On 2 April 2008 just after midnight I had to re-boot my web server for a software update. The server then kept recycling but never loading Windows 2003. It turned out that there was an issue with the boot volume. Normally CHKDSK would take care of such a problem, if not the Windows Recovery Module would. I came to find that even the Windows Recovery Console would hang while trying to access the drive. After nearly 4 hours of messing with it, I finally took my backups and started moving all of my sites to my DB Server. Within 2 hours I had all my web sites moved and reconfigured on the DB Server.
I thought all was well until Roland (Forum Moderator) told me of the presence of an activation code for the forum software. I pulled out my license key and applied it, only to get more errors. I sent off a message to the vendor who responded about 5PM today stating that they reset my key and I had to update the forum software before applying the key. With that in mind, the forum software is now using Active Forums 3.7.8.27002.
With this update I ran into one other issue. The Editor I use for the site (Cute Editor) is licensed by IP address. So on this server it does not work. So temporarily we are using a generic editor.
As I write this the Web Server is being Re-Partitioned, Reformatted and backups being restored.
I hope to have everything back to normal in a couple of days (I hope).
I will say that BartsPE and DriveImageXML have been a real lifesaver in this situation.
Site down time: Approx 5 hrs 45 Min approx.
Forum Downtime: 18 hrs 10 min approx.
We are still running on the DB server, I will advise when we are back to normal. |