April 2010 Archives

PEMVZWIN02 Reboot

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In order to resolve an issue we are seeing on the hardware node PEMVZWIN02 we are going to reboot it at 10:30PM on the 27th of April 2010.

The following VPSs will be affected:


78.153.208.116  VPS-238
78.153.208.123  VPS-258
78.153.208.16   VPS-262
78.153.208.127  VPS-282
78.153.208.28   VPS-287
78.153.209.211  VPS-288
78.153.208.154  VPS-317
78.153.208.168  VPS-331
78.153.208.149  VPS-337
78.153.208.170  VPS-341
78.153.208.172  VPS-342
78.153.208.169  VPS
78.153.208.171  VPS-344
78.153.209.151  VPS-346
78.153.208.15   VPS-347
78.153.208.62   VPS-353
78.153.208.176  VPS-354
78.153.208.177  VPS-355
78.153.208.179  VPS-357
78.153.208.184  VPS-362
78.153.210.75   VPS-387
78.153.208.205  VPS-390
78.153.208.218  VPS-407
78.153.208.222  VPS-409
78.153.208.223  VPS-410
78.153.209.118  VPS-620
78.153.209.160  VPS-664
78.153.209.164  VPS-667
78.153.209.176  PARTYCENTRAL
78.153.209.107  VPS-710

Estimated downtime is 10 minutes per VE.

We will update this post once completed.

UPDATE 22:48 - This has been completed.

Legacy Shared Hosting Linux - Gorlois

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This server is currently experiencing difficulties. We are aware of the problem, and will fix it as soon as possible.

Update: 12:35 - this server is back to normal now.

Security Notification: Joomla Web application compromises on the up

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Summary: We've noticed a steady increase in Joomla sites being hacked or being abused because they're out of date.

Notice: Please ensure that you keep your web applications up to date. This if for your good and the general good of the internet as a whole. If you don't your site may be compromised and badly hacked with the potential for loss of data. We advise that all customers update all of their applications when/if they're new updates. But this notification is specific to Joomla.

Please note that in your Joomla root directory you should only have a handful of php files by default.

CHANGELOG.php
COPYRIGHT.php
CREDITS.php
INSTALL.php
LICENSE.php
LICENSES.php
index.php
index2.php
configuration.php

Anything else is probably not supposed to be there, so please keep this in mind when you're updating your applications.


Possible Disruptions On Phone Lines

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If you are ringing us today please excuse any background noise.

We currently have about 10 workmen in and around our offices working on various things which, unfortunately, involves a certain amount of banging and drilling.


PEMLINWEB29/PEMLINWEB30 Migration

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Due to increased traffic we are seeing on one of our hardware nodes we are going to migrate it to newer hardware.

The downtime will occur tonight at 21:00, April 21st 2010

The downtime for the affected node will be no more than 45 minutes.

The affected nodes are:

81.17.254.24    pemlinweb29.blacknight.com     
81.17.254.25    pemlinweb30.blacknight.com

We will update this post once completed.

UPDATE 21:15: This has been postponed until tomorrow the 21st of April at the same time, 21:00. An issue has arisen with the software to migrate the CTs. We need to discuss this with our software vendors.


UPDATE 21-05-2010: PEMLINWEB29 has been successfully migrated. We are going to reschedule the migration of PEMLINWEB30.

cp.blacknight.com issues

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We are currently working on resolving some issues with cp.blacknight.com

Currently users are experiencing issues logging in to the control panel system

We are aware of the problem and are working on fast resolution

PEMVZMPS16 Reboot

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We are in the process of upgrading the version of virtuzzo on this hardware node. Normally these updates can happen on the fly. However due to the kernel updates that are needed on this occasion the node will need to be rebooted.

What's getting rebooted ?

The following nodes will be rebooted and will be offline for a period of 10 minutes maximum:
81.17.254.74    pemlinweb15.blacknight.com     
81.17.254.75    pemlinweb16.blacknight.com

When ?

The downtime will occur at 21:00 on the 14th of April 2010.

We will update this blog post once completed.


UPDATE 21:16: This has been completed.

PEMLINWEB29 And PEMLINWEB30 Issues

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The hardware node hosting both these servers is having issues at the moment. An engineer in on the way in order to get things back up and running.

Update: 03:30: Both servers are now back up.

Update: 08:10 this issue seems to have re-occured. We're working on it now.

Update: 08:30 This node has been rebooted. We've identified the problem which is causing this issue. A disk has failed in the array and the backup software we use appears to have issues with the failed disk as it does block level backups. We've disabled the backup software until the disk can be replaced. A maintenance window will be put up on this site later today with a date/time for the disk replacement.

