Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsMore server outages for Whirlwind and Emberstorm [Updated]
by Robin Torres 
Nov 24th 2009 at 11:01PM
Then again, we might be lucky and they'll be back in ten minutes. Who knows with these things? Keep an eye on WoW.com and we'll keep you posted should we hear anything. If you're not sure if you're part of one of these battlegroups, the full list is behind the cut.
Update #1: Blizzard is aware of the issue. Not much else at the moment.
Update #2: Looks like most servers are coming up. Our poor friends on Quel'Dorei are still down for the count.
Update #3: Maintenance on these realms not necessarily 'done' says Malkorix.
Update 11:57pm: Both battlegroups went down 12 minutes ago. More as we know it.
Update 12:18am: Blizzard says they are working on it and that any compensation will come after the problems have been resolved.
Update 3:37am: The servers are up temporarily, but will be intermittently taken down while they continue to resolve the underlying problem.
Whirlwind
Anub'arak
Blackwater Raiders
Bladefist
Cenarion Circle
Cenarius
Darrowmere
Echo Isles
Fenris
Hyjal
Korialstraaz
Lightbringer
Maiev
Misha
Ravenholdt
Shu'halo
Sisters of Elune
The Forgotten Coast
Uther
Vashj
Winterhoof
Emberstorm
Antonidas
Borean Tundra
Cairne
Drak'Tharon
Drenden
Farstriders
Garrosh
Hydraxis
Mok'Nathal
Moon Guard
Nazgrel
Nesingwary
Nordrassil
Quel'dorei
Rivendare
Shandris
Tortheldrin
Wyrmrest Accord
Filed under: Realm News, Realm Status
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 6)
Rilaen Nov 24th 2009 5:43PM
30 or 40 people text spamming trade chat isn't enough to bring down anything. It would take hundreds of indivuals/bots per server for the majority of the servers on a battlegroup to bring a cluster down.
And I think you meant DoS attack.
Nightfall Nov 24th 2009 4:50PM
/cry
TKBrax Nov 24th 2009 4:16PM
The Power Outage response sounds like a load of malarky to me, as that is a fairly mundane event that is addressed in all Risk management/Disaster recovery plans, especially with a large scale, 24x7 data center operation.
For it to happen twice within 24 hours makes it even more unlikely.
If it really is the case, they need to fire the Director that oversees that data center(s)' operations.
Rapskallion Nov 24th 2009 4:21PM
I have to agree with you. I spent ten years in the power protection industry setting up power backup for everything from single desktops to five-nines data centers. A "simple" power outage should not be an issue for a 24/7 data center.
Franlkin Nov 24th 2009 4:26PM
I agree wholeheartedly. I tend to give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt on these sorts of things. Two major outages in 24 hours is pretty ridiculous though especially when they had an opportunity for maintenance and rolling restarts today.
crschmidt Nov 24th 2009 4:35PM
I'll note that it seems like this is a different issue than the power one, which brought down the realms entirely. This seems to be more lag-style issues? Which I could imagine being the case if some switch got flipped the wrong way when the system restarted; I don't know much about Blizzard's setup, but on machines that aren't restarted often (as I assume their realm database systems aren't), things like that aren't completely unheard of.
A power failure could mean a couple of things -- including the failure of an internal power supply. Either really bad luck (two independent power supplies inside a machine going boom at once), poor monitoring (one going bad, but no notification being sent out/fixed), or cheap machines (no redundant power supplies on different power networks) could lead to that kind of situation.
If it was the first case, it would likely mean they'd have to bring in a new machine quickly... and if that was the case, you can imagine that something in setting up that new machine could have gotten screwed up...
Then again, we're talking about two battlegroups here, so none of this makes sense. As single database/database cluster could be affected by this, but not multiples... hm...
I wonder if the power issue was actually somewhere in the data center that affected other machines: if that was the case, then the same type of problem (misconfiguration exposed on reboot of machines that are rarely/never rebooted) could lead to laggyness and other similar issues...
All in all, this is obviously not a common situation that one should expect themselves in. However, even people with a Lot of Money spent on hardware -- like Google, for example -- will sometimes go through periods of unavailability due to some crucial switch getting flipped the wrong way, so I don't think there's anything here that indicates negligence moreso than is going to happen anytime you'ev got a ton of servers to keep up.
Rapskallion Nov 24th 2009 5:27PM
@crschmidt - I'm glad you touched on some of the other ways they could be having "power problems". I was trying to keep my answer to "simple" problems, like a general loss of AC. I would honestly be very surprised if this data center did not have dual utility feeds, each with some crazy MVA power rated UPS systems, feeding dual supplies on each individual box.
ZombiePaul Nov 24th 2009 4:16PM
Man, this had to happen on my first two days off in a very long time where I have nothing to acomplish at all and was fiending some WoW. Heh... damned Murphy's Law!
Well, I'm off to play some EarthBound for now.
Travieso Nov 24th 2009 4:18PM
Obviously, we're celebrating WoW's fifth anniversary with November 2004 realm stability.
Matt Baron Nov 24th 2009 4:19PM
Also, it's worth noting that the Quel'Dorei realm has not been up at all since 10pm EST last night (for a total of 18 hours of downtime). Blizzard cites some additonal issues with this server:
"Quel'Dorei is currently experiencing some technical issues and will be unavailable for play until further notice. We are working diligently to resolve the issue; please keep an eye on this thread for additional status updates. "
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21376267931&sid=1
Cuban Nov 24th 2009 4:24PM
Im celebrating the 5th anniversary (my account hasnt gone inactive since launch day >
varilhigh Nov 24th 2009 4:24PM
Quel'dorei Never came back up from last nights outage. We were the only realm still off-line when everyone else came back on-line. I wouldn't usally care, but I had planned to play a lot today since I will be with Family the rest of this week and not playing.
Issac Nov 24th 2009 4:25PM
Being from one of the serves affected, this is nothing new.
Unexpected days of downtime is not unheard of. No credit given, no compensation, no help or admittance that something is really really wrong is the norm.
Never an offer of a free transfers off, either. I know entire guilds would jump at the chance to transfer off.
Hopefully they fix this crap soon. Already missed raid night last night, and times-a-ticking on that Pilgrim thing.
centaurkitty Nov 24th 2009 4:27PM
I got onto Vashj! Woohoo
varilhigh Nov 24th 2009 4:31PM
And all the servers are back up again except for all of us on Quel'dorei. I think we may be off-line for loooonnnnngggg time.
Matt Baron Nov 24th 2009 4:35PM
Yes, it appears that there are serious issues on Quel'dorei. I would really appreciate any indication from Blizzard about what is going on there.
plantllover420 Nov 24th 2009 4:36PM
yeah...i was about to turn in some quests and bam down it went
plantllover420 Nov 24th 2009 4:38PM
woo its coming back up now
crschmidt Nov 24th 2009 4:39PM
You claim that they're in 'breach of contact'; reading http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html , I can't see anything that they're 'breaching' in that contact. Perhaps there is another one that I'm ignoring; what specific term do you think they're breaching?
Generally speaking, the contact makes it clear that for your $15/month, they'll give you what they're going to give you: no more, and no less. I'd be surprised if anything further would actually pass a judicial review of any kind, though perhaps there is something I'm missing.
ben Nov 24th 2009 4:42PM
i wish i could thank you on behalf of your sympathy for QD, but we have another problem too.
i dont know if this has been on other realms, but someone has been making letters to players about a drawing of some sorts. I checked to see if it was legitamite, and it caused my account to become hacked. If anyone else on any other server has this same issue, please let me know.