Pocket PC Passion Down

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pocketpcpassion.com/' target='_blank'>http://www.pocketpcpassion.com/</a><br /><br /></div>I have some sad news from Dale. Some of you have been posting about the fact that his site went down last week, when the following message was posted:<br /><div class="quote"> <span class="quote">Quote:</span> Our apologies for the unscheduled maintenance that has temporarily taken <a href="www.pocketpcpassion.com">www.pocketpcpassion.com</a> offline. Due to a monitored drive failure in the RAID system, we have taken the opportunity to not only to replace the affected drive, which normally does not affect website availability, we have also opted to update the operating system to Windows Server 2003 for improved security...Please check back later today when the system should be back online. Thank you. </div><br />Unfortunately, problems have compounded. According to Dale's ISP, a hard disk <i>and</i> the RAID controller both died... and the tape backups are apparently corrupted. 8O :cry: The hosting company is in the process of sending the media to a data recovery company. I'm really sad to hear this, and I wish Dale the best of luck in getting his site back up. We've all got our fingers crossed for him... and rest assured if I hear any further news, I'll post it here.

[willkess71]

Thanks for the update.

[bbarker]

I'm really sorry to hear this. I wish the best to Dale and hope he is able to get everything back up soon.

[Gremmie]

Dale has had a history of bad luck with hard drives. Before he kept the server locally...the drive crashed and burned. Looks like lightening can strike twice.

[arnage2]

thats no fun

[David Johnston]

Speaking of which, you'd be astonished how many hosting firms claim to keep backups, but don't. It's merely a marketing ploy to keep up with the 'big boys'. Internally, managers and the accountants claim failures happen too rarely to make the expenditure worth it

Thing is, they probably have a point.

This sounds like genuine bad luck though :cry:

[Mexico]

Tapes... I don't like tapes... It seems like the words "corrupted" and "tape" have some sort of attraction to each other. I guess now you need a backup of the tape, in case it gets corrupted... :?

[bbarker]

Speaking of which, you'd be astonished how many hosting firms claim to keep backups, but don't. It's merely a marketing ploy to keep up with the 'big boys'. Internally, managers and the accountants claim failures happen too rarely to make the expenditure worth it

Thing is, they probably have a point.
That's why it's important to require a verifiable test restoration at some point to see how well protected you are. I wonder how well covered Pocket PC Thoughts is.

[jmulder]

That's why it's important to require a verifiable test restoration at some point to see how well protected you are.

Exactly. The best backups in the world are useless if you can't restore them.

[Jason Dunn]

I wonder how well covered Pocket PC Thoughts is.

We back up every third database entry to an 8-track tape once every full moon. :way to go:

[Howard2k]

Sounds like code for "Errm... We haven't actually been backing up your data". Even if there is a tape with corrupt data, SURELY they'd rotate tapes. Backup 101.

Anyway, hope he gets it all sorted.

[bbarker]

We back up every third database entry to an 8-track tape once every full moon.

I guess you're too young to remember 4-track tapes, which were considered more reliable than 8-track in their day.

[Dazbot]

I have some sad news from Dale. Some of you have been posting about the fact that his site went down last week, when the following message was posted:
Our apologies for the unscheduled maintenance that has temporarily taken www.pocketpcpassion.com offline. Due to a monitored drive failure in the RAID system, we have taken the opportunity to not only to replace the affected drive, which normally does not affect website availability, we have also opted to update the operating system to Windows Server 2003 for improved security...Please check back later today when the system should be back online. Thank you.
Unfortunately, problems have compounded. According to Dale's ISP, a hard disk and the RAID controller both died... and the tape backups are apparently corrupted. 8O :cry: The hosting company is in the process of sending the media to a data recovery company. I'm really sad to hear this, and I wish Dale the best of luck in getting his site back up. We've all got our fingers crossed for him... and rest assured if I hear any further news, I'll post it here.

Surely replacing the RAID controller and the dead hard drive and re-create the array using the other drives? I also thought it was possible to use a RAID array with one dead drive so long as another didn't fail.

[bbarker]

Surely replacing the RAID controller and the dead hard drive and re-create the array using the other drives? I also thought it was possible to use a RAID array with one dead drive so long as another didn't fail.
I guess it depends on the RAID level, although I assume a server would use RAID 5 or 10.

[bbarker]

Sounds like code for "Errm... We haven't actually been backing up your data". Even if there is a tape with corrupt data, SURELY they'd rotate tapes. Backup 101.
That's what I would think.

