18MAR15 - SCHEDULED DOWNTIME

Printed From: Illyriad
Category: News & Announcements
Forum Name: News & Announcements
Forum Description: Changes, patch release dates, server launch dates, downtime notifications etc.
URL: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/forum_posts.asp?TID=6230
Printed Date: 17 Apr 2022 at 22:17
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: 18MAR15 - SCHEDULED DOWNTIME

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Subject: 18MAR15 - SCHEDULED DOWNTIME
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2015 at 04:20

And we're back.

Updates and upgrades were broadly successful. Probably nothing you'll notice tbh, sorry to say :(

Some minor points about this specific time period that you may notice are:

Times of things that were set to occur in the window between 0500 server-time and now (about 0800) may be "off" from what you expected. ie, if something was due to complete at 0535, it might say it completed at 0742 instead. Don't worry, though! It all completed in the linear order in which things were supposed to complete. All I'm saying is that you may find "clumps of timestamps of things completing that were due to be more spread out across the downtime window". This should have little to no impact on anything, except...

... it is possible that some cotters or herbalists that were due to return during this period *may* have farmed some patches of herbs and grapes to extinction. I'm sure some of you remember this from the last time the harvesting respawn "jammed". We certainly do! Which is why we will be comparing before and after snapshots and will return any accidentally over-harvested resource patches back to the locations they occupied before the scheduled downtime began. This will happen momentarily.

Many, many thanks for your patience.

Regards,

~~Hi Everyone,~~

Our core hosting ISP for the gameserver has some upgrades to their Core Edge firewalls coming up, and we're going to take the opportunity to piggy-back in and apply some OS patches and a hardware upgrade or two to the Illyriad gameserver environment.

~~So the Illyriad Gameserver will be offline for a period of up-to 4 hours:~~

~~FROM WEDNESDAY 18MAR15 AT 0500 GMT (0100 EASTERN US)~~

~~UNTIL WEDNESDAY 18MAR15 AT 0900 GMT (0500 EASTERN US)~~

~~During this period:~~

~~The forums will remain up~~
Any scheduled events (eg building completions, armies arriving etc) that would have completed during this 4 hour window will complete in the order in which they would have completed, before we return the server to service

So, basically, what this means is that during the 4 hour scheduled downtime window you will be unable to login and give *new* orders to your towns or cities, but everything that was meant to have happened will have happened, in the order in which it should have happened, before the game is returned to service.

~~If we are able to return the gameserver to active status before 0900 GMT, then we will.~~

~~Many thanks for your patience and understanding!~~

Replies:

Posted By: Elias_Knight
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2015 at 04:24

I may not live without Illy for 4 hours !

Posted By: Lagavulin
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2015 at 04:30

I second Elias comment

Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2015 at 04:31

If I am awake, we can have a party on the forum. Or even if I am not awake, you can have a party without me.

Posted By: Aurordan
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2015 at 05:43

I look on this as a good excuse to sleep, so that's a positive.

Posted By: Mistery
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2015 at 07:46

/me thinks the Dev's planned this so I couldn't collect my free daily prestige :(

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http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/a/p/47877" rel="nofollow">

Posted By: IbnSenna
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2015 at 08:54

obviously a nice occasion to launch a massive Spring free prestige day? Wink

Posted By: Mona Lisa
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2015 at 16:20

... and fix SIG's to show more than 12 cities !

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Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2015 at 16:28

/me thinks they should just add "et al" to any mention of Mona's cities. To cover future growth.

Posted By: KillianBlack
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2015 at 20:31

lol

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[QUOTE=Kumomoto]A special mention to the hardest tourney fighters pound for pound anywhere, StA, too! God you folks are tough! Well done!

[/QUOTE]

Posted By: Epidemic
Date Posted: 17 Mar 2015 at 00:14

I have it on good authority that the patches and upgrades are being done as the last phase before implementation of AI factions, new battle magics, pathfinding, story arcs and an ending to the 3rd racial crafting quest.

Posted By: Nikon
Date Posted: 17 Mar 2015 at 01:48

Epidemic wrote:

I have it on good authority that the patches and upgrades are being done as the last phase before implementation of AI factions, new battle magics, pathfinding, story arcs and an ending to the 3rd racial crafting quest.

[17 Mar 01:44]<

ScottFitz> I have it on good authority that no one respects Epi's authority

brilliant!!

Posted By: Elias_Knight
Date Posted: 17 Mar 2015 at 16:13

I have no authority !

Posted By: Morgweneth
Date Posted: 17 Mar 2015 at 20:34

Be nice if you are right Eppi

Posted By: ajqtrz
Date Posted: 17 Mar 2015 at 21:15

Maybe Mona should just name the next city "et al" and we can enjoy the irony.

Posted By: jordigui
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 01:56

Is Illy already down?

Posted By: Marty
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 05:01

Dammit, I forgot to send my harvesters out....

