I want to let you all know that there was a problem in the database that handles the user logins, profiles, Message Board, and Cruiser Gallery. It happened sometime after I stopped working yesterday afternoon and I discovered it this morning.

You can now log in again and post to the Message Board and use the Gallery.

However, there remain some issues here. This particular database had some backup problems. Although I have backup files from last night and the night before and so on, they do not contain the last few weeks of data. That means your postings, messages, etc. and even new users are not here.

I will keep looking into this but I think it's most important to get the site back online ASAP. I think that you'll agree.

I sincerely apologize for the problem and the inconvenience. If you have questions, please post a reply here.

Bob S. ~ CFS Manager/Editor

Quote |

I have a quick update on this. After working several hours with the backups I determined that the problem was related to our recent server migration project. At this point I am waiting for our hosting company to bring back, if possible, a server that had been taken offline last night.

When that happens -- and they and I hope it will be doable -- I will be able to retrieve a good backup and restore the data from the last few weeks, including your posts and messages and so on. This is also important because it affects not only new members who had recently registered but also other members who had recently requested that I delete their accounts.

I will post an update when I have more information.

Bob

Quote |

Here is another update for you. Last night the techs at our hosting company were able to locate the server that was taken offline. This morning I worked with it and, with a few glitches here and here, was able to retrieve a copy of the backup for the database that controls the Member Profiles, Message Board, Cruiser Gallery, and other items. This has information up to the morning of March 24.

Later today I will be working very carefully on a selective update and restore for the missing information. Your posts up to March 24 should reappear. Most importantly, the members who had requested deletion recently should once again be deleted. I hope you all can be patient while I work with this.

I have to commend the techs at our hosting company who have been especially responsive and worked with me closely, not only on this issue but also on our entire server migration project since last summer. There have been problems and occasional glitches -- this one was caused by one line in one file that no one ever anticipated -- but they have performed exceptionally well. I'm not naming them here but if anyone is looking for hosting for a site with adult content I can give you their information and recommend them highly.

For myself, I've been working with various aspects of IT since the 1980s, with the Internet since the mid-1990s, and with CFS as Keith's consultant since 2000. Although I had some similar episodes of troubleshooting and problem-solving with my 1990s employers, I have to say that this has been the biggest challenge for me with CFS except for the temporary relocation of the site because of Hurricane Katrina when it used to be hosted near New Orleans.

Thanks again for your patience and support. I will keep you updated.

Bob

Quote |

I have been working on the corrections, starting with the tables for the member information. This stuff is actually contained in more than one table in the database. At this point I have worked with the main table that has your usernames and passwords.

This means that people who registered in the last few weeks should be able to log in again. It also means that the people who had asked to be deleted are deleted.

There were about 12 members who had registered in the last couple days. These people had to be assigned new ID numbers in the database. I don't know how that will affect you on the site yet.

Also, I still have to restore the rest of the profile data, which is contained in a couple other tables. This means that people who had registered in the last couple weeks will see partially empty profiles until I get it corrected. This would apply to the 12 or so new members.

Also, I had to temporarily turn off the member registration process during this because I noticed that new members were registering while I was working with the data. I have turned it back on now.

I will continue working with the remainder of the member information. I can't predict right now how long this will take but I will try to finish as quickly as I can. My time is also constrained by being a caregiver for my disabled partner and also doing daily content updates for other parts of these web sites.

After the member information is corrected I will move on to the Message Board postings and after that to the Cruiser Gallery.

If anyone has questions please reply here or send an email to the address in my profile, Please remember that the more detailed and specific you are about your question or problem, the easier it will be for me to assist you. Due to the press of work I will check back in both places at least once a day, but I hope you can be patient if I do not get back to you quickly.

Bob

Quote |

One more quick update. I have brought back most of the data that was missing for user profiles for members who registered or who updated their profiles in recent weeks. Unfortunately, I was not able to save this information for the newly registered members. There are actually 13. For these members the corresponding entry in that table exists but has only default data, which is mostly empty.

I may have a couple of member-related tables to fix, so please hold off on updating your profiles for the moment. I will post here when I'm done with the handful of other tables.