[kaitanium]

man i cant wait till the sites back up... i miss it already

[Janak Parekh]

Surely replacing the RAID controller and the dead hard drive and re-create the array using the other drives? I also thought it was possible to use a RAID array with one dead drive so long as another didn't fail.
You'd think, right? That's what Dale quoted them as saying. Obviously, there's more than meets the eye. :|

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

Sounds like code for "Errm... We haven't actually been backing up your data". Even if there is a tape with corrupt data, SURELY they'd rotate tapes. Backup 101.
That's what I would think.
You'd be amazed how many people don't compare tapes. I've found various situations while consulting where people had tape rotations, with backups all corrupted, due to IDE errors or somesuch.

--janak

[KimVette]

Dale needs to give his current host the boot and switch to a new one. :(

[Janak Parekh]

Dale needs to give his current host the boot and switch to a new one. :(
Isn't this the second time? :( It's good to find good providers at affordable rates. I know Jason's provider is largely hands-off when it comes to this box, so we do most of the backup and management ourselves.

--janak

[Jason Dunn]

I guess you're too young to remember 4-track tapes, which were considered more reliable than 8-track in their day.

4 TRACK? Damn, I didn't know there was such a thing. Maybe we should just get hardcore and back up our data to LP records... :mrgreen:

[manywhere]

Oh-oh, this reminds me that I should take a backup! :oops: My databases haven't exactly been backed-up before, so this should be interesting! :D

Tape drives? Do they still exist?? I thought they were the stuff computer museums were full of. I've heard and seen dozens backup their stuff to external USB/firewire harddrives which they think is way better and more reliable. Ok, companies might still use tape backups, I know, but how many here use tapes privately. (Off-topic poll anyone? :) )

[Phoenix]

Now that's no good. Boy, he's had more trouble with that site of his.

I hope you get it worked out, Dale.

[Pony99CA]

Dale needs to give his current host the boot and switch to a new one. :(
Isn't this the second time? :( It's good to find good providers at affordable rates. I know Jason's provider is largely hands-off when it comes to this box, so we do most of the backup and management ourselves.
Regarding Pocket PC Passion problems (more "P" alliteration :-)), last year he had problems with Front Page Extensions or something. His forums were working, but the home page went months without any updates. Of course, we discussed it here (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=126525#126525). ;-)

Steve

[sponge]

Oh-oh, this reminds me that I should take a backup! :oops: My databases haven't exactly been backed-up before, so this should be interesting! :D

Tape drives? Do they still exist?? I thought they were the stuff computer museums were full of. I've heard and seen dozens backup their stuff to external USB/firewire harddrives which they think is way better and more reliable. Ok, companies might still use tape backups, I know, but how many here use tapes privately. (Off-topic poll anyone? :) )

For this small business I work for, we use tape backups, 20GB uncompressed, 40GB compressed tapes.

[dazz]

8O Just backed up my site! This is a good reminder to do this.

I feel terrible for Dale. I can't imagine how this must feel for him.

I'm hoping he gets things back up and running soon.

[KimVette]

[quote=Janak Parekh]
Regarding Pocket PC Passion problems (more "P" alliteration :-)), last year he had problems with Front Page Extensions or something. His forums were working, but the home page went months without any updates. Of course, we discussed it here (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=126525#126525). ;-)

Steve

The problem was corrupt files and] problems with the Frontpage extensions.

[Jonathon Watkins]

The problem was corrupt files and] problems with the Frontpage extensions.

It never rains, but it always pours...... :|

[KimVette]

Any word on Dale and PPCPassion?

[Pony99CA]

Any word on Dale and PPCPassion?
Wow, it's still down. I guess "later today" has turned into "later next month". :-(

Can you imagine people's withdrawal symptoms if Thoughts were down for a month? 0X :lol:

Steve

[bbarker]

I really feel badly for Dale.

[Janak Parekh]

Any word on Dale and PPCPassion?
None through my regular channels. :( My guess is Dale is himself waiting to hear from his ISP. If one of you want to fire off an email to Dale or Dave Evans, please do let us know what you hear. If I remember, I'll make an inquiry sometime this week.

--janak

[bbarker]

It seems Dale or whoever developed his site would have a local copy. Even if the content is outdated, the structure may exist. If so, a worst case scenario would be starting over with the same site structure and code. I wonder if that's possible.

[Daviddjr]

Hello,

Does anyone know of a valid, working email address for Dale? I tried [email protected] and that was returned. I'm assuming anything to @pocketpcpassion.com will be returned.

I'd love to offer hosting on my "server" temporarily for him.

