Scheduled Downtime March 20, 2020 8:18 AM Subscribe
In order to complete a planned update of the MetaFilter database server, MetaFilter will go offline for approximately 2 hours on Sunday, March 22.
This will take place between 01:00-03:00 PDT, 2020-03-22 and affect metafilter.com and all its subsites. The chat and moderator e-mail (via admin@mefi.us) will still be working during this time.
In other time zones:
This will take place between 01:00-03:00 PDT, 2020-03-22 and affect metafilter.com and all its subsites. The chat and moderator e-mail (via admin@mefi.us) will still be working during this time.
In other time zones:
EDT: 04:00-06:00 GMT: 08:00-10:00 CET: 09:00-11:00 IST: 13:30-15:30 CST: 16:00-18:00 AEDT: 19:00-21:00
Setting my alarm now so I can wallow in the anxiety.
posted by valkane at 9:27 AM on March 20, 2020 [14 favorites]
posted by valkane at 9:27 AM on March 20, 2020 [14 favorites]
Thank you for including other timezones! Now I know I'll have to do actual work Sunday from 4 to 6 pm.
posted by mdonley at 9:39 AM on March 20, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by mdonley at 9:39 AM on March 20, 2020 [6 favorites]
We will try and have a few nice soothing links on the downtime status page. So in theory you may be able to stare at e.g. animals wandering around on a webcam instead of actually accomplishing anything.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:40 AM on March 20, 2020 [32 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:40 AM on March 20, 2020 [32 favorites]
Now I know I'll have to do actual work Sunday from 4 to 6 pm.
I think that's 4 to 6 AM. Unless you're CST.
posted by valkane at 9:50 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
I think that's 4 to 6 AM. Unless you're CST.
posted by valkane at 9:50 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
Suggestion: Put up a notification banner on the homepage ASAP so folks who don't check metatalk will be alerted.
posted by gwint at 9:56 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by gwint at 9:56 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
Yeah this should definitely go in the banner. And clarify, just for good measure, that you're using 24 hour time. And thanks!
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 10:08 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 10:08 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
I've got a sidebar post up, and yup we'll get a banner up as well to give folks more warning.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:09 AM on March 20, 2020
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:09 AM on March 20, 2020
Also, CST in this context (I'm guessing) is China Standard Time, not US Central Standard Time
posted by briank at 10:10 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by briank at 10:10 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
Yeah the downtime is 4-6am eastern (eastern North America/western South America/caribbean) time. But mdonley has talked about living in Hong Kong, so I think the relevant time for them is 4-6pm.
We should have a page that just plays Spanish Flea on loop the whole time.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:14 AM on March 20, 2020 [17 favorites]
We should have a page that just plays Spanish Flea on loop the whole time.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:14 AM on March 20, 2020 [17 favorites]
We will try and have a few nice soothing links on the downtime status page.Few things are more soothing than petting croutons. Maybe next time we can get a crouton playground to enjoy during the downtime!
posted by Tehhund at 11:19 AM on March 20, 2020 [5 favorites]
Does that mean I'll have to log out and log back in?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:56 AM on March 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:56 AM on March 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:04 PM on March 20, 2020 [13 favorites]
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:04 PM on March 20, 2020 [13 favorites]
But I don't have a life outside of metafilter.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 1:10 PM on March 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Pyrogenesis at 1:10 PM on March 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
thank you!
posted by mochapickle at 1:39 PM on March 20, 2020
posted by mochapickle at 1:39 PM on March 20, 2020
I'll allow it.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:40 PM on March 20, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:40 PM on March 20, 2020 [4 favorites]
Maintenance windows are so endearingly quaint in this age of continuous deployment and yada yada.
posted by rhizome at 7:13 PM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 7:13 PM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
THEY WILL GO OUT FOR CIGARETTES!
posted by clavdivs at 9:42 PM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 9:42 PM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
Thank you, frimble!
So in theory you may be able to stare at e.g. animals wandering around on a webcam instead of actually accomplishing anything.
I was just thinking of the MeFi Read-Only kitty the other day!