I doubt that I will be able to work more with this tonight. Friday I will have our daily updates for the Sex Listings and the CRUISING for ESCORTS site. After that I also need to send the weekly email newsletter, which normally would have gone out today. If you're not subscribed to the newsletter, you can sign up on this page: http://www.cruisingforsex.com/email.html

After that I will return to the database corrections for member-related tables and all the rest.

Thanks again for your patience. ~ Bob

Quote |

Here's an update. I've checked the remaining two user-related tables and they are now fixed as much as I can. If anyone has any particular problems related to their user account, remember you can reply here or send email to the address in my profile.

I have decided to delay the weekly newsletter one more day so that I can work on fixing missing Message Board postings.

Also, I was contacted directly by a business associate and good friend to let me know about problems with ALL our sites related to the database server. In simple terms, this happened last night when the database access was overloaded. It would have been preventing logins and many other things, too. After getting things working again today, I spent most of the morning making changes to the database configuration files to be more suitable for this new server.

Once again I apologize for the problems and thank you for your patience.

Bob

Quote |

Here is an additional update. I have now identified all of the tables that affect the Message Board threads and postings (there are more than you might expect) and I've mapped out the strategy to bring back the missing threads and posts from the last few weeks.

Also, after doing a thorough review I determined that the Message Board software does not have a way for me to allow the site to remain "on" while also turning "off" people adding new posts and threads. Thus, I must either (a) Turn the site "off" completely (also affecting the common login process shared with some of our other sites) or (b) Perform my corrections very quickly, knowing that a small number of new threads and posts might be lost.

Since the volume of new threads and postings here is fairly low these days, I'm going with the second choice. Knowing that it will take some time I plan to do this tomorrow, Saturday March 28, sometime in the morning here in Texas.

I will also monitor the site this evening to see how the database is doing and if it gets locked or makes the sites unavailable again. I know there will be additional tuning needed for the database. In order to do that I need to collect statistics over a course of uptime so that I can run some analytics. That will produce better recommended changes than the quick ones I made this morning. I am certain further changes will be required. Even while writing this post I've noticed the slowness on the site and I've been making some quick adjustments to database settings which should help.

I have also identified the site monitoring process that I'm going to be trying out to send me emails and text messages when there are problems. Setting that up will come when the immediate issues are dealt with.

Unfortunately, I am called away now. I will be checking in and hopefully performing the updates outlined above on Saturday.

Bob

Quote |

When I got up this morning I checked the sits first thing and noticed that the database was once again not accessible. I reset it and will continue to monitor it and work with it throughout today.

Quote |

Here is an update for you. The sites have been up and running all day long although there has been occasional slowness or connection errors. Nearly all of today I have spent changing not only the database configuration but also the formats of certain data tables that were "locking" causing you to have excessive wait times for pages to load.

Although I've continued to make small changes intended to speed things up, the sites have been up since this morning and the Message Board now running faster. I have also in the last hour composed and started sending the Email Newsletter which was delayed from Thursday.

My intention is to keep you informed so that you know I am working through problems, keeping an eye on the status of the server and sites, and addressing the key things that have made the sites either inaccessible or (for some of them) coming up with no data other than basic page formatting and error messages. The newsletter mailing today is part of that effort to keep you informed.

Unfortunately, the time required to do all these things was greater than I expected. That means I have not yet restored the missing Message Board discussion threads and postings. Assuming things go well overnight I will tackle that Sunday morning. As I mentioned before, this in Texas (Central Daylight Time) for those of you reading from Thailand (the most active forum) or other places around the world.

Your loyalty is important to me personally and to the future of these web sites. That's why I'm taking the time to explain what's happening in this amount of detail. As always, I appreciate your patience so much. If needed, you can reach me by emailing the address in my profile or replying here.

Bob

Quote |

It's Sunday morning here in Texas and I am beginning my day. I'm very happy to see that the database server has run running continuously for more than 24 hours now. I can tell there is slowness on some tables affecting some pages -- especially the "Who's Online" page which will need some reprogramming -- but we're in a much better place than we had been. The longer the server is up it will allow me to collect performance statistic to help it run better.