Thanks.

David Devaney, Jr.

[Ed Hansberry]

Hello,

Does anyone know of a valid, working email address for Dale? I tried [email protected] and that was returned. I'm assuming anything to @pocketpcpassion.com will be returned.

I'd love to offer hosting on my "server" temporarily for him.
Hosting isn't the problem. The whole database for the site is gone. He could start from scratch anywhere. I think he is in limbo right now waiting to see what can be reconstructed from the hosts so-called backups. :?

[Janak Parekh]

bbarker -- the problem is Dale doesn't have his own database backup... and the ISP's is having issues or something. :(

Daviddjr -- try dale (at) pocketpcpassion.com. His email is hosted independently of the website, AFAIK. Maybe dcoffing if that bounces. As Ed implied, I'm not sure he needs new hosting, but maybe you can work with him to update the message and/or formulate a battle plan. :)

--janak

[dazz]

I tried sending a couple of messages to Dale a while ago but got no response. The messages didn't bounce back, just no response.

Perhaps Dale is enjoying the summer and is in no panic to get the site operational. &lt;shrug> :wink:

Either way, I feel bad for him. I did offer to host a forum for him and then export it to his forum when it is back up but again, no response.

Dave Evans, the moderator/assistant editor at PPCPassion is a friend of mine and he has said that even he hears very little from Dale.

I'm sure he'll be back soon! 8)

[KimVette]

What is Dale's email address? I lost it over the course of the last year but I'd like to drop him a line.

--Kim

[LeggNet]

What is Dale's email address? I lost it over the course of the last year but I'd like to drop him a line.

--Kimdale.c(AT)pocketpcpassion.com

Cheers, Rich

[tommy]

Surely replacing the RAID controller and the dead hard drive and re-create the array using the other drives? I also thought it was possible to use a RAID array with one dead drive so long as another didn't fail.

I've seen raid controllers go south and pretty much take the whole array with it. It doesn't happen very often but it does happen.

[KimVette]

[quote=Dazbot]

I've seen raid controllers go south and pretty much take the whole array with it. It doesn't happen very often but it does happen.

Coincidentally, I've had a RAID controller die and take the array with it (along with seven months' of daily builds - fortunately backups were not critical because source control provided for a repeatable build), and it was in an HP Netserver - yet another reason for me to hate all things HP. ;)

[mccollin]

This is a bummer... I feel terrible for Dale that PocketPCPassion has had this problem. It seems that every few months some PDA related site goes tilt with a bad drive and no backup. The one big one I remember is PDABuzz... 5 years of forum data lost... over 30K members. The site is back, but the forums never recovered to the level prior to the failure. There are many others over the last few years. It seems that one of three things usually happens. They are able to go back many months and pull a really old backup... losing many months of forum discussion; or they recreate the site without the forum history.... and the forums usually never recover; or they just close up shop and move on with life.

I especially feel bad in this case because the idea for pdaPhoneHome originated from a moderator at PocketPCPassion calling for someone to create an FAQ for the Pocket PC Phone Edition. As that was created, the site materialized to fill a niche for pdaPhones. It would be a terrible loss to the Pocket PC world for this site to not come back.

I would think there would be a backup somewhere since the site had several big changes that weren't that far back in the past. You would think that there would be an old copy of the site data and code from one of those development cycles. :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Pony99CA]

I heard one rumor that Dale may open a new Pocket PC site (or Pocket PC Passion under a different name). I don't see why, but I'm just passing this on.

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

I heard one rumor that Dale may open a new Pocket PC site (or Pocket PC Passion under a different name). I don't see why, but I'm just passing this on.
Well, if I hear anything, I'll be sure to announce it when (if?) it does happen.

--janak

[KimVette]

This is a bummer... I feel terrible for Dale that PocketPCPassion has had this problem. It seems that every few months some PDA related site goes tilt with a bad drive and no backup. The one big one I remember is PDABuzz... 5 years of forum data lost... over 30K members. The site is back, but the forums never recovered to the level prior to the failure. There are many others over the last few years. It seems that one of three things usually happens.

This happened with the first crash Dale ran into - I think he's been through three crashes now with PocketPCPassion, and the board never really recovered from the one before the current crash.

He REALLY needs to find a new host.

[Ed Hansberry]

This happened with the first crash Dale ran into - I think he's been through three crashes now with PocketPCPassion, and the board never really recovered from the one before the current crash.

He REALLY needs to find a new host.
IIRC, that wasn't a crash. Front Page locked up on him and no matter what he did, the site wouldn't take Front Page updates, so it stagnated. I don't recall how that got fixed.

