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Power Outage Takes Wikimedia Down

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the problem-with-non-absolute-power dept.

Baricom writes "Just a few weeks after a major power outage took out well-known blogging service LiveJournal for several hours, almost all of Wikimedia Foundation's services are offline due to a tripped circuit breaker at a different colo. Among other services, Wikimedia runs the well-known Wikipedia open encyclopedia. Coincidentally, the foundation is in the middle of a fundraising drive to pay for new servers. They have established an off-site backup of the fundraising page here until power returns."

26 of 577 comments (clear)

  1. This is why you don't turn Google down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They'll turn the lights off.

    1. Re:This is why you don't turn Google down by rs79 · · Score: 1, Funny

      "They'll turn the lights off."

      Nah, that's not it. When Hunter Thompson shot himself in the head last night the bullet kept going and hit a really unfortunate piece of equipment.

      --
      Need Mercedes parts ?
  2. Coincidence... ;) by Faust7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Coincidentally, the foundation is in the middle of a fundraising drive to pay for new servers.

    "You see, guys? This is what could happen if we ever ran out of money. Now cough up some dough!"

    --
    The coolest voice ever.
    1. Re:Coincidence... ;) by xsupergr0verx · · Score: 5, Funny

      So... slashdot the offsite backup?

      --

      Click here for a free picture of an iPod!
    2. Re:Coincidence... ;) by FuturePastNow · · Score: 1, Funny

      Consideracy theory? Is that like when you worry about people being nice to you?

      --
      Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life.
  3. Just like PBS by FunWithHeadlines · · Score: 1, Funny
    "Coincidentally, the foundation is in the middle of a fundraising drive to pay for new servers."

    So like PBS, they bring the service down to remind you they need the cash to provide you with the service you wanted to see but they just brought down.

  4. News Update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    After returning from the power outage, the servers have just been slash-fried.

  5. More information here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I found this useful information about power outages:
    http://www.wikipedia.org/search?/power_o utage

    1. Re:More information here... by daveo0331 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Unfortunately that site you linked to appears to be slashdotted, or something. Here's a mirror:

      http://www.answers.com/topic/power-outage-1

      --
      Remember the days when Republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility?
  6. Join me, my friends! by mctk · · Score: 4, Funny

    A power outage has taken down wikipedia! as a community we must carry the torch!

    --
    Paul Grosfield - the quicker picker upper.
  7. Oh, great... by ral315 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Even when the servers go back on, they'll be slashdotted.

  8. There's a lesson to be learned here by Raul654 · · Score: 3, Funny

    As that economic genius, Eric Cartman taught us:

    1) Get something other people love
    2) Don't let them use it
    3) Profit!

    It doesn't hurt if you are running a fund drive at the same time, either.

    --


    To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
    --E.C. Stanton
  9. Aaaaand... by Faust7 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Meanwhile, the devs are working fairly furiously to get it back up

    Don't worry, we'll take care of your backup servers in the meantime. ;)

    --
    The coolest voice ever.
  10. lame quotes rule by mrpuffypants · · Score: 4, Funny

    it's as though 300,000 people cried out and were suddently silenced ...

    and then somebody diffed the change and made them speak again

    1. Re:lame quotes rule by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Guybrush Threepwood was an ordinary, uninspired character in a very boring game.

  11. Absolute power corrupts. by kiwidefunkt · · Score: 3, Funny

    As soon as I saw "Power corrupts. Power failure corrupts absolutely" I thought, the damn commies finally did it! But no, not hacked by commies...just by a renegade circuit breaker.

    --
    www.kiwilyrics.com - a wiki for lyrics
  12. Re:What Happened. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Real datacenters don't have PeeCees.

    Oh, maybe one, out at the guard's desk.

  13. Re:mysql bad at disaster recovery? by Dachannien · · Score: 4, Funny

    So we have to take the master offline (actually just acquire a write lock on the DB, it can still answer SELECTs), tar up its (massive) database, scp it to the slaves, start the master, stop the slaves, untar the database, restart the slaves, and restart replication.

    You forgot the part where you have to take the chicken across first, because the fox won't eat the grain if you leave them alone.

  14. Oh...ok... by buffy · · Score: 2, Funny

    So, _this_ is where I should be posting my outage reports! And here I've been sending them only to people who would care.

    "Slashdot...outage reports for nerds! Stuff that doesn't matter to me!"

    Lol!

    -buf

  15. Taken down by CO$, coincidence or not! by friendscallmelenny · · Score: 3, Funny
    Yesterday they had frontpage Scientology entry with Xenu stuff. I told my friend, "That site will be in trouble soon."
    He thinks I'm a god now!

    perhaps I just inadvertently reached clear

  16. Notice thier Database worries by iwadasn · · Score: 2, Funny


    Apparently one of their MySQL databases got corrupted as well. Figures. You'd think with all that volume they'd be wise enough to use a DB that can withstand a hard powercycle without losing data.

    Just remember, friends don't let friends use MySQL for important data.

  17. :::eyes UPS under table::: by shoemakc · · Score: 4, Funny

    :::eyes my UPS::::

    ::::ponders for a momment::::

    :::eyes the serial cable that gracefully shuts down said computer in the event of a power failure::::

    :::ponders some more::::

    :::eyes the spare UPS sitting in the corner that used to be connected to a database server::::

    Hmm, I think i'm almost onto something here, but i just can't seem to nail it down...

    -Chris

    --
    --an unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys--
  18. Re:What's the Name of Wikimedia's Colo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    From their website:

    Neutelligent owns and operates it's data centers. Neutelligent is not co-located in someone else's data center. We are located in downtown Tampa,FL. ,in one of the only true NOC's in the southeast. Neutelligent has huge fiber commitments with the following carriers, totalling over 4.5 gigs: UUNET, Level 3, and EPiK. By doing so, that will ensure 0:00 down time, not 1%, we mean 0% downtime.

  19. At the risk of pointing out the obvious... by Headcase88 · · Score: 2, Funny

    So now they'll have to put up a page to say "The temp page that says that our site is down is down. We are working aorund the clock to get the temp page back up.".

    --
    "When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
    1. Re:At the risk of pointing out the obvious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      The temp pages have been completed in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute.

      Signed, Joe Q. Llama

  20. Imagine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Imagine what would happen if there would be a link on wikipedias main site to slashdot and from slashdot back to wikipedia...Boom?