Aagh! Forum is down. But main (home) page is up.

[ForumFan]

I'm getting this message for myforum.com/forums:

An unexpected database error occurred. Please try again later.

But the home page myforum.com is up.

No changes or updates have been made to the website.

 

[Jeremy P]

If you right click and view the source, an error message will likely appear.

 

[Bryan]

Your error is <!-- MySQL statement prepare error [1286]: Unknown storage engine 'InnoDB' -->

Your front page is WordPress which is probably using a different database.

 

[Bryan]

Make sure innodb is enabled in your my.cnf

 

[Jeremy P]

That would be a server issue with MySQL then. I'd check your MySQL error log or take it up with your host.

 

[ForumFan]

I went to my cPanel and found this in the SQL database section:

The MySQL server is currently offline.
Error encountered while fetching data: Can't create/write to file '/var/mysqltmp/#sql-temptable-e0266-3a45-12db.MAI' (Errcode: 13 "Permission denied").... redacted....

 

[ForumFan]

Of course, I have no idea what any of that means.

I have sent a support ticket to the host service (Knownhost).

 

[Bryan]

Knownhost will take care of it, I'd edit your database name and user out of the error though, Can never be too careful.

 

[ForumFan]

They fixed it! Phew! Am I the only one who feels a sense of panic when your forum goes down? It hasn't happened much, thankfully. But when it does.... I get palpitations! LOL!

 

[zappaDPJ]

Am I the only one who feels a sense of panic when your forum goes down?

That sense of panic can be minimized by knowing you've got a very recent backup to rely on just in case

 

[Suzanne O]

This happens sometimes on namecheap. I tell them my forum is down. They will tell me that it's a maintence issue.

 

[Saphira]

Same issue, same hosting, just now. It was solved quickly. Mistakes happen.

 

[ForumFan]

That sense of panic can be minimized by knowing you've got a very recent backup to rely on just in case

My host does an automatic back-up once a day. I just upgraded to every 12 hours.

 

[TPerry]

My host does an automatic back-up once a day. I just upgraded to every 12 hours.

Never rely on your hosting provider for backups. Do your own and save them off the hosting platform.
There have been plenty who did rely on their host to do backups, but those restores failed.

 

[ForumFan]

Never rely on your hosting provider for backups. Do your own and save them off the hosting platform.
There have been plenty who did rely on their host to do backups, but those restores failed.

What is the best (efficient / easy) way to do that? Thanks.

 

[TPerry]

What is the best (efficient / easy) way to do that? Thanks.

For me (since I am on a VPS) I simply have scripts (that run via VPS CRON jobs) that dumps the database and then backups it and the site files up and places them in a central repository on the VPS. I then have automation on my Mac desktop that connects to the VPS and synchronizes that directory with my local directory on the Mac. After that is done I have infrastructure in place that synchronizes those files to a local NFS share on a Dell server in my computer room and then also to a remote VPS (a separate provider than Hetzner that the site is ran on) that I use for VPN usage.
If you are on shared hosting and using a panel, there is typically a backup option you can use in it. You would then have to make sure you have FTP/SFTP (latter preferred) access to the location it dumps those backups and then you should be able to automate FTP/SFTP connections and downloads. I use Transmit on the Mac and it natively has the ability to synchronize the files.

 

[ForumFan]

For me (since I am on a VPS) I simply have scripts (that run via VPS CRON jobs) that dumps the database and then backups it and the site files up and places them in a central repository on the VPS. I then have automation on my Mac desktop that connects to the VPS and synchronizes that directory with my local directory on the Mac. After that is done I have infrastructure in place that synchronizes those files to a local NFS share on a Dell server in my computer room and then also to a remote VPS (a separate provider than Hetzner that the site is ran on) that I use for VPN usage.
If you are on shared hosting and using a panel, there is typically a backup option you can use in it. You would then have to make sure you have FTP/SFTP (latter preferred) access to the location it dumps those backups and then you should be able to automate FTP/SFTP connections and downloads. I use Transmit on the Mac and it natively has the ability to synchronize the files.

Sorry, but I don't know what most of that means.

I am on shared hosting. There are some back-up options in the cPanel that I can see. One of them allows me to manually download a back-up to my own computer. But it's manual, and obviously I'm not going to do that daily. There's another option, "Jet Back-up" which is automated and keeps 30 copies (don't know where). But the most recent incremental back-up on the list is Dec 25th, for some reason.

 

[James]

For me (since I am on a VPS) I simply have scripts (that run via VPS CRON jobs) that dumps the database and then backups it and the site files up and places them in a central repository on the VPS. I then have automation on my Mac desktop that connects to the VPS and synchronizes that directory with my local directory on the Mac. After that is done I have infrastructure in place that synchronizes those files to a local NFS share on a Dell server in my computer room and then also to a remote VPS (a separate provider than Hetzner that the site is ran on) that I use for VPN usage

You backing up the nuclear codes?

Very thorough

 

[TPerry]

Sorry, but I don't know what most of that means.

I am on shared hosting.

yeah, lot of it won't apply if on shared hosting. You should still do a manual backup at least once a week and download that. That way, you will never be more than 7 days behind if you do have an issue and the host backup is not valid.

Very thorough

very early in my web forum career I got bit by not having a valid backup... vowed to never let that happen again.

 

[TimeWizardCosmo]

Man, I remember those days. I'm 20 years down the road from my time on shared hosting but those moments of panic are etched into my psyche for all eternity.

This one sounds like the SQL service stalled or got hung up, that happens sometimes especially on a shared host, or if you're trying to do a bit too much at once. "Turn it off and back on again". I'll echo the backup vigilance above, but also don't be afraid to dig in and see what the wires do too. After a while, you'll decide running stuff on your own VPS isn't as scary as it first looked.

Glad you got it back online!