The great crash

JonClarke · 2012-01-02 17:10:23

Three questions:

1) That's been done to stop this happening again?

2) What is being done gto assure good backups?

3) Any chance of posts later than 2008 ever coming back?

SpaceNut · 2012-01-02 22:58:19

The have gone to a cloud rather than a single server....

Mark Friedenbach · 2012-01-02 23:02:44

It's easier to lose data in the cloud than an actual server. Is there a complete and reliable backup strategy?

Adaptation · 2012-01-03 00:39:25

Any respectable cloud is far more reliable than a single server most have offsite redundant capabilities if any server or drive crashes it is automatically shifted to a different location and the end users rarely even know something happens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SCZzgfdTBo

Mark Friedenbach · 2012-01-03 01:06:28

I meant due to human error Which, by the way, is what brought down newmars, IIRC.

Glandu · 2012-01-05 04:30:07

Nah. If you have a bunch of professionals, like a bank has, it's safer to store on your own server. If you just have amateurs on their free time, the cloud is thousands times safer. Not as safe as they claim, but at least they have professionals concerned with the safety of datas.

JoshNH4H · 2012-01-05 13:02:17

It was my understanding that newmars crashed due to a lack of space on the server, which seems to be more a human error than a machine error. That said, newmars was already hosted with some kind of professional hosting service, so I don't know where that puts us wrt the cloud.

Josh Cryer · 2012-01-05 21:43:47

Nah, Josh, I don't think /var filling up was what caused it, that was just an ongoing issue, which I don't know the cause... it was a hardware failure, the hard drive specifically. I believe we are currently a free Dreamhost 501(3)c account, which does have backups.

JoshNH4H · 2012-01-05 23:30:12

Well, that's good to know. I can't believe they didn't have a backup, I would think that kind of thing would be standard practice. Hope the new hosting is better.

Mark Friedenbach · 2012-01-06 00:09:47

Maybe the backup was on the /var partition :\

Marsman · 2012-03-01 19:13:09

It's not the end guys, this data can be recovered : http://www.recovermyfiles.com/

James Burk · 2012-08-16 23:13:02

Just for the record.... I inherited a hard drive from the previous webmaster of Mars Society which has the data from 2008-crash. We are in the process of recovering it. It's on a CentOS partition with no file table, but the files are there. I have gone a few rounds trying to get volunteer help to recover them, so I am probably just going to take it down to "Hard Drives Northwest" soon and pay the $ myself.

The new NewMars.com is hosted on the Mars Society's new Dreamhost account. If you have never heard of Dreamhost, check them out. I have been using them for 12+ years and they are amazing. We have full backups and so the same event should never happen again. Plus, we have backing from the Mars Society HQ (straight up to Dr. Robert Zubrin himself) to keep these forums running. So that is what we are going to do

Rxke · 2012-08-16 23:54:15

CentOS, using FAT? :confused:

If you have a PayPal account for stuff like that, I'll gladly contribute some money, disk recovery is expensive (I know, don't ask )

Rxke · 2012-08-17 00:52:11

you got ( a little bit of ) money

(I sent this as a gift, so you don't have to pay costs , I paid 1% costs, now I have 26 cent left, on my account, heehee! )

SpaceNut · 2012-08-17 21:21:08

jburk nice to hear that the data is not gone but in a state that is less retrievable than expected. It may be that the FAT was on the master drive and that this was a slaved drive in the computer...

CentOS stands for Community ENTerprise Operating System, which is a freely distributed Linux-type operating system. NTFS is a file system originally created by Microsoft for use with Windows NT and subsequent versions; despite its not being a Linux file system, Red Hat has built-in support for accessing data stored on an NTFS volume. You can mount an NTFS file system resident on an external device using your Red Hat computer.

James Burk · 2012-08-18 23:51:25

Well, the hard drive is at the repair shop. We'll see how it goes. Thanks again Rxke!!!!

Rune · 2012-08-19 03:15:12

We are going to get those posts back? Cool! Thanks for the hard work! 'Cause a lot of hard work went into writing them, and there are many threads I miss greatly. Hopefully it will also help getting people back to the site.

