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Downtime

Archive: 30 posts

After being down for 12 or so hours, we're finally back up. Things should be running smoothly now, but I still think it makes sense to answer some questions about the issues we had:

What happened, exactly?
As a result of the server upgrade a couple months back, our server's IP address was changed. Our host kept the IP redirection alive up until today - when they shut it off, our URL could no longer resolve correctly because it was directing users to the wrong IP address.

Wait, what?
When you type our URL into your browser and hit enter, your browser goes through a series of connections and redirects in order to locate our server. One of those steps is the transition from something called a "name server" to our server's IP address. This is how URLs are tied to servers: we register the LBPCentral.com domain and tie our server's IP address to it (via a config panel offered by the registrar) so that when you type in that URL, it directs you to our server.

Now, what went wrong is that our server's IP address was changed. As a result, our name server was tied to the wrong IP address. Our host graciously redirected the old IP address to the new one for nearly two months, but today they pulled the plug. Once they did, our URL no longer functioned because it tried to redirect you to an IP address that didn't exist. We have since updated the information with our current server's IP address, which is why the URL now works again.

Could this happen again?
This specific issue? We've updated the IP address information associated with the name server so that our URL redirects directly to our server as it's supposed to, so...nope.

A similar scenario? Possible, but unlikely. I've taken steps to ensure I will be able to react more quickly if it ever were to reoccur, but I've also made a number of changes that will make it easier for me to stay updated on the status of our domain and keep this sort of thing from happening again.

----------

I sincerely apologize for the issues you guys had to put up with. Thanks for sticking with us as we worked to get everything back online. If you've got any questions about what happened, feel free to ask - I'll answer everything I can. 		2011-04-08 04:21:00

Author:
ConfusedCartman
Posts: 3729

Thanks! Good to see my favorite cyberplace back up and running! 2011-04-08 04:35:00

Author:
v0rtex
Posts: 1878

So that's what happened. Interesting. At least now things will get back up and running. 2011-04-08 04:55:00

Author:
Fang
Posts: 578

huh...and here i thought it was because my mobile phone was no longer having issues...glad to see this finally cleared up and running 2011-04-08 05:00:00

Author:
Shadowcrazy
Posts: 3365

Nice to see the place back up. this is the only place i go to for LBP fun and info
besides from playing the real LBP is self~ thanks for the hard work on keeping site up Cart~
*mew		2011-04-08 05:18:00

Author:
Lord-Dreamerz
Posts: 4261

Whew, I'm just glad it wasn't anything too serious. I remember reading a post from a certain person a few days ago asking what we would do if he launched a DDoS attack, and when I saw LBPC down that's exactly what I thought had happened. Great to see LBPC back up 2011-04-08 06:18:00

Author:
FlipMeister
Posts: 631

Well thanks for working to bring it back up.2011-04-08 06:19:00

Author:
rseah
Posts: 2701

Oh, odd but ok. Glad to see you back up again. And why did they pull the plug like that, aren't they ment to give you a warning before they pull the plug?2011-04-08 06:48:00

Author:
Unknown User

That was a close one. With the lack of lbp.me coupled with this site going down, I actually thought about doing something crazy... I almost went outside!

Anyway, glad it wasn't just me, otherwise I may have missed an LBP2-torial...		2011-04-08 07:14:00

Author:
nextlevel88
Posts: 149

Ok, as long as you paid the server bills CC.

2011-04-08 07:23:00

Author:
Thegide
Posts: 1465

Glad to wake up to a fully operational LBPC. I was dreading it was going to be ~48 hours like was posted on twitter...i had just posted in the help forum.2011-04-08 11:02:00

Author:
Ace29
Posts: 132

I thought it was gone for good ):

Now I'm annoyed since it's back up now because it means I bought this noose for nothing.		2011-04-08 11:14:00

Author:
JonnysToyRobot
Posts: 324

whoa, i thought i had an ip ban, but no I have not. well, i never got ban, havent got an behavour point, and pretty much a good guy then i thought again and relized that their servers were down. But great job on the fixing the problem.2011-04-08 11:31:00

Author:
ShiftyDog
Posts: 293

I didnt notice so im good. Must have been in bed.2011-04-08 12:09:00

Author:
craigmond
Posts: 2426

wow so that explain why I couldn't get on LBPC on both my computer and laptop :O

Good to know thats its back up and running XD		2011-04-08 12:26:00

Author:
Arnald23
Posts: 1843

I've literally only managed to gain access now. Do different countries have different ways of accessing the site, or was it just a delay?

Anyway, good to see it's all smoothed out! 		2011-04-08 12:43:00

Author:
Mr_T-Shirt
Posts: 1477

It takes time for updated IP address info to propagate through the DNS network the Internet is based on, so location does factor in.

(DNS = Domain Name Server, a computer that contains a list of URLs and the IP addresses associated with them. Your Internet Service Provider assigns one to you unless you happen to have manually entered the IP address of a DNS you prefer.)		2011-04-08 13:01:00

Author:
BlackWolfe
Posts: 299

When you type our URL into your browser and hit enter, your browser goes through a series of connections and redirects in order to locate our server. One of those steps is the transition from something called a "name server" to our server's IP address. This is how URLs are tied to servers: we register the LBPCentral.com domain and tie our server's IP address to it (via a config panel offered by the registrar) so that when you type in that URL, it directs you to our server.

