Moving to a new server....

[Rich_Z]

I just recently moved my vBulletin system over to a new server, and I'm having some severe problems. So I figured I would check to see whether the procedure I did might be the cause of it.

I created the domain on the new server and assigned an IP address to it.

I saved the database on the old server using MYSQLDUMP.

FTP'd the SQL file over to the new server.

TAR'd all of the vBulletin files and FTP'd that over to the new server.

Unpacked the vBulletin system.

Created the MySQL database.

Imported the SQL file into the database.

Only thing I had to change was that the user name for the new system was different than what is in the old system. The new server wouldn't allow as long of a name as the old server did. I went into config.fp and changed the user name and password there so it could access the MySQL database.

Except for some problems with a banner rotation package I am using (AdCycle) and getting a daemon running, it seemed to be working OK.

Up until an hour or so ago when I came over to check it and I cannot access the message board at all. Just hangs up completely when I try to access the forum main page.

Any ideas? Did I blow it up with the procedure I did?

If so, what's the best way to recover from this point?

Thanks.

[Steve Machol]

It sounds like you did everythingright, and the fact that it was working fine would indicate this. I suspect there's a server problem. What's the URL?

[Rich_Z]

Originally posted by Steve Machol
It sounds like you did everythingright, and the fact that it was working fine would indicate this. I suspect there's a server problem. What's the URL?

Yes, I think the server may be the problem as well, but there is now an argument about that. I am running a banner ad program that runs as a daemon. The tech people are telling me that this caused the problem. But I have been running this program on my old server for 10 to 11 months without any problem at all prior to the move.

I had an Apache failure, MySql failed, and FTP died. Have had to reboot the server several times in the last two days. Getting Segmentation Faults being logged.

I disabled the AdCycle software and it appears to be running, but I have logged some more Segmentation faults since then.'

What concerns me now is a possible corruption of the vBulletin database. I was looking around in there and I noticed that in my profile, my birthdate is now listed as being December 31, 1969. I should be so lucky. It is really July 21, 1950, and this is how it shows up in the Calendar as well as the user cp. In another of my logins the same exact figures are being shown. Not knowing the birthdays of my users, I haven't done any spot checks to see if there is an error there as well.

But this concerns me that it may be the tip of an iceberg. I would hate to have to roll back my entire message board to January 1, but if there is the likelihood of the db being corrupted when MySql failed, I may have no other choice.

Is there anyway to tell if I am sitting on a time bomb?

Oh yeah, the url is: http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums. BTW, this was a conversion from an Ikonboard system, so anything and everything may be suspect.

Thanks.

[Steve Machol]

Your birthday problem may be because of other issues (also server related.)

Here's the post with the fix:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=303737#post303737

To fix this you need to find this line in member.php:

$birthday = @date($calformat1,mktime(0,0,0,$bday[1],$bday[2],$bday[0]));

And replace it with:

$birthday = @date($calformat2,mktime(0,0,0,$bday[1],$bday[2],1993)) . ", $bday[0]";

To check your database, upload repair.php to your admin directory and run it from your browser.

[Rich_Z]

If this is the only problem I have and it is not an indication of a deeper problem, then I am not going to worry about it.

My fear is to commit further on this new server while a corrupted database is building up steam to crash on me.

Nothing else appears to be a problem, but with all those other server related errors, it had me spooked.

[Steve Machol]

Did you run repair.php? This will tell you if there are any problems with the database.

[Rich_Z]

Originally posted by Steve Machol
Did you run repair.php? This will tell you if there are any problems with the database.

Yes, I just ran it and had a whole bunch of warnings and a couple of ERRORS. I ran it the second time to see if it would clear the ERRORS up but I'm still getting them the second time through:

Checking table searchindexTableOperationTypeTextfc_forums01.searchindexcheckerrorKey in wrong position at page 5831680fc_forums01.searchindexcheckerrorCorruptRepairing table searchindexfc_forums01.searchindexrepairstatusOKOptimizing table searchindexfc_forums01.searchindexoptimizestatusOK

What prompted me to run the check now, was because I sat down at my computer and had this email waiting for me:

Database error in vBulletin 2.2.9:

Invalid SQL: SELECT template,title
FROM template
WHERE (title IN ('newpost_postpreview','error_nosubject','redirect_postthanks','email_moderator','emailsub ject_moderator','newthread_postpoll','newpost_attachment','newpost_disablesmiliesoption',' forumrules','newthread','posticons','posticonbit','vbcode_smilies','vbcode_smiliebit','vbc ode_smilies_getmore','vbcode_buttons','vbcode_sizebits','vbcode_fontbits','vbcode_colorbit s','gobutton','timezone','username_loggedout','username_loggedin','phpinclude','headinclud e','header','footer','forumjumpbit','forumjump','nav_linkoff','nav_linkon','navbar','nav_j oiner','pagenav','pagenav_curpage','pagenav_firstlink','pagenav_lastlink','pagenav_nextlin k','pagenav_pagelink','pagenav_prevlink')
AND (templatesetad=-1 OR templatesetid=0))


ORDER BY templatesetid
mysql error: Unknown column 'templatesetad' in 'where clause'

mysql error number: 1054

Date: Friday 03rd of January 2003 09:03:05 PM
Script: http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/forums/newthread.php3?s=&action=newthread&forumid=60
Referer: http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php3?s=&forumid=60

Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help......