Please check back later today when the system should be back online. Thank you.

Clearly, this is the "long but finite period of time" definition of the word "day." (bonus points to anyone that understands that reference - and yes, it is relevant to Dale) ;-)

[Pony99CA]

This happened with the first crash Dale ran into - I think he's been through three crashes now with PocketPCPassion, and the board never really recovered from the one before the current crash.

He REALLY needs to find a new host.
IIRC, that wasn't a crash. Front Page locked up on him and no matter what he did, the site wouldn't take Front Page updates, so it stagnated. I don't recall how that got fixed.
That's what I remember, too. The forums were working, but the home page was stagnant. See the link I posted earlier in thread for that discussion.

Please check back later today when the system should be back online. Thank you.
Clearly, this is the "long but finite period of time" definition of the word "day." (bonus points to anyone that understands that reference - and yes, it is relevant to Dale) ;-)
It sounds like a reference to the "long day" creation belief, where the six days God took to create the universe were symbolic days, not literal 24-hour days. Dale is a very religious guy, hence the relevance with Dale. Do I get the bonus? :-)

Steve

[Ed Hansberry]

Please check back later today when the system should be back online. Thank you.
Clearly, this is the "long but finite period of time" definition of the word "day." (bonus points to anyone that understands that reference - and yes, it is relevant to Dale) ;-)
It sounds like a reference to the "long day" creation belief, where the six days God took to create the universe were symbolic days, not literal 24-hour days. Dale is a very religious guy, hence the relevance with Dale. Do I get the bonus? :-)
Yup. Your very own dance!

:alfdance:

FYI, they aren't symbolic days, but that really is another discussion. :wink:

[Paragon]

Hi guys,

I wish I could fill you in better, but I'm afraid I don't know a lot either, since I have had no reply from several emails or phone calls I have made to Dale......I have spoke to his wife and he IS fine, and very, very busy. As most of you know Dale is a minister, and also does a lot of traveling. Because of this he has been a bit elusive at times. ;)

Because of the time Dale spends on the road it has always been difficult for him to devote the time that is needed to repair problems. Nor is it possible for him to do the routine maintenance that some other sites may do, such as their own backups. So when something like this happens to Pocket PC Passion it can be extremely difficult to repair, and is usually totally out of his hands.


Over the years there have been a lot of people who contributed to Passion in a very big way, so it is sad to think it may be gone, but I fear it probably is...that_is_in_no_way_official Those that know Dale, know that this will be weighing on his mine very much.

For those of you who helped me with things while doing my duties there....Thank you very much! Although I had backed off somewhat in my involvement at Passsion before the crash, and Pocket PCs in general, I still miss posting there with you.

Dave

[kaitanium]

tis sad...it cant die!

[jlp]

Please check back later today when the system should be back online. Thank you.
Clearly, this is the "long but finite period of time" definition of the word "day." (bonus points to anyone that understands that reference - and yes, it is relevant to Dale) ;-)
It sounds like a reference to the "long day" creation belief, where the six days God took to create the universe were symbolic days, not literal 24-hour days. Dale is a very religious guy, hence the relevance with Dale. Do I get the bonus? :-)
Yup. Your very own dance!

:alfdance:

FYI, they aren't symbolic days, but that really is another discussion. :wink:

Care to point a link (or start a discussion in the appropriate thread)?

[yankeejeep]

It would seem that we finally understand what Dale was trying to do with his notice - start a discussion about the Cosmology of the Internet. All we need is Bill Moyers to make an appearance.

I haven't been able to access the site yet. Any progress reports available?

[tthiel]

What they have one set of backup tapes? Thats incompetent.

I have some sad news from Dale. Some of you have been posting about the fact that his site went down last week, when the following message was posted:
Our apologies for the unscheduled maintenance that has temporarily taken www.pocketpcpassion.com offline. Due to a monitored drive failure in the RAID system, we have taken the opportunity to not only to replace the affected drive, which normally does not affect website availability, we have also opted to update the operating system to Windows Server 2003 for improved security...Please check back later today when the system should be back online. Thank you.
Unfortunately, problems have compounded. According to Dale's ISP, a hard disk and the RAID controller both died... and the tape backups are apparently corrupted. 8O :cry: The hosting company is in the process of sending the media to a data recovery company. I'm really sad to hear this, and I wish Dale the best of luck in getting his site back up. We've all got our fingers crossed for him... and rest assured if I hear any further news, I'll post it here.