Simtropolis down again? Or is it me being stupid

[AsimPika3172]

EDIT!!! Is back online! 

[Tarkus]

Here is the official announcement from ST Staff as to their current status.  The STEX and Gallery have been taken offline for the moment in an effort to control the server load spikes that have been causing the downtime.  I will quote it below so there's a backup space for this information.

Update: 23 Sept, 2018 @ 22:22 EDT

The site stayed up a wee bit longer, but still succumbed to whatever is causing the trouble. At this point we are taking the STEX and the Gallery offline, but will try to keep the forums going.

Update: 23 Sept, 2018 @ 18:59 EDT

Cyclone Boom has optimized all database tables which is sort of like defragmenting a hard drive. We've brought the site back online and are hoping it helps with the problems. The previous message (below) still applies until we are sure everything is fixed.

Previous message: Simtropolis is experiencing random spikes of heavy server load and excessive lag to the point the whole site becomes unresponsive. We've been taking it offline to let it catch up with the load and then bringing it back. This is the best stop gap measure we have at the moment. If you are creating a new topic or post I suggest making a copy and paste to a text editor before clicking the submit button as we can't be sure it won't go offline at the wrong moment for you.

Further details can also be found in this post from Simtropolis Admin CorinaMarie:

As many of you have prolly noticed we've been having trouble keeping Simtropolis online for the past couple of days. The most detailed information about what and I are doing is in this Announcement and we will continue to update that as we try other options. As mentioned there we've taken the STEX and the Gallery offline in an effort to reduce server load and this will hopefully keep the site from disappearing every couple hours. Should this prove to help we will then bring the STEX back to members only as our next attempt to balance usefulness with uncrashness.

-Alex

[evarburg]

Has anyone an idea of how long this is going to last ? It is extremely worrying. In internet time it's been years...

CasperVg 2018-09-28: Please keep Simtropolis-related discussion in the "Is Simtropolis down again?" thread.

[mgb204]

This whole thread is one that confuses me, it's like waiting at a bus stop asking every passer by when the bus is due. In the sense that we all know buses can be late, we also know websites can go down periodically, especially community funded sites like SC4D/ST. Without the vast resources of large commercial sites, which themselves have issues from time to time, it's inevitable at this level. Of course we've all witnessed the demise of various other SC4 community sites, whilst the loss of them has obviously been sad, there is no reason to think that's happening here. Moreover, the ST staff have been very clear about the cause, a glitch means they are having to offline the site while they resolve it.

A web-server is simply a computer that serves one or more websites, but in most respects is like your own PC. If something is wrong on that machine, unless there is a mirror, which is a 2nd duplicate of the computer to switch too, fixing it means downtime. Think about how often your computer re-boots when you install an update?, such a reboot is far more problematic for a web server. Because the time taken to restart the machine is only part of the equation, when such a system first boots, it can take a while before everything is initialised and ready to work. If you have to work on the machine to repair a problem, similarly, whilst doing so it probably needs to be offline.

There is absolutely no reason to believe this to be more than a temporary glitch. So it's just a case of being patient whilst the staff resolve the problems. I realise it's frustrating, but asking random people when the bus will come, won't make it come sooner.

[evarburg]

(it's just that it seems to last a lot longer than all the other glitches. I wouldn't worry otherwise, being aware of what you explain.  )

[markstrongman2018]

Update: 28 Sept, 2018 @ 15:26 EDT

With the site responding much better we have removed the 10 second delay for downloads for both guests and members.

Update: 28 Sept, 2018 @ 13:39 EDT

Turns out we were under attack. No details will be provided, but we believe we have that resolved. *

[Seaman]

thx for sharing the update. Sad to hear that happened but it's good that the team seems to be confident.

[Wiimeiser]

Not loading for me at all, I was getting a 403 earlier. That doesn't sound good...

[AsimPika3172]

Me too.....  Got 403 Forbidden error... 

