Xbox Nation - View Single Post - Administrative update regarding recent website issues

***Imperial*** · 07-09-2008, 11:33 PM

Dear Xbox Nation Users,

As you may well have noticed, the site has been plagued by a number of problems over the past several days. I will attempt to explain them as best I can. Due to several unknown Microsoft Server updates, the server hosting XN was crippled due to unknown error. Attempts to restart failed and no solution could be produced, even by Microsoft technicians. This could have also have been the work of an attacker attempting to disable the server and its normal operations, but this is speculation by the server's primary administrator. In order to restore the previous known safe state, an old backup was used that cleaned out the entire server's primary drive. Within this drive was Xbox Nation's most recent data as of July 7th. Because of a communication breakdown, the recent data was not backed up and instead overwritten with the old data.

A subsequent restoration of a corrupted database resulted in the numerous database errors that have been present on the site for the past few days. I did locate a backup from May 19th so this was restored. This backup was not corrupted and appears functional. The old database was from version 3.6.8 of the vBulletin software and I have run the proper upgrade to version 3.7.2, the latest version. Because of the upgrade, I will still need to re-configure all the necessary settings for the newest features.

There is some good news though! I've decided that the forum will have a new product added to it, a battle mod. Although still in a Beta state, I'm sure it will certainly be fun and entertaining to use while on the forum. In the mean time, as GoCrzy posted (on the corrupt one), posting & spamming and staying active is the best way to make up for what we have lost. Our server is now more secure, configured for automatic backups and I've learned excess amounts from this annoying ordeal. As always, any errors can be reported in the Questions / Comments / Concerns forums. Also this is a great time for any suggestions as we are on a semi-clean slate.

Let the march resume.

07-09-2008, 11:33 PM	#1 (permalink)
*Imperial* Community Administrator Location: California, USA Posts: 3,177	Administrative update regarding recent website issues Dear Xbox Nation Users, As you may well have noticed, the site has been plagued by a number of problems over the past several days. I will attempt to explain them as best I can. Due to several unknown Microsoft Server updates, the server hosting XN was crippled due to unknown error. Attempts to restart failed and no solution could be produced, even by Microsoft technicians. This could have also have been the work of an attacker attempting to disable the server and its normal operations, but this is speculation by the server's primary administrator. In order to restore the previous known safe state, an old backup was used that cleaned out the entire server's primary drive. Within this drive was Xbox Nation's most recent data as of July 7th. Because of a communication breakdown, the recent data was not backed up and instead overwritten with the old data. A subsequent restoration of a corrupted database resulted in the numerous database errors that have been present on the site for the past few days. I did locate a backup from May 19th so this was restored. This backup was not corrupted and appears functional. The old database was from version 3.6.8 of the vBulletin software and I have run the proper upgrade to version 3.7.2, the latest version. Because of the upgrade, I will still need to re-configure all the necessary settings for the newest features. There is some good news though! I've decided that the forum will have a new product added to it, a battle mod. Although still in a Beta state, I'm sure it will certainly be fun and entertaining to use while on the forum. In the mean time, as GoCrzy posted (on the corrupt one), posting & spamming and staying active is the best way to make up for what we have lost. Our server is now more secure, configured for automatic backups and I've learned excess amounts from this annoying ordeal. As always, any errors can be reported in the Questions / Comments / Concerns forums. Also this is a great time for any suggestions as we are on a semi-clean slate. Let the march resume.