Server crash on 2/1/06

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gwelliso
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Server crash on 2/1/06

Post by gwelliso » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:26 am

All,

We host with AbleCommerce on a shared server. On February 1st, we received a call from Mike Ward at AC informing us that while performing a server upgrade, he inadvertently lost all orders in our store from 1/11/06 until 2/1/06. He stated that AC did not have backups. AC subsequently asserted that the most recent good backups they had were from 1/11/06, that due to some server maintenance on that date our database had been inadvertently "turned off" as far as the backup server was aware, and no one had noticed.

We suspect otherwise. In fact, the store was somehow restored to the earlier date of 1/11/06. Not only was that the date after which all order data ceased to exist, but all other settings/updates after that date also ceased to exist: user accounts created or modified; items added or deleted; store settings (order numbers, etc.); everything. It appeared as though the server simply went back in time.

Because we're on a shared server, we're trying to determine whether other stores on the server experienced a similar incident, or whether it was limited to our store. Anyone out there with a similar problem? Specifically, we want to determine whether it's possible that a server crash would only affect one store on a shared server, or whether it would take them all down. And assuming our store was restored to an earlier date using something like Microsoft's System Restore, could this be done at the store level, or would it have to be done at the server level? We're considering moving to a dedicated server so we'd have more control, and where we'd be insulated from potential problems caused by other AC customers.

Thanks,
George
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gjaros
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Post by gjaros » Fri Feb 24, 2006 12:20 pm

George,

It definitely is possible for this to be an isolated incedent limited to just your store. All of the settings that you mentioned are located in your database. Your database should be unique to your store. Because of this, if changes were made in January and your store was the only one that did not have the backup turned back on, your store would be the only one affected.

None of the issues you mentioned are related to actual files on the server, thus preventing something like MS System Restore from fixing problems. All Orders, Products, Users, etc. are stored in the database.

One way to check to see if just your database was restored vs your entire site (including store template files) would be to check the dates on the files in your store directory. Look at the .wzc files and see if any of them have a date later than 1/11/06. These are the files that store all of your wizard configuration settings (like what fields to display on the product page, how many products to display on the category page, etc.).

Keep in mind though, if you haven't made any updates to your store wizards in quite a while the dates won't help you. You'll only be able to tell if there was an entire system restore if you had made changes to wizard settings since 1/11/06.

Two other places to look are the Themes and CSS directories, although these directories will also only show recent dates if you have updated your store themes or stylesheets recently.

My guess is that this was probably an isolated incedent, but we'll see if anyone else had a similar problem. Hopefully this hasn't effected your company too adversly. It's always a good idea to keep backups of the data yourself, in addition to backups performed by your service provider. Accidents do happen. You can use the Data Export function to export all your store's data into an XML file that can be used later to re-import information into AbleCommerce if necessary. This will take care of Products, Users, Orders, and everything else important in your database. If keeping backups of your users and products is not quite as critical, you can export just orders into several differennt formats from the Orders section of the admin.

Good luck!
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gwelliso
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Post by gwelliso » Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:20 am

George,

Thanks for the reply, looks like my understanding of the situation was a little off, thanks for the explanation.

George
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gjaros
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Post by gjaros » Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:31 am

gwelliso wrote:George,

Thanks for the reply, looks like my understanding of the situation was a little off, thanks for the explanation.

George
We look like we're having conversations with ourselves... Hope everything works out for you.
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