(Also that page reminds me that the old MeFi Status blog is still being linked from the "Helpful Links" section in the MetaTalk sidebar)
That scheduled maintenance window is probably when I access MeFi the most, so I guess I'll have to do something else. :)
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 10:10 PM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
So in theory you may be able to stare at e.g. animals wandering around on a webcam instead of actually accomplishing anything.
I was just thinking of the MeFi Read-Only kitty the other day!
(Also that page reminds me that the old MeFi Status blog is still being linked from the "Helpful Links" section in the MetaTalk sidebar)
That scheduled maintenance window is probably when I access MeFi the most, so I guess I'll have to do something else. :)
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 10:10 PM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
We should have a page that just plays Spanish Flea on loop the whole time.
Meanwhile the admins are sweating away to Yakkity Saks as the clock ticks down and initialization scripts keep bombing out.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 7:27 AM on March 21, 2020 [1 favorite]
Meanwhile the admins are sweating away to Yakkity Saks as the clock ticks down and initialization scripts keep bombing out.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 7:27 AM on March 21, 2020 [1 favorite]
And we're all done and back up. It took about 30 minutes more than I expected, but everything's done and we shouldn't have to do that again for quite a while. Thanks for your patience.
Here are the links we put up on the "site not available" page, in case anyone wants to look at them or the posts to the blue from which they came:
Here are the links we put up on the "site not available" page, in case anyone wants to look at them or the posts to the blue from which they came:
- Live cams at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
- The Log Movie.
- Log II.
- MetaFilter Insult Jazz
- Real-time movie of making a woodcut.
- A train ride from Bludenz to Innsbruck.
- MilkyBoki the dog and Gwangbok the cat. (Post)
- 5th Quarter: a series highlighting marching band culture. (Post)
- Take's Bluegrass Album Channel. (Post)
- McCoy Tyner, live in 1975. (Post)
- Le Cinéma Club (Post)
- Breakfast Time on Cat Island (Post)
- Short of the Week is playing films from SXSW.
- Searching for a galleon on the Oregon coast. (Post)
- Bhutan's playable record postage stamps. (Post)
- Smithsonian Releases 2.8 Million Images into the Public Domain.
- The History of the URL (Post)
Thanks frimble! Fwiw when I tried accessing the site pages about 40 minutes ago, I got what looked like a standard Ubuntu Apache 403 forbidden error page, rather than the "site not available" page.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 3:00 AM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 3:00 AM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
(To clarify: I tried to get to the downtime page deliberately to see the links that cortex had mentioned in this thread, but got the 403 error instead. So, thanks for posting the links above because I didn't get to see them earlier.)
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 3:04 AM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 3:04 AM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
Everything's so shiny! Will you be shutting down regularly to clean out the coronavirus?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:00 AM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:00 AM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
Is ask down? I can get to blue, grey but not green. (have not tried the other subsites) or weird caching issues on my end?
Will check another device.
posted by freethefeet at 12:38 AM on March 24, 2020
Will check another device.
posted by freethefeet at 12:38 AM on March 24, 2020
My end! Forced refresh and it's back.
posted by freethefeet at 12:50 AM on March 24, 2020
posted by freethefeet at 12:50 AM on March 24, 2020
I always wondered about this: is the person pressing the button actually awake at this time and working their computer magic? Or do you just set it for the middle of the night and go to bed and hope for the best in the morning? Because it's always in the dead of night (which I get) but that seems like a big sacrifice for IT people everywhere.
Either way, thanks!
posted by AgentRocket at 7:22 AM on March 26, 2020
Either way, thanks!
posted by AgentRocket at 7:22 AM on March 26, 2020
In our case, frimble lives in Austria and is generally having a well-rested morning go at whatever they need to poke. Can't speak for folks doing IT maintenance in domestic settings, tho; pb used to just do this stuff late-ish evening on a weekend.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:26 AM on March 26, 2020
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:26 AM on March 26, 2020
aha! Time zones! Verrrrry clever. Thanks cortex.
posted by AgentRocket at 8:46 AM on March 26, 2020
posted by AgentRocket at 8:46 AM on March 26, 2020
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posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 9:19 AM on March 20, 2020 [12 favorites]