Isee Stars - Isee Dark Skies

[Grant]

Hi everyone,

As you've problably seen, Isee Stars and Isee Dark Skies have been having major problems over the past 24 hours.

Basically, the web servers hard drives became corrupted, when my host went to restore the server from that days backups these too were found to be corrupt. What this means is, every piece of data, email, image I have on that server has gone. As you can imagine I've lost alot of stuff, luckily, on Monday SGL was moved from that same server otherwise SGL would be lost also!

I have a 4 day old backup of Isee Dark Skies that I've been able to restore, this means only 3-4 reviews have been lost, if your one of those reviewers then please consider adding your review again, I can't apologise enough for wasting your time in this way and would really appreciate it if you could re-add your review. The competition will be extended to make allowances for this set back, it will now end at the end of june.

Isee Stars is a bigger problem, I have a number of backups that I am using to restore the images from, I have a very recent database copy that I've been able to use but the last full backup I have of the images is from just before Christmas. The reason being, the backup system provided by the host has been producing corrupt backups, I have one from 4 days ago which will let me restore around 1/4 of peoples images, in all I think I'm going to lose 3000 images out of 6500. To say this is a devasting loss is an understatement.

I'm currently uploading as many backed up images as I have now, once thats done I will clear the database of images that are now missing, then the true extent of the loss will be apparent. I have been working on this all day yesterday, last night and today. My host is very apologetic but theres nothing else they can do, I'm just thankful I've been able to retrieve what I have, others on the same server have lost years and years of work that will never be retrieved.

I feel like I have let you all down and I am truly sorry that this has happened, I have already reviewed my backup schedules and will be setting up my own systems to make offsite backups on a regular basis to stop this happening again. Over the summer I will be moving to a dedicated server setup with seperate backup facilities so that only I will be on the server and it cant be overloaded by anybody else.

In the meantime, please accept my apologies, I sincerely hope you continue using Isee Stars and I will be making massive efforts to ensure this never happens again. I will also be increasing the plan limits as a thank you for your continued support:

Free account will now receive 200mb of space and 5gb of bandwidth per month. Maximum image size of 10mb.

Thanks,

Grant

[Ant]

This situation was totally out of your control. I'm sure that very few if any could criticise you for what has happened.

We all appreciate your hard work in restoring what you can, it would have been really easy for you to have walked away from Iseestars - but luckily you have the foresight not to do that and to realise what a brilliant resource it actually is.

The plans that you have for the dedicated server combined with the change in backup procedures reassure me that every action that you could take has been taken.

Keep your chin up mate!

Ant

[Grant]

Thanks Ant

Its been a really bad 24 hours!

I've decided to suspend all paid for Isee Stars accounts, only 1 person has a paid for account at the moment and they have already been refunded.

I have decided to make Isee Stars a completely free service.

[dazza1639]

Thanks for the update Grant, Don't worry too much these things happen and are beyond your control. We know you do your best and will continue to do so, and for that we should all be very greatful. The service you provide here and with Iseestars & Iseedarkskies is invaluable and an excellent service especially as you offer it up for free. Again don't worry life's too short, so thanks for all your efforts.

Darren

[MartinB]

Here here Ant. I've got my images backed up so can replace any that have been lost when everything is up and running again

[daz]

Mate, I really feel for you!!

We all support you so don't panic - and thanks for not just giving up like so many others would have done!!

[FLO]

I feel like I have let you all down and I am truly sorry that this has happened..

Nonsense :nono:

Your support is largely responsible for SGL having risen above the other off-the-shelf forums.

Others have suffered similar setbacks and been down far longer and lost much more.

[GazOC]

I can only echo the comments below, none of this was your fault and we wouldn't be where we are today but for your skills, try not to worry about it mate!

[SteveL]

I feel like I have let you all down and I am truly sorry that this has happened

Dont be daft, its not your fault...

[me=SteveL]goes off to check my own backup proceedures...[/me]

[dogfish]

Grant,

Don't be so hard on yourself. This kind of thing happens. Everyone appreciates what these sites add to the forum. My entry was one of those lost from I see dark skies (and no one is going to miss my entry as my back garden is carp for observing - I wouldn't set up my 'scope there if I didn't live there). Nobody is blaming you, I'm certainly not. Just off to re-input my back garden - it's better than working!