You don't have permission to access / on this server.
Server unable to read htaccess file, denying access to be safe

Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

[evarburg]

I know they are pedalling like crazy to get the site up again, I know they're rebooting, I know etc. But I'm asking this because yesterday I suddenly got a PM answering a PM I managed to post days ago, and I go there, and then I see some people have posted on the Show Us thread or the Can't find thread or the CJ thread and I can go there and interact again (it has happened several times). But then, like these last two days : "You don't have permission to access" at all. it's the on & off thing that gets to me, because I am wondering if for some reason my access data has been corrupted and I only am barred ! (Parano City...)

[paddy0174]

Uh, another Simtrop thread. Great....not.

Nope its not you, it's all of us. As you can read in the error message "Server unable to read htaccess file, denying access to be safe" , is an error, that is based on something not working, and better safe than sorry, after that, the server gets in total denial of everything and doesn't respond anymore.

What you can read out of this: as long, as you don't get any kind of Simtrop based site content (like the logo or at least the color scheme), than it's all of us and not only you. If you get any kind of site content, and there something is denied, than it's mostly you and not others.

I have no idea, why they didn't get to the bottom of this, meanwhile it's more than two weeks, but I assume, they don't have the time, to work a few full days in solving the problem (like a company or a business), so it could take a while.

But in the meantime you have found the perfect alternative: HERE

Look into a few postings here, you will be amazed, how different the content is, compared to Simtrop.

[evarburg]

Uh, another Simtrop thread. Great....not.

[reassuring words]

But in the meantime you have found the perfect alternative: HERE

Look into a few postings here, you will be amazed, how different the content is, compared to Simtrop.

Thanks for the reassuring words:-) And yes, and I have been perusing the site with my various questions over the months. But I am not going to compare, I like both SC4D and Simtropolis. I see them as complementary somehow. It so happens that my first fumbling steps as a lotter are on Simtropolis, because my first stumbling steps as a CJer were on... SimPeg, which found a home on Simtrop'. 

[Tarkus]

Topics now merged . . . let's try to keep all the discussion regarding Simtropolis here on this thread.  The site stability over there still remains an ongoing issue, unfortunately, and the SC4D Staff wishes our colleagues at Simtropolis all the best in their valiant efforts to restore working order.

-Alex

[paddy0174]

Thanks Alex!

@evarburg
Don't think you are alone.... I'm missing a dependency from PEG (=> only at Simtrop) for the Heretic Harbour. Everytime I get to the dl page, I'll get thrown out, either by Cloudflare or a 403/503...

Right now I can wait, still trying to figure out which textures are needed to run the SWN-Paeng-Sidewalk together with the NOB and SOMY harbour pieces...

[AsimPika3172]

Huh? 

This page isn't working
community.simtropolis.com is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500

Sound likes Simtropolis website or server was... GONE? 

[Tarkus]

Sound likes Simtropolis website or server was... GONE? 

Cori's now using their Twitter account (@Simtropolis) and posting updates, which can be found here.  This update is from 2 hours ago:

Hiya. Cori here. Tis my first time using ST's Twitter. Yes, the site is down. No, we don't know how long it will take to fix. Dirk has been actively working on it all day and we're doing everything possible to get this resolved ASAP.

-Alex

[jeffryfisher]

Simtropolis is down again today. It has been either sick or under attack for a couple weeks now. I want to offer to help, but... without its forums etc, I can't even contact people there. Since SC4D is still up, I'm hoping we can open a back-channel discussion and news thread here somewhere (if off-topic, please move thread gently).
Does anyone here have any info on the latest problem(s)? As a DB pro, I am keen on acquiring tech details so I can think of solutions.

[Kitsune]

This should be merged into the other simtrop thread - however if you follow there twitter: https://twitter.com/Simtropolis That will give you the reason why its down today... its because they have to reindex everything.

[AsimPika3172]

I hope Simtropolis will OK at last! Keep indexing guys! Here the status (taken from twitter website)

[Wiimeiser]

So something to the effect of what killed SimPeg, albeit less serious, happened, or something like that? That's what I'm getting...