To clarify on this point, DNS is a distributed system, meaning that no one server knows the IP address for every domain name, which means resolution is an iterative process, so in order to find the IP address for "www.lbpcentral.com", it first has to look up "com" and "lbpcentral.com".

The process starts at one of the machines at "root-servers.net". Since you need to know the IP address in order to query their DNS servers, these are hardcoded into the resolver. The response from each DNS server is either the IP address you're after, or the domain name for another DNS server which has the authoritative information for the domain you're looking for. The whole process works something like this...

It asks "a.root-servers.net" who holds the records for the "com" domain, and gets back "a.gtld-servers.net"
It asks "a.gtld-servers.net" who holds the records for the "lbpcentral.com" domain and gets back "ns1.lbpcentral.com"
It asks "ns1.lbpcentral.com" for the IP address of "www.lbpcentral.com" and gets back "66.84.12.28"

...at which point it can establish the HTTP connection to the webserver.

You may have noticed a catch-22 there, in that it would need to already know the IP address of "ns1.lbpcentral.com" in order to find out its IP address. This is avoided by having what are known as glue records (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System#Circular_dependencies_and_glue_ records) stored on "gtld-servers.net" which stores, for example, the IP address of the "ns1.lbpcentral.com" server, thus breaking this cyclic dependency. It was these glue records which were incorrect.



I've literally only managed to gain access now. Do different countries have different ways of accessing the site, or was it just a delay?

Since DNS resolution can require many queries to get an authoritative response, the IP address records are cached by your ISP's DNS server, so you have to wait for the cached records to expire before it will pick up the changed address from the authoritative system. The particular records which were incorrect had a cache lifetime of 48 hours, so depending on when your ISP last checked the authoritative system, the records could take up to 48 hours to expire.		2011-04-08 14:08:00

Author:
Aya042
Posts: 2870

No worries CC. Those of us that noticed can think of it as a short ... vacation! Thanks for all your work in keeping this site awesome 2011-04-08 14:27:00

Author:
Powershifter
Posts: 668

CC, you're the best! You always manage to fix all the issues we are experiencing, even if they don't happen often. 2011-04-08 14:54:00

Author:
Chump
Posts: 1712

I didn't even noticed anything about it because I was on school.

Glad that it is fixed though, let's hope it doesn't come back! 		2011-04-08 15:17:00

Author:
yoda97yoda
Posts: 121

Wow CC, I'm impressed! Thank you, and all the LBPC staff, for fixing this so quickly!*

*Some people are going to argue that other sites can pick themselves up faster, but considering we have an admin who's still high school (?), along with very techy mods, I say this was a fast repair!		2011-04-08 15:34:00

Author:
CyberSora
Posts: 5551

In short: In other words they didnt set up DNS this explains why i didnt see any diffrence lol

Yea now i see huge boost, which is what i wanted, since LBPC was hell slow that it was pain to navigate sometimes 		2011-04-08 16:11:00

Author:
Shadowriver
Posts: 3991

My first reflex was to check InternIC to make sure there was an address listed at all. Then I was all "what good does that do me, I won't know if it's the right IP address."2011-04-08 16:22:00

Author:
BlackWolfe
Posts: 299

Good to see it up and running today
Didn't want all my peoples that I worked for to go poof...that would be sad		2011-04-08 16:31:00

Author:
AdenRalumdan
Posts: 296

and i was about to reconfigure my interwebs....2011-04-08 18:34:00

Author:
Unknown User

You lsot me there Aya, with... well... everything you said D:

Anywho, I figured it was just another server thingie. No worries. I survived. :kz:		2011-04-08 20:26:00

Author:
RockSauron
Posts: 10882

I thought this happened to me, because I poked the Wall Plug-In with a Fork. :kz:2011-04-08 21:49:00

Author:
IronSkullKid99
Posts: 515

Wow CC, I'm impressed! Thank you, and all the LBPC staff, for fixing this so quickly!*

*Some people are going to argue that other sites can pick themselves up faster, but considering we have an admin who's still high school (?), along with very techy mods, I say this was a fast repair!
I was actually in school when I was notified of the issue (thanks Morgana25), so I was on my phone (trying to avoid getting caught of course >_>) bouncing back and forth between talking with Adrian and sending out various emails/support requests until the problem was nailed down and rectified. I think the issue would have been resolved much more quickly had I actually been home at the time. Sorry about that!

On this point: I graduate June 2nd, at which point I will pick up a tablet/laptop (using my graduation gift) that will stick with me at almost all times (once I'm in college, it will actually be always). So if something does go wrong in the future, my location should be irrelevant.

Thanks again everyone 		2011-04-09 03:18:00

Author:
ConfusedCartman
Posts: 3729

If your Mobile phone is still having problems, clear the cache and retype the address, your user name, and password. It will locate the right IP address and from then on you shouldn't have a problem with it. Worked for me at least2011-04-09 16:02:00

Author:
KILLA_TODDZILLA
Posts: 653


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