Currently the two machines (pemlinweb29/30 81.17.254.24/25) are doing disk checks and should be backup shortly.

Update 08:34: Both nodes are now back online and running smoothly. We are monitoring closely.

Shared Hosting Linux - Ector

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Ector is currently experiencing issues which have caused us to block all outside access till we get it stable again. As soon as it's fully back up and running, we'll open up outside access again.

Update: Currently waiting for the RAID to rebuild as it seems that the combination of normal access and the raid rebuilding was enough to bring down the server when we restarted it. This should be completed within the next 10 minutes.

ns.blacknightsolutions.com network upgrade Thursday 15th @ 21:00

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Summary: At 21:00 on Thursday 15th of April, Data Electronics are upgrading their mesh network this week. This will affect some legacy services.

What: As part of this upgrade one of our legacy services which still runs off their network may experience a few seconds of downtime while the upstream router HA pair are swapped out. This is a physical cable re-patch which should only take at most 30 seconds. Domains running off of ns.blacknightsolutions.com and ns2.blacknightsolutions.com should not experiencing any down time but there's a slight chance of some slow DNS resolution for about 1-2 minutes while this change occurs.

Update: This has been completed successfully with no downtime at all.

MySQL Issues

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We are currently aware of some users encountering issues with MySQL.

Our technical team are investigating the issue and we will try to provide more details.

The kind of error people are reporting is that their site is not able to connect to the database.

UPDATE 1:47PM: The issue was related to a network issue spotted on the internal interface of the mysql server. The issue has been resolved and we are monitoring it closely at present.


PEMVZLIN06 Reboot

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Due to issues with the software controlling the VPS' on PEMVZLIN06, we had to do an emergency reboot in order to get things back into a stable state. The hardware node has been successfully rebooted, and we're currently waiting for the last of the VPS to start up.

PEMVZWIN02 Server Reboot

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Due to an issue we are seeing with the service container on this hardware node, Plesk wasn't operating correctly. We have resolved this issue but a server reboot is required to ensure the fresh config is fully loaded.

The downtime will occur at 22:00 tonight the 8th of April 2010.

The downtime will be aprox 30 minutes.

The affected VPSs are:


78.153.208.116  VPS-238
78.153.208.123  VPS-258
78.153.208.16   VPS-262
78.153.208.127  VPS-282
78.153.208.28   VPS-287
78.153.209.211  VPS-288
78.153.208.154  VPS-317
78.153.208.168  VPS-331
78.153.208.149  VPS-337
78.153.208.170  VPS-341
78.153.208.172  VPS-342
78.153.208.169  VPS
78.153.208.171  VPS-344
78.153.209.151  VPS-346
78.153.208.15   VPS-347
78.153.208.62   VPS-353
78.153.208.176  VPS-354
78.153.208.177  VPS-355
78.153.208.179  VPS-357
78.153.208.184  VPS-362
78.153.210.75   VPS-387
78.153.208.205  VPS-390
78.153.208.218  VPS-407
78.153.208.222  VPS-409
78.153.208.223  VPS-410
78.153.209.118  VPS-620
78.153.209.160  VPS-664
78.153.209.164  VPS-667
78.153.209.176  PARTYCENTRAL
78.153.209.107  VPS-710

We will update this post once complete.

Edit: This reboot has been postponed until Friday 9th April at 22:00

Update 20:30 09/04/2010: The server has been successfully rebooted.

Shared Hosting Linux - igraine

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We are currently experiencing issues with the shared hosting linux server igraine.

Our engineers are working on this issue at present.

Update: 08:25 am - This machine was fully back in service by 02:30 - the boot loader was corrupt so an engineer had to physically go onsite and re-install grub before the machine would boot backup. Unfortunately this is all to common on older machines.

This case is now closed.

Network Problems

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We are currently experiencing packet loss on firewalled segments in our InterXion Data Centre.

Only customers on the shared firewalls are affected. Customers with dedicated firewalls are unaffected.

Update: 18:30 - all services have returned to normal. We will continue to monitor the situation.

cp.blacknight.com moving to new hardware

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Summary: Tonight Friday April 2nd at 22:00 the virtual machine known as cp.blacknight.com is moving to a new hardware node. This is on advice from our software vendor and is to try and avoid resource shortages which appear to be happening which cause tomcat errors on the control panel which many customers have seen over the past 3 months.

When: Friday April 2nd @ 22:00

Expected downtime: approx 2 hours, but most likely around 1 hour or less. This will be the Control Panel Only. No hosting services will be affected by this.