Ultra Software Company Blog

It's really my fault. For something this important, I should have assumed the backup system would fail.

You should install a test server where you can play around and test untested things like backups and restores. And you should have a fallback server too, which has always the last good state. Even a $100 netbooks are good enough to act as test and fallback server.

 

And not to mention that with Domino this could never happen, since there data and design is seperate, and you can just switch take a backup of a design, replace it with another and switch back to the last good design anytime. It wouldn't happen with a self-made PHP/MySQL app either, since you are in control what is changed, but these ready-made boards are all ****. Also CPanel is ****, and I've never understood why it's even needed, as you can do much more and much easier things directly with SSH command line, or you can make your own CPanel with PHP or LotusScript.

 

And I wouldn't trust any application level backups. Always take a OS file system level backup.

You should be able to restore the sql databases through phpMyAdmin with your full backup.

Create blank database the same name and import the .sql file for the database from the mysql folder in your full backup, also import the mysql.sql from the root of the backup this adds the user privileges.

You may be able to import into the the current databases your using now but I have always started from and empty one.

You should be able to restore the sql databases through phpMyAdmin with your full backup. Create blank database the same name and import the .sql file for the database from the mysql folder in your full backup, also import the mysql.sql from the root of the backup this adds the user privileges.You may be able to import into the the current databases your using now but I have always started from and empty one.

I should, but the full backups aren't full backups. They are all missing the databases, even though they are supposed to include them. Otherwise this would be no big deal.

 

All developers' accounts have been reinstated. Email support at leadwerks dot com if you cannot log into your account using your registration key as the password (you can change this to whatever you want).

So the whole asset store is gone too?

Yes. I have the files that were uploaded, but they take some effort to identify because they are just randomly named with no extensions. The application is reinstalled and I can set everything back, but the data in the system is gone. I know, when I realized what had happened I was shocked and devastated. Now you guys are all feeling that.

 

I am looking through the backup archives, but since the most recent two did not contain databases, it seems likely CPanel just never saved them.

 

If anyone can recommend a fast .tar.gz viewer, I'd appreciate it. I'm using WinRAR to view them and it's really slow.

Josh have you tried 7zip ( http://www.7-zip.org/ ) it can open all archives very quickly, just remember to set the manager so it is associated with the archive.

 

If you need a hand going though the archive I could always help if possible

Thanks, but they're all slow. The files are 12 gb each.

ah that would explain why they are all slow thats one heck of a archive I dont think there is anything that will open then quick as the index is going to be huge.

I am copying files off a USB hard drive right now. It will take hours, and it is 1 AM in California, so I am going to sleep. If I am able to locate any copy of the database it will be good, but it seems very likely to me the CPanel full site backup has been failing to save databases this whole time.

Opening a tar.gz of 12 GB shouldn't be any problem with WinRAR or 7Zip. The initial loading/opening might take 30 minutes (if not more). But afterwards you'll browse through the files quite easy.

This is really knocking the community back

It’s odd I use the fullbackup option when transferring new clients sites to my server’s, and restore them through my WHM panel, you can’t do it through cpanel, but never a file as large as yours. I have seen cpanel backup dump database tables into individual binary files but has always restored correctly through phpMyAdmin, I have my fingers crossed for you.

All UI packers are slow, but the command line is fast. So if you just search for some certain file pattern, like *.gmf it will be very fast to list all gmfs in a .tar.gz or any other archive format.

Tell your host to restore a previous backup. Most hosts do daily, weekly and monthly backups of the whole server. Sometimes they'll charge a small fee for the restoration.

 

If they don't do that, drop your cheap host, and get a real one.

I wouldnt say its all your fault josh - as a user we need to expect that the software is configured properly. In case of a backup i too would expect the default setting would be "all-and-everything".

Got me tempted though and i might have to put a bbord up myself, just to work with it.

I hope its not too bad for lw beginners ... at least there is the wiki, the set of tutorials, the user-manual and the C api manual from sep2010.

