Search shutdown?

[Glockster35]

What happened to the search function? Mine is saying it doesn't work because the administrators shut it down???

[Rich Lucibella]

It's being reindexed. I started about 2AM in hopes of not disturbing the Board. With 20,000,000+ search items (yeah, I was surprised too!), it was about 4/5ths done at noon today when the server crashed due to disk space problems. I've resolved that and will attempt a re-index this PM.
Rich

[Glockster35]

Thanks Rich

And if you didn't already know you guys are doing one heck of a job with this board, and SWAT magazine.

Keep it up

[Jody Hudson]

Yes, thanks Rich. NO matter how much curmugeoning I do... :) This is a great place and my favorite resource on the web... other than my sites of course... :lol

[garrettwc]

Rich, any word on status of the servers?

The search feature/find new posts link is still coming up "turned off by admin".

[Rich Lucibella]

Yup-
Started it again today...lost connection halfway thru and it crashed. Just restarted now. Perhaps by morning. It really is a long process, unless we shut the board down for about 10 hours.
Rich

[NINE]

Shut down for 10 hours, eh? Rich, I'll get back to you with a time that is good for me. :D

[LilJoe]

I feel the withdrawls coming already!!!!!!

[rock_jock]

This is disheartening. I am trying to do research for my next gun and I feel like a ship tossed about on the sea without my TFL archive resources.

BTW, I think this points to the incredible benefits the community of firearm enthusiasts receives from this site. If we don't say thanks often enough, its only because we have come to take the great folks, information, and service for granted. It is nonetheless greatly appreciated.

[Jody Hudson]

That is so true Rock_Jock.

I consider this a MOST valuable part of my life. Thanks Rich and everyone else!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[yorec]

Came in to check on the status of the search function - I understand and will be patient. But I also had to post to "ditto" the sentiment's of support from those above!

[Daedalus]

Speaking of which, anyone know about the Jericho 941 Compact? I'm dying over here! :D

[RugerSAfan]

Relating to the reindexing, one option is to review history, determine time when least impact on over-all users, notify in advance, take database off-line with notice of expected return, and then re-index.

Sure would like to do a search. I enjoy TFL, BTW.

[Edward429451]

So thats what happened to it. finally wandered to this forum to check out why. It must be a pain in the butt to have it keep crashing on you like that.:( (I need to search for some sks info,whats it worth I got it as a tip for a guy I worked for!)...

We appreciate all your frustration and work to keep it going!!:)

[Rich Lucibella]

Guys-
It just keeps crashing. It really is a *huge* file. I know it can be done, but it requires my PC/Internet connection to stay up long enough. I've tried doing it in several screens, each with a smaller piece of the file....the server goes ballistic.

I just restarted again. With luck- noon tomorrow. Know that we all miss the function and we're doing everything possible to bring it back up.
Rich

[rock_jock]

Thanks Rich. Personally, I think it must be a HCI conspiracy. I mean if we never got to do research on guns at TFL again, firearms sales would plummet across the country.

[garrettwc]

I'm beginning to think it's a plot by the antis. Your internet connection keeps dropping out,

gunsamerica and 1911 forum are both down with a 403 error.

Are we under attack by a virus or million mom hackers:rolleyes:

Seriously, Rich I know you're doing your best. We have been experiencing a variety of server problems at my job. I know how frustrated you must be. We appreciate all your hard work on this.

[PUMC_TomG]

Thanks Rich. Personally, I think it must be a HCI conspiracy. I mean if we never got to do research on guns at TFL again, firearms sales would plummet across the country.

Oh contrare Senor Jock. It just means we would all have to buy a gun we had questions on to see if its worth it. In doubt? Buy it!!!

[nnciderr]

I'd be glad to donate some bandwidth if I can. My connection is only off 2 times a year. Let me know if I can help.

[email protected]

I miss the search.:confused: What to do?

[mini14jac]

I want to join the chorus saying this a great board, and you guys do a great job in running it.

I am in favor of going down 10 hours if it will get the Search function back.
That is probably the most useful function when you are considering a new purchase.

Flip the switch on this puppy!

:cool:
JP

[tonyz]

I also join in the shut down. If thats what it takes to get the program to function correctly.
So just post the time of the shut down and time frame then go for it!!

Tony

"The unsearchable"

[Borf]

But could I assume you're doing this remotely on a UNIX box? If so, have you tried either "nohup" or "screen" or equiv. to keep the process going on the other end if your session dies?

