I validated my initial observation that, yes, the power was out, so I struck up a conversation with some folks loitering near the entrance. "Is the power out?" I inquired, more as a conversation starter to get some additional information about what happened.

    "Duh," a woman responded with a linguistic flourish. Apparently this was a Kiro employee Who Doesn't Speak with Tech Guys, but I persisted and got some general information. Yes, the power was out. It was due to a fire and one of the generators was fried. And it had been down since around 11pm. And they were here since 3 and they were sooo bored.

    I realized that whatever welcome I had spent had emptied the account, so I noticed a person looking just as dazed and techie as me and struck up a conversation with him. Andrew was from PopCap Games and was also called out to check on his servers. Although most of their sites were up, they're Facebook games were hosted exclusively at Internap in the Fisher Plaza Building.

    After a while, more tech folks would appear and congregate, sharing any emails received by Internap which were sparse and devoid of any real content, but we'd get wisps of information from other folks who "know people" - generally the guys who actually have to get the work done. What I heard was this:
    An electrical cabinet set itself on fire between 11pm and midnight
    There was 6 inches of water in the parking garage where the generators are. This happened from putting out the fire.
    No one was injured (thanks for asking)
    One generator is fried and the other is sitting in the water so it is unusable
    The Fire Marshall wasn't letting anyone in (until around 8am when I got in)
    Rumors stated that the sprinklers did turn on but as alarming as it sounds, they didn't turn on in the colocation facility - so no wet machines
    Kiro stations like Kiro Channel 4 in the building weren't broadcasting - instead they were broadcasting content from sister stations.
    Once I got in I inspected the machines to make sure that they weren't buried in rubble or water. With nothing else I to do I headed home to wait for the "experts" to resolve the issue and update geocachers about the situation.

    Realizing I couldn't get the word out on the site outages via the normal channels, like email and the web sites, I resorted to posting to Twitter, which in turn posted to Facebook. Fortunately the geocachers continued to retweet and repost the updates throughout the day, so hopefully the information is getting out there. We even updated the text for the iPhone application but that won't satisfy many folks who are experiencing network errors when trying to look up caches.

    Fortunately we're in good company. Authorize.Net and Bing Travel and other larger clients are at the facility so Internap is being very serious about getting this resolved. Sometimes it is good to ride on the coattails of the bigger guys when you have a big problem to solve.

    I'll update when I have more information. In the meantime I'm monitoring emails and Twitter. When the machines come back online I'll get a flurry of emails so I can head down to make sure that the machines get back online. And I'll continue to update via Twitter and Facebook until this gets resolved. You can follow the latest developments with the hashtag #fisherfire or search for Fisher Plaza or follow me @locuslingua on Twitter.

    *Around 2006 Fisher Plaza lost power allegedly due to a safety switch meant to shut down power if someone was electrocuted. It's a nice safety feature unless some knucklehead hits it by mistake.

  8. #58
    KCRacin Guest

    Unhappy Fyi

    Just read this and thought I'd pass it on

    mashable.com/2009/07/03/geocaching-down-too/

  9. #59

    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    10

    Default

    Thanks to all (and Jeremy) for the updated info. I didn't want to get another forum ban before finding out the real story.

  10. #60

    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Havant
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    As of 10,45 am UK time...........

    Power has been restored to the building but GC servers are not yet up
    Try not to let your mind wander...........
    It's too small and fragile to be out by itself

  11. #61

    Join Date
    Jul 2009
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    Swindon
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stokesy View Post
    I ran a load of cornwall PQ's last week, I'm not sure which one would cover the area you need, but I'm happy to forward on all 6 if you want.

    PM me if you want them
    Message sent - thank you so much!:cheers:

  12. #62

    Join Date
    Jul 2009
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    Thanks for the update K at79
    That's good news. opcorn: waiting patiently

  13. #63

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    GC Forums page back up now just waiting for GC.com to get going.

  14. #64

    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    6

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    Hi can I ask what is a PQ? Only been caching a few months.

  15. #65

    Join Date
    Oct 2008
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    Its back up and running

  16. #66

    Join Date
    Oct 2008
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    Quote Originally Posted by budge35 View Post
    Hi can I ask what is a PQ? Only been caching a few months.
    Its a file that Premium Members can download and contains up to 500 caches centred on a set location

  17. #67
    Simply Paul Guest

    Default

    The other forum is live, which can only be a good sign.

  18. #68
    Mr.Coffee and the Coffee Clan Guest

    Default

    GC.com back online, happy caching to everyone in the UK.
    Regards Mr.Coffee and the "11pm time for coffee" Coffee Clan.

  19. #69

    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Chippenham, Wiltshire
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    Default

    Well done to the geocaching.com team. I was following Jeremy's blow by blow account and it sounded like quite a saga. Elias even broke his holiday to get the site back up. Thanks.


    Caching since 2001
    Founder member of GAGB (2003)
    Committee (2003-2013)
    Chair of GAGB (2010-2012)
    Negotiator of 18 Landowner Agreements
    GAGB Friend

  20. #70

    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Stuttgart, Germany
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    Good morning to you all,
    just a quick question. Is GC down again? I have a message that says "the service is not available". Is anyone having the same problem?

  21. #71

    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Land of the Bear and Ragged Staff!
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    11.43
    Seems OK to me...
    I have a Geocaching problem...
    Work gets in the way!

    * Cache Walker -Caching by byway, not highway! CacheWalker.co.uk
    Walking and Caching in Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire areas

  22. #72

    Join Date
    Jun 2003
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    Wiltshire
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    Quote Originally Posted by Speakers-corner View Post
    Good morning to you all,
    just a quick question. Is GC down again? I have a message that says "the service is not available". Is anyone having the same problem?
    It's working for me. In a situation like this there are bound to be hiccups - their servers are probably overloaded by all those people who haven't been able to access them. Patience is a virtue...
    ​​Do not go gentle into that good night.
    Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (Dylan Thomas)​


  23. #73

    Join Date
    Oct 2008
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    worked ok this morning, then couldnt access it from the mobile or GCz and now it has let me log 3 caches and frozen me out for the 4th.
    Keep getting 'DNS Error - Server cannot be found'
    But I can access the forums 'over there'

  24. #74

    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    Longformacus
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    A welcome side effect of the recent gc.com server issue is that on 3rd July 2009, 137 users accessed the GAGB forum..............which was nice
    I'm just going outside, and may be some time!

    www.jacobitecaching.co.uk

  25. #75

    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Dalston, near Carlisle
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    Quote Originally Posted by jacobite View Post
    A welcome side effect of the recent gc.com server issue is that on 3rd July 2009, 137 users accessed the GAGB forum..............which was nice
    I am still in Turkey, come back to Blighty on Tuesday, and up until last night, I couldn't access the GAGB forums because the Turkish servers say they are "forbidden" .......well, that was until my daughter Leanne, who lives and works out here, told me about a site called "ktunnel.com", which seems to allow them .....and youtube

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