[Steve Machol]

Originally posted by Rich_Z
Yes, I just ran it and had a whole bunch of warnings and a couple of ERRORS. I ran it the second time to see if it would clear the ERRORS up but I'm still getting them the second time through

Run it one more time. Any tables that are not 'Okay' will need to be repaired in phpMyAdmin. To do this, run this query for each table:

REPAIR TABLE tablename;

mysql error: Unknown column 'templatesetad' in 'where clause'

Did you copy-n-paste this error? There is no column named 'templatesetad' in the templateset table. If this is the actuall error, than it must be from a hack you've installed.

[Rich_Z]

Originally posted by Steve Machol
Run it one more time. Any tables that are not 'Okay' will need to be repaired in phpMyAdmin. To do this, run this query for each table:

REPAIR TABLE tablename;
Did you copy-n-paste this error? There is no column named 'templatesetad' in the templateset table. If this is the actuall error, than it must be from a hack you've installed.

I ran repair a third time and it apparently fixed the problem.

As for the emailed error, yes I cut and pasted it as I recieved it. And no, there are NO hacks in my system. I have never even attempted any and wouldn't know where to begin.


One thing I did notice was that apparently at the same time I was running this repair.php3 program, I got a bunch of segmentation errors logged by Apache:

[Fri Jan 3 13:00:41 2003] [notice] child pid 15737 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 13:14:05 2003] [notice] child pid 16568 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 16:08:30 2003] [notice] child pid 12231 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 18:01:43 2003] [notice] child pid 29937 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 20:53:25 2003] [notice] child pid 21859 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 20:53:30 2003] [notice] child pid 21877 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:03:06 2003] [notice] child pid 22737 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:04:47 2003] [notice] child pid 23755 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:10:27 2003] [notice] child pid 24331 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:12:55 2003] [notice] child pid 24316 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:13:16 2003] [notice] child pid 24354 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:15:13 2003] [notice] child pid 24337 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:15:51 2003] [notice] child pid 24320 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:15:56 2003] [notice] child pid 25385 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:31:02 2003] [notice] child pid 27560 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:31:05 2003] [notice] child pid 27523 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:31:15 2003] [notice] child pid 27546 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:31:17 2003] [notice] child pid 27545 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:34:50 2003] [notice] child pid 28228 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:35:40 2003] [notice] child pid 28231 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)
[Fri Jan 3 21:35:44 2003] [notice] child pid 28790 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)

Error check I did was:

cat /usr/local/apache/logs/error_log | grep -i 'segment'

Is it possible vBulletin (or PHP itself) is causing these segmentation errors?

[Steve Machol]

I have no idea what's causing the segmentation errios. Perhaps someone else will have an idea.

[Rich_Z]

Originally posted by Steve Machol
I have no idea what's causing the segmentation errios.
Perhaps someone else will have an idea.

I have inquired about this on another messageboard system related to server hosting issues and it appears that a popular front panel (Cpanel) for servers may be the culprit. Some guy did some checking around and 2 out of 2 he checked had segmentation errors (basically a buggy program trying to access memory outside of it's range). None of the other servers with other front panels had this problem.

Anyway, my server crashed again not long after my last message, so I am in the process of trying to recover the database and move back to my old server. I've had quite enough of the new one. Hopefully the return trip will be more pleasant than the one I've been on.

Thanks for all of your help.

[Steve Machol]

FWIW I run CPanel on my server and I'm not having this problem.

[Rich_Z]

Originally posted by Steve Machol
FWIW I run CPanel on my server and I'm not having this problem.

Try looking at your Apache error log to see if it is logging errors without notifying you about it:

cat /usr/local/apache/logs/error_log | grep -i 'segment'

I actually like Cpanel and and rather disappointed in what has happened. This was a Nocster server (BURSTNET). Perhaps they have misconfigured it or there is a hardware problem in there. Regardless, it has crashed hard every day since I moved vBulletin and AdCycle over to it on 01/01/03, and I'm about tired of that nonsense. All I know is that everything worked on my Dialtone server and everything crashed on my Nocster server. It don't get much plainer than that to me.

Thanks.

[Steve Machol]

I have a few but not many. And nothing that has caused any problems.

[Rich_Z]

Originally posted by Steve Machol
I have a few but not many. And nothing that has caused any problems.

Steve,

I was a programmer for a number of years, and still would be if I had the time to fiddle with it any longer. In all those years, I never wrote any code in a production application that wasn't there for a good reason. So if something were to fail and trigger an error message, it normally meant that the program tried to do something important yet failed to do so.

Has programming methodology changed lately to where that no longer applies? Programmers now put code into programs that no longer matters if it runs successfully or not?

If you are getting segmentation faults, even just a few of them, it means some process is trying to run that cannot complete successfully. That would make me real nervous if the server and what ever it was running was important to me.

I would not accept that sort of behavior from my local desktop and I certainly would not accept it from a production server. You couldn't even give something like that to me.

Just my opinion, of course.

Anyway, I rescued the database and have put it back on my old server. Like a dummy I committed to the new server FULLY, so I have to wait for the DNS info to propagate. I took a look at possibly changing the DNS info in CPanel to point back to my old server, but I'm not sure how to do that. Heck, I guess I really don't have much to lose by experimenting, now do I?