ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Dear Beoworld Members,
I just want to offer my apologies for the Beoworld server being down for most of yesterday due to circumstances beyond my control.
The incident already highlighted by Steve and Lee in another thread had caused damage to one of our servers and it took sometime to restore all the disks. It should be noted that over the years Beoworld has amassed a large amount of B&O data not just the forums which accounts for about 50% of the data.
We have currently filled over 20 TB ( 1 TB equal to 1,000 GB ) of disk space and my challenge in the future is build a better search function for that data.
Whilst writing let me comment about one recent comment from a member that the forum is slow and unstable. The servers certainly are not unstable from both my observations and the system log files. In fact the last time the servers were unavailable for 10 minutes was when I added some Microsoft security updates more than 3 months ago.
You may be surprised to learn that the forum is actually fastest when several members are browsing and/or posting because if no one is accessing the forum for 20 minutes the forum and SQL server shuts down. After the shutdown when the the first member accesses the forum it takes up to 30 seconds for it to restart. I cannot change these settings because they are built into the software. If that first person is posting an article they often think it has not worked and often press the post button several more times which is why you sometimes you see several duplication's of the same post.
I am only pleased this problem did not happen today as I am currently in the lounge at Heathrow where I will soon be boarding my flight to Denver, Colorado.
Again, my apologies for the interruption to our service yesterday.
Regards Keith....
Hi Keith
Thanks for bringing everything back, really appreciated since this is best B&O resource available anywhere.
I made the "slow and unreliable" comment, and without complaining in any way, since this service is provided "pro bono", my experience in this part of the world (Denmark) really is slow and unreliable.
As an example it usually requires several tries to get Service manuals downloaded without corruption, and some are just plane impossible to get. Response times of 10 seconds plus is not unusual in the forum area. I have tried from several different geographical locations but the problem is persistent.
Please do not take this the wrong way,- its simply feedback. And I for one highly appreciate your work
Edit: Timed this entry-, 11.4 seconds.
I am in rural Cambridgeshire in the UK and I would say that the response time when posting has never been faster.
Edit Timed <2 seconds
Regards Graham
Thanks Keith ,
I never knew the SQL shuts down after 20 minutes of forum inactivity. Hope you have a good flight.
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if we all pay for a service that we love and use so often it would make a difference
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What? You have lightning in the UK?!?!
Thank you as always Keith for your hard work.
The lightning didn't hit the prize draw robot did it?
Jeff
I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus.
Have a great holiday Keith. I don't think you get nearly enough credit for what you have done for many years keeping Beoworld at the top of the B&O tree as far as web sites are concerned. I have been on this site for many years and the stability of the site and its size have been fantastic since you and Lee have been in charge. With moderators like Martin and sponsors like Steve, we are truly blessed!
Peter
Peter,
Thank you for your kind words, Lee and I are always trying to make improvements.
Unfortunately I am not on holiday, it's a business trip. I come here every two months and will be back on Thursday.
BEOVOX141:I made the "slow and unreliable" comment, and without complaining in any way, since this service is provided "pro bono", my experience in this part of the world (Denmark) really is slow and unreliable.
Corrupted downloads and delayed responses often have the same cause and are rarely caused by the server you are trying to access.
When you access any web site your request and response will travel through several routers/servers and the speed of the response will be governed by the slowest router/server in the chain.
Equally the IP protocol allows for fragmented return of data via two or more different network routes meaning that each packet of data will almost certainly arrive at the browser in a different order to what was transmitted and it is left to the browser to assemble the packets back into the correct order for display.
You can use the Microsoft Dos or Linux tools to show the chain from you to your target web site and they will tell you the latency of each server in the chain. This is the best way of identifying the root cause of the type of problem you are describing. I normally user Microsoft Tracert utility.
It is very difficult for any Internet Service Provider to identify these types of problem unless a user reports the problem and just because you use another PC in another location and still have the problem can still mean the cause is the same.
Like any problem in life whether technical or not you must identify the root cause of the problem in a logical manner.
If you are using a Windows computer open the DOS command window and use the “Tracert beoworld.org” command WITHOUT the commas to Beoworld.org and see the latency between each hop. It is likely that one of the servers in the chain has a very long latency time compared to the others.
From Mexico I have no problems what so ever, connection times same as other sites except when the server is "sleeping" and have to wake up.
Thank you for keeping us "alive" Keith.
Collecting Vintage B&O is not a hobby, its a lifestyle.
Søren Mexico: Thank you for keeping us "alive" Keith.
I can categorically state that BeoWorld would no longer exist if it wasn't for Keith.
Without the huge amount of technical expertise and the many hours he gives for free, we could never afford to pay someone for this. We would run out of money very quickly and the site would have to close. I no longer have a business making lots of money which I can gift to BeoWorld, so Keith is genuinely the man who is keeping this boat floating on the water.....
The one thing we will not be able to do is upgrade to the latest servers and software when our current platform simply becomes unmanageable, so at some point in the future we will face the dilemma of closing the site or trying to raise enough money to keep going with a new platform. Think of it as the computer, phone or laptop you are sitting in front of being the only way you can access the internet. At some point it will become obsolete, or stop working - and you will need a new one. Imagine then that you will not have the money for a new one when it fails. You just hope your current one will go on for as long as possible.
Someone said on another thread - if you value it, pay for it. I'm not putting a begging bowl out, but this is the absolute truth.
Lee
20 TB ?! Out of curiosity, how is the data storage that high? Do Gold Members get access to special feature length films like 30 hours of Lee visiting Struer in real time? If I'd been put on the spot then I'd have guessed that the forums go back decades but are text based so they would be 50 gigabytes or so, maybe 200GB if there's a wealth of metadata and pictures. But there's actualy 20,000 GB?
I have a Mac Pro with four 5TB drives, I have a vast (bordering on insanely large) library of media and I'm not even close to filling i. How is BeoWorld filling it up the same space?
Calvin:I have a Mac Pro with four 5TB drives, I have a vast (bordering on insanely large) library of media and I'm not even close to filling i. How is BeoWorld filling it up the same space?
Well of course running a web server on a commercial basis is somewhat different from storing your personal files on your Mac Pro.
I have to ensure that every security and safety precaution is taken which includes very regular backups for example.
We have our main forum, a running backup of the live forum, the archive forum and the main web site plus all the associated SQL servers.These are all backed up every night between 2am and 5am UK time and are full, not incremental backups. The backups are on a 3 month round robin meaning we always have a minimum of three months back dated backups. The reason for this is it is quite common for a problem to occur, but not be detected for days or even weeks later like pointers get corrupted to a thread for example and it is only when someone complains will I know we had a problem.
Also, like most art galleries and museums we have a very large amount of data which is not available to members on line, but is stored electronically. Today we don't have the resources or the time to put some of this data on-line, but I do get a lot of email requests for items members cannot find which I normally do have in one form or another and if I have it I will supply it.