Josh, I think that you should first of all stop thinking about the past and turn toward the future. It seems to me that it is not worth wasting your valuable time to searching the archives. Probably the biggest pain is the loss of documentation for LE2. The rest is not critical. Asset store files, screens, blogs, posts, etc., many of these things are made by individuals from community, and perhaps some may be (in some cases) restored by their authors (if this will be really needed).

 

I hope, that this minor setback with Werkspace, don't affect your great work with development of Leadwerks Engine (I believe that the engine sources are backed in a better way). Anyway, chill out and don't worry too much.

Josh, I think that you should first of all stop thinking about the past and turn toward the future. It seems to me that it is not worth wasting your valuable time to searching the archives. Probably the biggest pain is the loss of documentation for LE2. The rest is not critical. Asset store files, screens, blogs, posts, etc., many of these things are made by individuals from community, and perhaps some may be (in some cases) restored by their authors (if this will be really needed).

 

 

 

Actually that's quite insulting to the community I think, which is made up of many individuals who have spent many hours of their valuable time contributing to it, with "Asset store files, screens, blogs, posts, etc." and much more, but as none of that was critical I am sure they can now take it easy, stop uploading files, writing blogs, posting, helping with technical support, writing tools, headers and tutorials.

Actually that's quite insulting to the community I think, which is made up of many individuals who have spent many hours of their valuable time contributing to it (...)

I had no intention to offend anybody - just my poor English is not able to express themselves more subtly. Josh seems to be very worry about this accident. This is obviously a sad thing and I just wanted to give him some encouragement.

Yep that's quite disturbing but "s..t happens". Like any good community we have to help a bit to solve problems together as much as possible, to upload again what we can upload

 

Especially it is disturbing for you guys who have contributed a lot, I am grateful to you. I am relatively new member, but I'll try to contribute more in the near future.

 

Something Positive :

Deja vu Looks like Diving in the past Jane Croft site + release date

 

I'm young again

A few questions (and sorry if these were covered in some form):

 

What do we do about previously uploaded assets? It sounds to me like you're going through them and will see how reasonable it is to reupload them. Is that right? I ask because I have a saved copy of a file I uploaded (Leadwerks Joystick/Gamepad Example). I assume I should hold off on uploading to not mix things up.

 

Why is the documentation lost? Was there only an online copy? I would have imagined that Jorn would have worked on it offline and then uploaded it when he was ready to, so he would still have a copy offline which he could reupload. But it sounds like this isn't how it worked. Just curious. You made it sound like it needs to be recreated pretty much from scratch (for entries created after November).

 

Thanks and best of luck with painlessly restoring as much as possible!

In my case all is OK Josh, so this happennning at each of us i thinking, and many times.

So it's sign from GOD! YOU MUST NEVER CHANGE DESIGN!!!! :) :)

Why is the documentation lost? Was there only an online copy?

It was created and edited online, but I've been making lots of backups. The problem is the backups don't do what they say they do. There are no options in CPanel to include only parts of a full backup. It's explicit about what it includes, and tech support assured me on two separate occasions the databases would be saved. So I felt pretty good about using it. Even if one archive somehow got corrupted, I had full backups going back for months.

 

The user data lost is very important. This isn't just a forum. People rely on it to host a lot of images, files, and their writing. I hope the protocols I enact will convince them to trust the site again with their data. I'll talk to my uncle about what steps should be taken.

 

My hosting company is actually very highly rated and not cheap, and they've done everything else very well. I won't mention their name for now, but they seemed remarkably unconcerned about this. Their reaction was "Hmmmm, that's interesting, I don't know why the databases aren't being saved."

Well, sometimes this sort of thing just happens. Data is lost and that's it. Hopefully this serves as a reminder to rest of us to backup our stuff.

 

*cough* stuff... I really must set up my own backup system.

 

Hmm, what is a good way to backup mysql stuff?