Well, The UPS and Generators Work!
September 12, 2005 on 6:08 pm | In Hardware, Insider View by nate |It seems that a lot of downtown LA is going through a power outage right now. A bunch of us were walking back to the office from lunch at a sushi place, and saw lots of streetlights flashing red, and a few office buildings emitting smoke (from generators).
Luckily, our generators are humming along too, and the UPS system worked, and we didn’t see a single blip (except the air conditioning is off, and it’s getting warm in here)!
Hooray for backup power systems!
UPDATE COMING SOON!!
41 Responses to “Well, The UPS and Generators Work!”
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September 12th, 2005 at 4:35 pm
are you *sure* they’re working?
September 12th, 2005 at 4:37 pm
It’s not working for me! I want some credit guys. It’s been down all afternoon.
September 12th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
Yeah, what’s up? My website is down, the Dreamhost main page is down, and the panel page is down.
Where’s the credit?
September 12th, 2005 at 4:40 pm
Same here. It’s out cold.
After I saw the news about the LA blackout I figured that may be what was going on.
September 12th, 2005 at 4:40 pm
My sites were down for an hour or more ;(
September 12th, 2005 at 4:40 pm
I should mention that my sites on Dreamhost are currently working just fine.
September 12th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
Wait I lied, only phaedo.cx is working, none of my other 5 or so sites are working.
September 12th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
Oh my goodness, we should all blog about the Dreamhost blog not knowing that we couldn’t blog about the status of Dreamhost.
Apparently the President isn’t the only one out of step with reality. ;)
(You know we love you guys, but also that it’s impossible to not take advantage of a good laugh.)
September 12th, 2005 at 4:44 pm
my stuff was b0rked for a while, but it seems to be humming along smoothly now. more or less.
lousy technology. i think the luddites may have been on to something.
September 12th, 2005 at 4:44 pm
my sites are down also :)
September 12th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
Thank $deity for http://status.dreamhost.com/!
September 12th, 2005 at 4:48 pm
Dreamhost,
Any news on when our sites will back online? Mine have been down all day along with my email. I know its something unexpected but generator or not I need to know when they will be back up.
I suppose this weblog would be a good place to let us all know what’s going on, hence your corporate site is down too!
I know you guys/gals are probably freaking out and working your ass off to get us all back online. Please let us know what the status is…
Thanks
Ryan
September 12th, 2005 at 4:54 pm
My site’s been down all evening now, and has only just returned. However, a bunch of the subdomains are still out of action and everything is running incredibly slowly.
This is not making the getting of my site off of the ground much easier, I do hope we’ll be getting some kind of compensation for this. Perhaps a lifetime bandwidth increase. ;D
September 12th, 2005 at 4:54 pm
My sites were down for over 3 hours.
September 12th, 2005 at 4:55 pm
we are still down site + mail) and its almost 5.. I thought the power came back up? Please update if poss….
September 12th, 2005 at 4:57 pm
My sites (3) down. Over 4 hours now! Maybe Dreamhost needs to get some smoke burning in their basement!
September 12th, 2005 at 4:58 pm
Mine have been down all afternoon and seem to still be down. Can’t get to the Control Panel or Status either (4:56 pm).
September 12th, 2005 at 5:01 pm
My sites (and dreamhost.com?) are down, have been for at least 2 hours now, probably longer. Not good… Please post an ETA for having this problem resolved!!!
September 12th, 2005 at 5:04 pm
down here as well, just noticed it myself.
September 12th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
I dont even have hosting with you and I noticed the problem, about 13 websites that I visit regularly have been affected by this problem, although I know it isn’t dreamhosts fault. It is the owners of the LosAngeles1.Level3.net line, which went down earlier today and has only just come online. I am presuming that the line is being fixed now because a tracert now shows that traffic is getting though although the end servers arn’t talking. Before the LosAngeles1.Level3.net line and all ip’s connected from it where down, I guess this power outage had a big effect on the local areas internet :p made me giggle.
September 12th, 2005 at 5:07 pm
My two sites were down too, for about four hours or so. But they seem to be back up. How are people supposed to read my comics if my sites are down? Now I’ll never be rich and famous!
September 12th, 2005 at 5:10 pm
People, read the bloody status page which is there for just this kind of situation:
http://status.dreamhost.com/
September 12th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
yeah this is a bit ridiclious. directnic was and is still up even durring hurricane katrina…this is not cool due to a little power blip. someone can at least keep this status page updated. i have MANY clients and a new client i just refered to you guys on saturday, this is a great welcome and how do you do for them.
September 12th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
though I doubt posting a message saying that my email and site are also down will bring them back up any faster, it does make me feel better.
September 12th, 2005 at 5:17 pm
[...] Shortly after Dreamhost posted this entry on their blog (about 5 minutes from what we can tell), their generators and UPS went kaput. They ain’t posted about that yet, but we’re sure they will. [...]
September 12th, 2005 at 5:18 pm
Im very disappointed. I signed up for an account just yesturday and already theres an issue which DH cant resolve in a timely, professional manner. My site has been down since 3:45PM and its now 8:00PM Eeastern Time! Im loosing business. Dont these kids know that time is money!!! I see one of several reasons for such mishaps.
1. Dreamhost is so poor that they cant afford powerful generators. They proablby have them running on 12oz of cooking oil.
