Status: March 24, 2004:

Still waiting on the outcome of the bad SCSI drive as it could be a false alert by server or could be real.  Reminder, Daniel is sponsoring our server/hosting for free, so without pouring additional $$$ to make things go quicker, we'll have to be patient and wait for the final outcome to the solution to the problem (as outlined below).  Unfortunately, right this moment I'm also financially very tight at the moment due to paying my taxes due + prepaying in advance next years tax on a quartely basis (arrrgh!!!!!!), so can't even afford to fork out to rent a temporary dedicated server (would cost ~US$300-400/month) to reopen Animeboards.com on :(

Animeboards.com's current server hardware specs are as follows:

2U Rackmount
AMD Dual AthlonMP 2400+
2GB PC2100 REG ECC DDRAM
1x 18GB IBM 10k SCSI hdd - OS drive (one that is reporting failure)
1x 18GB Seagate 15k SCSI hdd - MySQL data drive
1x 80GB IDE backup drive - not mounted right now

If you AB members and visitors have any questions, suggestions or thoughts on this server crisis, please let me know.  I've setup a contact me email form here.

Status: March 17, 2004: Not again! :(

Well the server must be jinked, as that niggling problem I mentioned below turns out to be another SCSI hard drive failure probably a result of the original motherboard failure.  Daniel has gone down to the datacenter, NAC.net which houses the server to check it out personally.  The server is setup to email alerts to me and this was the last email I received from the server.

IMPORTANT: Do not ignore this email.
You should backup all the data on the hard drives listed below and replace them as soon as possible.
S.M.A.R.T has detected that they are not peforming within normal operating paramaters.

Disk Failure soon on /dev/sda 

Device: IBM DDYS-T18350M Version: S96H
Device supports S.M.A.R.T. and is Enabled
Temperature Warning Disabled or Not Supported
S.M.A.R.T. Sense: (56) SPINDLE IMPENDING FAILURE START UNIT TIMES TOO HIGH
Current Drive Temperature: 42 C
Drive Trip Temperature: 85 C
Current start stop count: 131206 times
Recommended start stop count: 2555920 times

As you can imagine, this may take a while so I have edited Animeboards.com domain's dns nameservers again via Zoneedit.com and pointed the domain to a temporary web space again so as to be able to inform visitors and AB members about what is going on.

Hopefully, the tech guys will be able to back up and transfer the data from the failing IBM scsi hard drive. The failing drive holds the OS, apache, and web files portions of the web sites while as far as I know, the other scsi hard drive which stores the forum and mysql database data is safe and unharmed.

Status: March 7, 2004:

Finally! After 6 weeks of downtime, Animeboards.com's original server motherboard has be replaced and the server is back up. There's a few niggling problems to be worked out. But I have updated the DNS name servers for the domains back to the original server (you're viewing this page from an alternate server) which means in 3-7 days time, visitors should be able to view Animeboards.com forum on the original server again.

Why down for so long ?

Before anyone says why it took so long to get a replacement dual cpu motherboard, may I remind AB members and visitors, hosting Animeboards.com and sites costs alot of money - easily AUD$8,000+ per year if you're renting servers which themselves if purchased would cost between AUD$4,000-6,500+. Since July 14, 2002, our friend, host and sponsor, Daniel @ Effectonline.com had specifically purchased the original dedicated server (which cost back then AUD$6,000-7,000) and hosted Animeboards.com and sites for free where it would normally have cost me AUD$800/month if I was renting!

Thank you Effectonline.com for your continued sponsorship. So folks, if your looking for paid hosting check out Effectonline.com's hosting plans here.

Technical difficulties:

The web server experienced a severe hardware failure when the Tyan dual AthlonMP motherboard died. According to the web host and sponsor effectonline.com, a replacement is being ordered in and the server rebuilt. The is a temporary site notice until then. I'll update you folks with the progress.

best regards

George / eva2000

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