I have the unenviable task of informing everybody here that sotamaps.org is down, and it will take some time to bring it back up - regretfully, it might take up to a few days to achieve this.
Please accept my sincere apologies for this interruption of service.
Rob DM1CM
sotamaps admin
No apology necessary Rob. It is a fantastic resource, and we appreciate your efforts in providing it for us. I’m sure everyone can be patient while you restore the service (although I expect some won’t be…).
I second Tom here!
Hope you’re able to sort it out without too much hassle
Ouch! Please do let me know if there’s some way I can help.
hi rob,
i hope to see sotamaps.org online soon again. thanks for all the work you put into this …
73 martin, oe5reo
Absolutely agree with Tom.
73,
Rod
Agree with Tom, too. Also joining Rex in offering any kind of help.
Once again, thank you Rob for all your efforts.
GL & 73!
Zoran / E70AA
No apologies necessary. I’m sure I will survive these next couple of days without one of my most well used and favorite websites.
Thanks all for the nice messages of support - they’re well appreciated!
Good news: I’ve worked through the night - aided by the redoubtable Andrew VK3ARR who is now taking a well-earned rest as I write - and have ported the entire codebase for sotamaps to a new server run by the MT IT department, thus doing away with the old hosting company and server.
Also transferred the latest tracks data and associations/regions/summits data to the db on the new server.
Last step was pointing the DNS to the new server - you should be aware that this last step will take some time (up to 4 hours, depending on the breaks) to propagate around the interweb.
So, it should be business as usual after a short waiting period. As with all such (hasty) transfers, errors will probably be encountered until I’ve “ironed out the creases”.
Rob DM1CM
Thanks for all your and Andrew’s work!
Still awaiting the DNS update at my ISP - at the moment I still get the page missing error - but I know it “can” take up to 24 hours for DNS changes to propagate.
73 Ed.
Thank you - Sotamaps is a brilliant resource your work is much appreciated!
Paul
Appears fully back to normal here already, thank you.
Many congratulations and thanks to Rob and Andrew.
73,
Rod
Same here - thanks for all the work guys!
Hi Rob,
the website seems to be running smooth again now.
I just wanted to let you know that my existing “KML Network Links” for Google Earth do not work! Also tried to export a new KML Network Link file … did not work either! Exporting a GPX file works!
73 Martin, OE5REO
Hi Martin,
OK, I’ll look into it…
73, Rob
Martin, try it now…
Many thanks Rob and Andrew. Sorry you had to lose sleep to restore this vital feature. It is the first stop for planning. 73, John
Awesome to have it back! Seems to load faster than what I have been used to. Much appreciated!!!
I couldn’t believe that the maps site failed just before I was about to spend some time planning some overseas SOTA expeditions and book flights. So as a user, it is great to have it back so fast.
Now one the reasons for that is Andrew VK3ARR has been tasked at making our services better either by making them less prone to fail (hard and expensive) or by making it easier to recover from things like hosts being awkward and shutting down the server. This process is much more advanced with Rob’s maps than with the DB but there is stuff happening on the DB.
Now I saw the start of a message thread last night between Andrew and Rob and this morning there were 40+ messages in the thread. It looks like Rob changed his bed time so he could work with Andrew and Andrew is several hours outside his timezone in the US and therefore suffering from some jet lag yet worked with Rob after a full day’s work and worked with him till 1.30am (local) from his hotel room.
I know many of you have thanked them for getting things sorted so quickly but I think you (the users) should be aware of how much effort was put in by both of them to get the maps back so quickly. It makes the 2hrs I spent twiddling with some DB tools and utilities last night look rather a feeble effort.