Posted By: Artefore
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 05:01

[04:59]<System> I've… seen things you people wouldn't believe… Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those… moments… will be lost in time, like [small cough] tears… in… rain. Time… to die…

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"don't quote me on that" -Artefore

Posted By: Nikon
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 05:01

i think i won the spam hammer thing with all my ♥ :D

Posted By: Dewbacca
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 05:03

*waves*

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Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 05:04

And we're off to the races, sadly ending our 937 days of uninterrupted uptime!

Should the upgrades and patches take less time than 4 hours, and we're happy with everything then we'll return the server to service when it's ready.

Please do, however, bear in mind that our ISP still has the full 4 hour window for their Core Edge firewall upgrades, so even if we do return early, it's possible that there might still be some hiccups as the ISP upgrades their hardware (although they've indicated that they think downtime is unlikely). We'll keep you posted if this occurs.

Best,

Posted By: hrandjt
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 05:04

Looks like Nikon has found a spamhammer loophole.

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Posted By: Marty
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 05:05

Nikon wrote:

i think i won the spam hammer thing with all my ♥ :D

Would be a terrible thing if people were banned for too many love hearts.

Posted By: Princess Botchface
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 05:09

lol, I just changed a large number of people's roles, in my alliance, The Han Dynasty, but I hadn't sent out the IGM yet explaining it. Hopefully they won't notice!

Posted By: Farynn
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 05:28

Rats pajamas!

I totally forgot it was gonna be down tonight.... *sighs*

Welp... Now what to do??

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 08:06

And we're back.

Updates and upgrades were broadly successful. Probably nothing you'll notice tbh, sorry to say :(

Some minor points about this specific time period that you may notice are:

Many, many thanks for your patience.

Regards,

Posted By: TormenteSoul
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 08:23

Thanks SC!

Posted By: King korr
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 16:16

After the down time the Signature in the in games mails don't seem to be working, when clicked it show's a currupted icon image instead of the players Signature

Posted By: Berde
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 17:35

I'm experiencing the same issue.

Posted By: Orin
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 18:56

Same as both berde and King Korr unfortunately

Posted By: GM Rikoo
Date Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 19:42

We're aware of the mail signature issue. Thanks!

Rikoo

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Illyriad Community Manager / Public Relations / community@illyriad.co.uk

Posted By: Elias_Knight
Date Posted: 20 Mar 2015 at 05:41

Current Time 10:40 PM PST I was logged in and the game locked up cannot get back in anyone else having this issue?

Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 20 Mar 2015 at 05:42

Multiple people are having this problem.

http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/illy-server-down-runtime-error_topic6236.html" rel="nofollow - http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/illy-server-down-runtime-error_topic6236.html

Posted By: Elias_Knight
Date Posted: 20 Mar 2015 at 05:43

Server Error in '/' Application.

Runtime Error

Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine.

Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a <customErrors> tag within a "web.config" configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This <customErrors> tag should then have its "mode" attribute set to "Off".

<!-- Web.Config Configuration File -->

<configuration>
    <system.web>
        <customErrors mode="Off"/>
    </system.web>
</configuration>

Notes: The current error page you are seeing can be replaced by a custom error page by modifying the "defaultRedirect" attribute of the application's <customErrors> configuration tag to point to a custom error page URL.

<!-- Web.Config Configuration File -->

<configuration>
    <system.web>
        <customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="mycustompage.htm"/>
    </system.web>
</configuration>

Posted By: Mona Lisa
Date Posted: 20 Mar 2015 at 05:44

Yes, I was also kicked and cannot re-log. Me thinks the hamsters fell off the wheel ....

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Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 20 Mar 2015 at 05:44

Hi everyone,

We're aware of this unscheduled outage, and are working on finding out what's going on.

I'll keep you updated with progress - thanks for your patience.

Regards,

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 20 Mar 2015 at 06:16

Thanks everyone for your patience.

At 0520 we had an unscheduled outage where the server decided to reboot itself unexpectedly. We managed to restore active game service at approximately 0545, and coaxed the event queue (the "heartbeat" of Illy) to catch up with itself and resume normal service by 0602; the entire queue was processed by around 0614.

As with the previous (scheduled) downtime from Wednesday morning, the event queue will have processed the outstanding events in the order in which they were originally scheduled to occur, and so - apart from the outage - things will have occurred as they should have, and things should now be entirely back to normal.

We know why this unscheduled outage happened and what caused it, and there is a hotfix available from Microsoft.

We are currently assessing when to apply the hotfix - as this will involve some further downtime.

In the meantime, however, we believe we can entirely avoid/mitigate the combination of circumstances that caused the server to reboot itself, so there is no pressing need to apply the hotfix immediately - and so we can schedule this downtime and prepare everyone for it in advance.

We'll let you know in the next few days what course of action we've chosen.

Many apologies for this unscheduled downtime, and many thanks for your patience.

Regards,