Is this happening to anyone else? Loss of website

[Nick0965]

It’s been just about everyday for a week or so - the website will not load on desktop, laptop, iPad or iPhone

[KnownAsHerbert]

Yes, just about every day.

Either "gateway timeout" or "bad gateway".

[Chosen_Jackal]

I think it’s because they switched the host provider of the forums a while back and they’re unreliable.
I don’t think it’s anything serious. Just inconvenient.

[KnownAsHerbert]

Might be my imagination but it seems fine and speedy when it comes back online, but then gets slower and slower to respond before finally giving up. It's as if the server is getting clogged up over time and needs frequent resets. Strange thing is, I saw a very similar thing on a completely unrelated website a few years ago.

[KHEmmi]

I think it’s because they switched the host provider of the forums a while back and they’re unreliable.
I don’t think it’s anything serious. Just inconvenient.

I remember a spell when it did a similar thing not long after Herbs and I joined though, and that was before the switch.

Maybe something to do with the forum software rather than the server?
Not that I'm an expert.

[Schnoff]

Thanks for the “getting slower and slower” observation. Yes, that points towards the software itself.

Daily ain’t great.

I have a poll over in Administrivia to see whether we should migrate to Discourse. It’s actively developed. phpBB, which we are on now, is tbh on life support by the devs.

We’d also migrate hosting provider again in that case. It’d remain self-hosted.

The con is that it looks and feels entirely different.

[Tom Allen]

Hey @Schnoff did you mean "Discord?"

Edit: No, you meant Discourse. Well, dang. I'm off to read about it.

[Schnoff]

So, I know what’s happening, because I looked this morning: The database is starting up and repairing itself.

I also saw that it had some trouble with permissions for routine maintenance and fixed that.

What I don’t know is whether that was “it” or there’s something else causing it to restart and go through a multiple-hours-long repair phase.

I can say with confidence that simply migrating to something else would fix this.

But also that this shouldn’t happen on phpBB and there doubtless is a fix available that doesn’t require migration - but does require further digging if this happens again, to try and figure out what ails it.

Migration may still be a good thing to have, for easier admin overall and for maybe a better user experience (once we’ve all gotten used to “new” and have shaken out initial annoyances), but it’s by no means mandatory for stability.

[Schnoff]

Forum was down this morning. Found some DB tables that said they need repair, and repaired them. Another repair run shows clean. Keep monitoring to see whether it goes down again.

[Chosen_Jackal]

Thank you for keeping on top of this.
I think you should do the option (staying with worth he current forum or migrate to a new one) that is easier for you, the people that actually put time and energy into keeping it running.