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If I change host then the IP will change and I'll keep it secret this time :-)
@legoprods, yes but the CSS comes from Brickset.com which may not be serving it at the moment. I guess I could disable the custom theme to get rid of the unstyled header although my browser still has the CSS cached so I see it properly.
"Website is offline. No cached version of this page is available. (504 Timeout)"
"Website is offline. No cached version of this page is available." (Error 524: A timeout occurred)
I am guessing this will improve over the next few hours as Cloudflare's CDN manages to cache more and more content and that in turn will lighten the load on the origin Brickset server.
The old Brickset is still completely unreachable for me.
http://new.brickset.com/login
If you move to a better provider, presumably there will be cost implications for you, so I just want to clarify something.
I buy a shedload of stuff from Amazon every year - does the referral link on the Brickset homepage only earn you money on Lego purchases, or is it anything?
'Cos if so, I'll use the link everytime.
FWIW, I can't access either brickset.com or new.brickset.com at all.
(Except to occasionally to see the 'brickset is down, try the new site' holding page).
I am however still seeing a lot of requests for css/jpgs etc. in the webserver logs which I thought it would cut down on.
I'm also not seeing any traffic in the dashboard yet, but given I only enabled it 12 hrs ago presumably it takes time to display.
-The main site, www.brickset.com is still offline (although as I type I've enabled it again to see the effect)
-new.brickset.com seems to be sort of working but is very slow to initially load when I try, and I can't get beyond the home page, pages are simply not loading.
- Cloudflare has been enabled and may or may not be working or helping, I can't tell yet!
- It does seem like quite a few people are using the new site and I can see the database is being queried normally, and SQL Express seems to be holding up fairly well.
- Another DoS was launched this morning from a similar IP to yesterday and may well be still underway. Steps have been taken to minimise its effect but it's probably still having an impact.
Obviously I won't be officially launching the new site today, as originally planned :(
I'll continue to work with ORI to resolve the issues (when they wake up) and also pursue hosting elsewhere as a backup plan.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience.
If you are able to, please continue to support the site via these Amazon links during these difficult times:
http://www.amazon.com/?tag=brickset-20
http://www.amazon.co.uk/?tag=brickset-21
Also, please let me know, what's the site like for you?
Thank you!
I would have expected to see Cloudflare helping by now but it doesn't seem to be for me.
As you have said already you have full backups of the site I would be talking to alternative hosting providers, explain the situation and ask about how quickly they could get you back up and running. I would expect most of the credible providers to be able to spin up an suitable environment in less than 24 hours and probably more like a few hours for some of them. My first thought was rackspace.com*, they are not cheap but you do get what you pay for in my experience.
* I don't work for them, before anyone asks!
You should consider setting up a PayPal donation page too. I would be happy to put a few quid in to help get Brickset.com back and keep it running and I am sure a number of others on here would as well!
Gosh, I did not know how addicted I really am to Brickset until it started working properly. I miss it so much! Still need to add new sets to my collection and it feels horrible not being able to do it.
Thanks for everything you do Huw!
I remember working on a system years ago with really heavy queries and never saw more than about 12 connections for 4-500+ users on any one server in the cluster with a single database server driving them.
The old site (site-is-down message) shows up for me, the new site works occasionally. I didn't test in detail how well the new site works.
I'm a little bit confused. Shouldn't DoS attacks shouldbe handled by the provider? They have plenty of options at their disposal to handle a DoS attack swiftly and effectively, especially if it's not DDoS. Is it just me, or do others also have the impression that the provider is leaving @Huw alone with this problem?
may those ddos-ers emd in the M***B***-Hell
An advantage of Express over using a shared SQL server is that I can see activity and also use a profiler to see what queries are running and how long they take. It's been an eye opener, actually: the main search stored procedure was optimised for the new site and most queries take 1-1.5 seconds to execute, but a few lesser used ones, those operating on the collection table, with millions of records, look like they could use some index optimisation.
There are currently 7 SQL sessions although of course the site is nowhere near running normally.
I have to assume that it's a network issue currently because the CPU is averaging 40% and the database is chugging along nicely so the actual server is not being stressed.
ORI have been helping sort the DoS but I think they've been plagued with a number of them over the last week or so, for whatever reason. As for the attacks on Brickset, a single German IP address again started requesting thousands of /browse/themes/ pages this morning. Yesterday there was 50,000 requests in an hour. Today I spotted it earlier and have blocked the entire subnet now.
A question for you experts out there: if I'm using CloudFlare now, any protection it provides against DoS would be bypassed once the IP address of the server is known . How easy is it to find the IP address out? Should I worry?
Seems to be fast enough anyway - the main page anyway.
I know it's your livelihood now, which makes everything all the more pressing for you, but don't put yourself under any pressure on our account. Take a rest if you need it, and know that you have our total support.
The main www.brickset.com is up now, although I can't connect to it still from here. The SQL server is chugging away nicely and there are about 20 sessions open. 116 people are using the main site and 160 the new so it must be working for someone!
I've asked ORI for and update/plan by the end of today and if it's not to my satisfaction I will be hosting elsewhere: I have a provider and quote lined up, I just need to give them the go-ahead. It will be a hefty dedicated server with SQL2008 web edition on the same box as the front end.
If that occurs I should have it up and running on that platform tomorrow or Wednesday, particularly as the DNS won't need changing from CloudFlare, just the server IP address setting there.
Thank you all for your kind words and support.
It's probably nothing like that at all, but it crossed my mind.
(Apologies in advance for my being stupid).
You're doing a great job Huw, and everyone on here is 100% behind you!
I was certain that it is a false positive or something else because on another computer with updated Avira I get no warning.
Seeing today that brickset is still having troubles I decided to tell you this just in case it may have some relevance to the case.
A huge thanks @Huw for all of your hard work over the last few days. Hopefully we will all be able to say very soon that we lived through the great Brickset crash of 2014 :o)
It's a pain, but it won't be forever.
All the best, @Huw !
We aren't going anywhere!