Later this morning I will proceed with restoring the missing Forum discussion threads and postings. Before doing that, I will search through our Admin tools once more to look for a way to prevent additional threads and postings during the restore. This is important because I don't want to lose anything you might post in the midst of that operation.

I'm just starting my first cup off coffee. :-) I will be back later to let you know when I actually get started.

Bob

Quote |

Quick update: I was away doing some necessary home and personal things that took longer than I expected. I should have checked back on the server before just now. When I came back I found the "Too many connections" error restricting access to the database. I have corrected it and the site is running again.

I will proceed with the restore today but also continue monitoring things directly more frequently.

Bob

Quote |

I have completed the restoration of postings on the Message Board from the last few weeks. Please let me know if you see errors or problems. Some minor items, such as the view counts, have not been corrected. I'm not sure if I will be able to do that (if even possible) without compromising the time needed for other things needing restore, not to mention ongoing database configuration issues.

Here is what has not been restored yet from those weeks just prior to March 25:

1. Recent Private Messages
2. Recent Cruiser Gallery Photos
3. Recent Postings in "Groups"

I'm actually not sure if the "Groups" section is still in use by members and I'm giving it much lower priority.

On Monday I will be away for several hours for a medical appointment. Otherwise, I do work from home. As I previously mentioned, I am also a caregiver for my disabled partner. Nonetheless I will keep monitoring the sites as much as I possibly can while also handling daily updates for the Sex Listings and Cruising For Escorts.

Once the restore is complete and the database is operating more smoothly, I will also set up those automated monitoring tools I had mentioned. This will provide alerts quickly if something goes wrong and I'll attend to it as soon as possible.

Once again, I am very grateful for your patience and loyalty to the site. Keith left it in my care and I do want very much to set it on a good path for the future. Our server migration has been part of that, along with hiccups like this. I hope to be able to move on soon to a new format, better home page, and so on, including the things that will make the site better for people on mobile devices. Your continuing support makes that possible. The site would not exist without you.

I'll sign off now but keep monitoring things this evening.

Bob

Quote |

It's once again morning here. I have checked the system status and I see that it remained up and running through the night. I will continue to monitor it this morning as I do the daily updates for the Sex Listings and Cruising for Escorts.

Since I will be away much of the day, I took the preemptive step of adding an automated monitoring tool now to send email and text message updates to me when the sites are down. It's not the one I had intended to use, but it should work for now.

If time allows and all goes well, I will continue the restore of missing data as outlined in the last post.

Thank you again, so much, for your patience and loyalty. I rely on you.

Bob

Quote |

Monitoring the site this morning I see the database functioning well enough. However, the Advanced Member Profile search is generating searched that essentially "get stuck" before completing. Eventually they cause other operations on the database to halt.

Unfortunately I don't have time now to research and correct this. I have temporarily disabled this option on the menu bar at the top of the Message Board. I will bring it back as soon as I can. I will be away from several hours, but my phone will let me know if the sites actually go down.

Thanks for your continued patiennce. ~ Bob

Quote |

I'm pleased to report that the database has been up and running for almost two entire days continuously without downtime. There has been some slowness at time as I worked through issues on pages that had been causing it to slow down and eventually crash.

One of these was the "Who's Online" page which I was able to speed up considerably. Before, it had been either extremely slow, timing out, or else I had to "kill" some of the processes from it that caused the database to hang.

The other page is the Member List and the Results page from the "Advanced Member Search" link. I've had to disable this one for now, although I will come back to work with it.

At this point, I have some degree of confidence that the database itself will be stable and there should be less downtime. You will see occasional slowness at the times when I perform additional maintenace processes, including the other restores that I need to do.

Next up, I am turning to the daily content updates for the Sex Listings and Cruising for Escorts. I'll also be monitoring performance. This afternoon I hope to pick up with other restores required.

I truly am grateful for your patience and loyalty to the site. I hope that some of that is related to the openness I try to give about what is happening here. At this point I have actually received no complaints to Private Messages here nor to the CFS Editor email address. I haven't yet checked the separate Cruisemaster email account yet today, although I prefer to use the CFS Editor account as the main address for email with Members and Guests. In any case, I hope that means that you understand, are giving it time, and will be loyal. The sites need you and I'm working hard for you.

Bob

Quote |