[Rich Lucibella]

The problem is not the server...it's Windows ME on my side. It crashes more often than a 20 year old Ford Pinto. Shutting down the server only shortens the time required for reindex a bit, and allows less time for Mr. Gates to get in the middle. But there's no guarantee that it will work.

Borf-
I like the way you talk!!!!!! Teach me...I'm a Red Had Linux newbie. I can get the basic stuff done; I'm fair with MySQL, but you're way ahead of me.

The reindex is done thru the vB control panel which runs in PHP. It's a typical point a click action on my part. (I might be able to isolate the script command sent to MySQL from vB, though).

I'm open to detailed instructs.
Rich

[Borf]

So it's an action from a webpage?

hmm...

Couple of things then - I'm not real swift on MySQL (I'm a C/Perl/Oracle/Informix/Postgres kind of junkie), and indexes are a very database-specific thing type of thing. I've also never seen the vB software so I don't know how it works, although I assume it uses PHP's built in facilities for talking to MySQL. I do know that newer versions of MySQL support an index type of FULLTEXT, which I'm assuming (you know what they say about assuming) TFL uses, perhaps multi-column. Chances are the re-indexing is being done through an ALTER INDEX( or CREATE INDEX) in one of PHP's "mysql_*" functions.

What I would suggest (either for this time or future use) *is* to figure out what exactly vB is having MySQL index. Then you can either do it manually, or maybe easier to write a perl script (using DBD::MySQL) to do it. Or maybe the MySQL myisamchk util has something for indexes (I really don't know). Advantage of this being you can schedule it or run it from the command prompt. If you're just running something from a shell (command prompt) you can use "nohup" to invoke it (causes the process to ignore "SIGHUP" - the HangUP SIGnal the terminal driver sends when the connection is broken) so that it will keep going when you disconnect. Screen can give you similar benefits, but by maintaining multiple virtual consoles within a single tty connection... to which you can usually reconnect if you get disconnected.

Does vB have any utilities that can be run from a shell that will index?

I don't know how to help you from the web-browser aspect.

I just read back through that... geez I hope it helps somehow.

[Borf]

I should probably toss out that manually tinkering with indexes or anything that could affect the schema without understanding what vB was doing could be... uh... *bad* :eek:

[melglock]

Could you move your Windoze client VB/SQL scripts to a more stable machine - like a Win2K machine?

I'm not sure if I can give any more guidance than what Borf is giving. If the scripts are simple enough for you to find the SQL commands, running them manually or making a script in Perl or Python to run on the server might work. But back up everything first and make sure you know exactly what's going on before you do this.

BTW, don't try this over an @Home cable modem connection for the next few days. The judge gave Excite@Home permission to shut their entire network, so they can extort more money out of the cable providers (AT&T, Comcast, etc.) :mad:

Also I'm for temporarily shutting down TFL if that will help you.

[Borf]

Rich - something else which got stuck in my head in traffic -

If I understand your statement correctly and it is something you're invoking through a webpage, how does PHP keep a stateful connection? I know there are Apache modules to do such things...

What I'm asking is, are you sure the indexing is actually stopping when you get disconnected?

[yankytrash]

WHOA, whoa!! Hold on a minute Rich. Before Borf messes you all up, have you tried whacking the server?

Sometimes, when my TV reception goes out, I just give'r a couple whacks on each side of the TV and wiggle the vise-grips where the knob used to be.

Maybe a well-placed kick or two under the TV stand is in order. Just make sure the wheels don't come out from under the front....

If that doesn't work, I'm afraid it may be time for new tinfoil on the rabbit-ears. Sometimes, the dust that's settled on the tinfoil deteriorates it, and it won't get good reception. If we need to make up a collection for a new box of Reynold's Wrap, just PM me and I'll start a fund drive.

If I can be of any other assistance, just drop me a line.

[Rich Lucibella]

It was a 24 hour re-ex!

Dropped connection twice, but managed to root the last indexed thread from the logs. Anyway, SEARCH is BACK!!!!!


Thanks for the patience, all.
Rich

[Jody Hudson]

Thank you very much Rich. And thanks, many times over for having us here. You are a most gracious Host! :)

[rock_jock]

Have a beer on us, and much thanks!

[Point Blank]

Thanks Rich!!!!!:p