Rune. Keep up the good work!

James Burk · 2012-08-29 22:28:52

We have recovered a set of MySQL files from the old server. We are hopeful the NewMars.com forums data from 2007-2011 is in there. I am working on this with Josh Cryer and we hope to have this data restored very soon.
-James

Glandu · 2012-08-30 06:42:11

good news, thanks.

Marsman · 2012-10-01 21:50:58

How is the progress on recovering the files guys?

James Burk · 2012-10-01 23:41:53

Unfortunately it is not going well. We have 90 GB of MySQL *.bin log files, but no database schema to restore them with. We will need to reconstruct the original database schema, then play back the 90GB of log files into it. It is going to take some time, and it is somewhat beyond both my & Josh's technical ability to make this happen. We need somebody who is a real MySql geek to assist us. Any takers?

falkor · 2012-10-13 04:00:11

Webmaster I don't understand. you say "Unfortunately it is not going well. We have 90 GB of MySQL *.bin log files, but no database schema to restore them with" what are you talking about? I am looking at the forums, they seem to be working fine

Glandu · 2012-10-16 02:31:53

Well, there is nearly 2 years of post lost. I guess that's the part that they can't use. I know enough about databases to know it's not easy, & not enough to help.

James Burk · 2013-02-11 16:39:30

Hi Falkor,

I was referring to the restoration of the 2-3 years of posts when I said "Unfortunately it is not going well. We have 90 GB of MySQL *.bin log files, but no database schema to restore them with."

That is still the case. I have the files which I can share out but we need somebody with some mad SQL skills to reconstruct the DB from just these log files. I have talked to a few people and they say it can be done, but I have not been able to do it myself and havent found anybody else who has been willing to try.

"The gratitude of an entire Nation will be with you." if somebody (maybe somebody reading this) could successfully accomplish this task.

RGClark · 2013-02-12 15:14:50

jburk wrote:

Hi Falkor,
I was referring to the restoration of the 2-3 years of posts when I said "Unfortunately it is not going well. We have 90 GB of MySQL *.bin log files, but no database schema to restore them with."
That is still the case. I have the files which I can share out but we need somebody with some mad SQL skills to reconstruct the DB from just these log files. I have talked to a few people and they say it can be done, but I have not been able to do it myself and havent found anybody else who has been willing to try.
"The gratitude of an entire Nation will be with you." if somebody (maybe somebody reading this) could successfully accomplish this task.

Perhaps you should put the request out on the Usenet compsci groups and the various user forums on the topic.

Bob Clark

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#1 2012-01-02 17:10:23

The great crash

#2 2012-01-02 22:58:19

Re: The great crash

#3 2012-01-02 23:02:44

Re: The great crash

#4 2012-01-03 00:39:25

Re: The great crash

#5 2012-01-03 01:06:28

Re: The great crash

#6 2012-01-05 04:30:07

Re: The great crash

#7 2012-01-05 13:02:17

Re: The great crash

#8 2012-01-05 21:43:47

Re: The great crash

#9 2012-01-05 23:30:12

Re: The great crash

#10 2012-01-06 00:09:47

Re: The great crash

#11 2012-03-01 19:13:09

Re: The great crash

#12 2012-08-16 23:13:02

Re: The great crash

#13 2012-08-16 23:54:15

Re: The great crash

#14 2012-08-17 00:52:11

Re: The great crash

#15 2012-08-17 21:21:08

Re: The great crash

#16 2012-08-18 23:51:25

Re: The great crash

#17 2012-08-19 03:15:12

Re: The great crash

#18 2012-08-29 22:28:52

Re: The great crash

#19 2012-08-30 06:42:11

Re: The great crash

#20 2012-10-01 21:50:58

Re: The great crash

#21 2012-10-01 23:41:53

Re: The great crash

#22 2012-10-13 04:00:11

Re: The great crash

#23 2012-10-16 02:31:53

Re: The great crash

#24 2013-02-11 16:39:30

Re: The great crash

#25 2013-02-12 15:14:50

Re: The great crash

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