Posting timeouts last night are fixed

[matthew1]

I ran a optimize table query against two tables in the database last night - posts and topics. I thought it would be a matter of minutes, but no, it was 8 hours.

During this time you could read the forum fine -- it acted 100% normally. But posting a new topic or reply would cause a timeout.

First, I was surprised to see that all these timeout posts were cued and did make it into the system when it released those tables from write lock at around 24:00MST. Interesting.

Second, this is why I'm not a DBA. Are you a server admin or DBA?

Third, I didn't want to interrupt the process. That's a dangerous game.

Fourth, thanks to those who emailed me with error messages from these timeouts. I knew some of the story and figured the rest out, but often your messages to me alert me to a problem or help me fix a problem and I appreciate that.

Fifth, you can always reach me at [email protected].

Sixth, I'll be making a note of how long this procedure took so if I do repeat this, I'll start it in the late evening North America time.

Seventh, I didn't think it through and understand a) it would take a damn long time and b) there would be a write lock on the tables, preventing new posts.

Eighth, no, this recent spate of downtime and interruptions won't go on at this pace. These are all teething issues from the server switch.

Ninth, I'm not becoming obsessed with improving page load time performance to the detriment of MVS' basic functionality. I don't think. It is a really great challenge for me to get pages to load faster, however. Slow pages drive users away, objectively measured.

Tenth, I'm cleaning up duplicate posts from last night that cued up. Let me know if you see any.