Chin up, Martin

[Jamie]

Jeeze Grant if it wasn't for you there would be no SGL as it would have been hacked/corrupted long time ago.

A big thanks from me too mate...

[FLO]

[me=SteveL]goes off to check my own backup proceedures...[/me]

Have just done the same

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Grant mate, don't apologise for this, I'm sat here on SGL for free and its all your hard work. I get to look at images that people can stick on I See Stars for free.

All in all its quite good value if you look at it from where I am, even if there are glitches from time to time.

Get the paid for bit set up as an option so people can pay for the free I See Stars version if they like it, like shareware ish. You might make a few bob that you deserve.

Captain Chaos

[SteelRat]

Grant - credit where credit's due - as everyone else has said y'doin a superb job mate n I'm sorry this has been such a real pain for you.

Big thanks from me too fer ALL y'hard work

[maroon bells]

Thanks from me too Grant.

A couple of years ago my company was broken into and all our servers were stolen so it was lucky that I had devised and fully tested DR procedures. Testing is the key.

[Kermit]

I've only been a member for a short while - but I'm amazed at the effort & support that you've put into this forum. In the end just about anyone who's uploaded images will have their own copy - it can & will be rebuilt & you should feel very proud that your efforts & approach to this have got the response they have - it's a credit to you.

[Black Shuck]

Appreciate your efforts Grant - we're all behind you!!

Cheers

Bill

[geppetto]

Really feel for you mate....

This cyber space is a very volatile world and we all have to accept

that these things can and will happen from time to time.

Don't beat yourself up about it though, it's not your fault. :nono:

Good luck with getting it back to whatever level you can and thanks

for your efforts :hello1:

[Kain]

All my *#!*img images gone -- I'm going to knock your lights out!!

Haha only joking!

Nah mate, don't worry abit it, what you do for SGL is beyond the call of duty already, don't worry yourself or feel bad if something goes wrong, it happens mate. No one is at fault - It's the machines!

The to worry is when Skynet takes over

Kain

[Grant]

Thank you everybody for all of your kind words, you have no idea how much its been appreciated

I've just setup a new backup procedure, everyday the entirety of all of the sites I run will be backed up to a completely different server, in future I will be able to restore all sites within a matter of hours. The most data that could be lost would be anything since the last backup which will be less than 24 hours.

I am also planning to redesign and relaunch Isee Stars, it was never built as a specific astronomy site, more a generic photo hosting site. This means theres alot of stuff in Isee Stars that just isn't needed and complicates matters. I also want to change the design so it matches the Isee Dark Skies site - darker backgrounds etc... Expect a post about these changes soon

[GordonCopestake]

Grant, even in the face of a catastrophic loss of every single byte of data on the SGL server, it wouldn't hurt us all that much. SGL is made up of people not bytes! Great people at that! Never worry about this sort of thing: hardware fails, backups get currupted [removed word] happens. It's a fact of life and somthing not to stress over. Take a break, open a bottle of wine (or whatever your poison is) and kick back a bit. It'll all turn out ok in the end

[jonifive]

Grant.....worse things happen at sea mate.

Thanks for all the hard work....us newbs appreciate it as well.

[Trevor]

Grant.

You get thanks from me for setting up SGL, when I decided to get back into astronomy I went to a dealers shop and asked how to get into imaging, well I was told at least £2000.

I backed down and searched the internet and found your site.

Then I found Steve at FLO and ended up getting the required gear I needed for less than £700.

I would also like to say I have learnt more in two months than I could have done by reading books, so thank you to all the contributors on the forum.

Trev.

[Grant]

Thanks everyone for your support, its made a difficult couple of days much easier

The credit for setting up SGL doesn't go to me though, I just take care of the techy stuff and the design of the forum, the actual setting up of SGL was done by Russ and Ant who were then joined by Rob and James. I got on board a little while after that and moved the forum to its own domain name and proper forum software.

You can read the full history at: http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php?topic=8466.0

[James]

One mans stressful few days is another's timely warning.... as I think several others have done I reviewed my backups and found some problems which would have rendered the backups only partly effective. I rejigged them, tested them and backed everything up properly. Two days ago my hard drive failed taking with it some 2000 photos and 40 Gigs of video data but last night in went the new drive and in went the backed up data so in the end it cost me £40 and about 2 hours time...

Phew....

James