2. They’re shruging their shoulders in contempt knowing that they are in control. All we can do is sit there staring at the computer screen waiting for the service to be restored while potential business is being screwed over. I THINK A REFUND IS IN ORDER!
Ive decided to get my money back and look elsewhere for “dependable” service.
September 12th, 2005 at 5:21 pm
Why do some people say they’re up? I’ve been down for hours and my site is still down. It’s tough running a business without email…
… one more point for the crumbling U.S. infrastructure.
September 12th, 2005 at 5:22 pm
James a completely blind way to look at things, a) their generators didnt fail until a few minnutes after the power outage and b) even when their generators where operational the power outage knocked out the local internet pipeline and so not online did dreamhost not have outside access neither did a bunch of other hosts. dreamhost is the fourth host I have found to have suffered from this. The pipeline is now operational, and the individual hosts are slowly rebooting, at my last count 23 of the 70 odd websites that I know where affected are still down.
September 12th, 2005 at 5:23 pm
+1 for James. I just registered and my sites went down four hours ago and are still unaccessible, along with emails. I don’t care about your generators failing or whatever, it’s your task to make things work. You take care of that, and I pay for that. Since you obviously can’t fix things properly and on time (5 minutes would be ok. 5 hours not.), I’m thinking of going elsewhere, too.
September 12th, 2005 at 5:25 pm
I’m surprised that Dreamhost weren’t able to deal with this too well. Usually they’ve been a cracking host for me, and I hope this makes them more aware that they really do need a good contingency plan for future problems. Downtime is not a good thing, people pay for it NOT happening to be guaranteed.
September 12th, 2005 at 6:41 pm
Thank goodness everything is back up and running -Little over 3 hrs downtime- and status.dreamhost.com really really helped
Now WE KNOW
One more learning curve - If LA is knocked out again I hope some server farm cluster in Hawaii (hint hint JOSH) will mirror, co-locate and make all things better
addendum -without status.dreamhost.com
your credibility and $future$ (aswellasmine;() are history
September 12th, 2005 at 7:15 pm
……. Still twidilling my fingers ….
………
A good hosting company can resolve such problems in a flash… especially if they have been in business for as long as DH has. Im surprised they lack any viable backup plans after all these years in the business. ==I dont care if the whole state of California is down== They should have backup servers elsewhere in such emergencies. What the hell are we paying them for???? They are still relativly inexperienced in the hosting industry. sorry to say but time is money and I am stricly engaged in a business relationship with DH. It seems they just can deliver a dependable service. They just lost a valuable customer.
I adivce all to concider a more reliable hosting company.
September 12th, 2005 at 7:21 pm
FTP, SSH, MYSQL, PANEL, WEBSITE all down
7 HOURS AND COUNTING!!!
…………
oh and one other thing….. they ought to work on shared hosting servers at the same time instead of primarily focusing on the high paying corporate servers in such circumstances……
most hosting companies would quickly go out of business if it wasnt for the large customer base of common consumers.
*Scratching my ass.. wating patiently..*
September 12th, 2005 at 7:32 pm
I agree dreamhost is getting pretty big they need to have generators a lot of hosting places do have them for back up. My sites have been down all day its 10:30 PM on the east coast they are still down. I do understand that dreamhost of course had no control over the electric being out today. But maybe since this happen they will think about putting in generators. Good luck..
September 12th, 2005 at 7:35 pm
Never mind I guess you do have 4 generators..What a total kick in everyones butts today lol.
September 12th, 2005 at 7:41 pm
ok they are finally back up…..
7 hour downtime….
[Thats Strike One]
September 12th, 2005 at 7:44 pm
only ftp, panel working..
September 12th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
…everything is up and running but boy IS IT NOTORIOUSLY SLOW!
September 12th, 2005 at 8:58 pm
ALl the UPS and generators in the world will not help if their pipe goes, which is what appears to have happened. They could keep all the servers running without a blip, and the sites will still be down because the net can’t reach them. Offsite (different network!) mirrors *plis* ups and generators, and you have a sporting chance keeping things running. And DIrectNIC managed to keep their core (domain registration) business running, but even those studs lost their hosted websites for a considerable amount of time.
The net isn’t perfect, and if your business model relies on 100% uptime connectivity even when major infrastructure is out, you better be prepared to shell out some uber-serious amonumts of money to manage all this stuff yourselg, or pay very high prices to someone else to do it for you.
While you are at it, why don’t you go try to find a new car for $5.00? That would be about as reasonable as expecting “no down time” when there is a MAJOR regional power grid failure.
When you find the provided that can do that for you for a few dollars a month, by all means you should host there. Just don’t hold your breath waiting to find such a hosting provider.
September 13th, 2005 at 3:45 pm
dreamhost,
what were you thinking not being prepared for a power surge! ;)
surely you knew that some guy was going to hook the power cables to the wrong circuit and create a power surge?
what’s wrong with you, can’t you predict the future?
what were the people in the twin towers thinking not being prepared for two planes crashing into their buildings.
it amazes me how people can not prepare for these things!
what incompetency!
I’M SURE YOU ARE DOING EVERYTHING YOU CAN AND MORE!
December 25th, 2005 at 6:25 am
I dont care if the whole state of California is down== They should have backup servers elsewhere in such emergencies. What the hell are we paying them for???? They are still relativly inexperienced in the hosting industry. sorry to say but time is money and I am stricly engaged in a business relationship with DH. It seems they just can deliver a dependable service. They just lost a valuable customer.