Connection problems again! (GoDaddy Host)

[Thotos]

I have once again started getting connection errors when trying to connect to my forum at www.lanciagammaforum.com

"Connection Problems
Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later."

I am sure I am using correct setting in Settings.php as I can connect to the database using phpMyAdmin or mysql.php in the home directory of my server using the same credentials and server details as in Settings.php.

"Here is a list of the tables in your database:
- gam073502302533
\ _ _ smf_attachments
\ _ _ smf_ban_groups
\ _ _ smf_ban_items
\ _ _ smf_board_permissions
\ _ _ smf_boards
\ _ _ smf_calendar
\ _ _ smf_calendar_holidays
\ _ _ smf_categories
\ _ _ smf_collapsed_categories
\ _ _ smf_log_actions
\ _ _ smf_log_activity
\ _ _ smf_log_banned
\ _ _ smf_log_boards
\ _ _ smf_log_errors

The connection to "gam073502302533" was successful!
PHP extension used: MySQLi
Server Name: p3nlhg136"

I'm fairly sure the problem is with GoDaddy shared hosting but I can't convince them of this and they insist the problem is with my forum software.

Any suggestions or recommendations for what to do now? I tried upgrading my 1.1.20 forum to 2.0.15 and to 2.1.Beta3 but in both cases I received errors which I didn't understand so I reloaded my forum backup taken before the upgrade.

What's the easiest way of moving the database to a different server? I have another hosting account with Netfirms so I thought since I can't convince GoDaddy to migrate my database I may try moving it myself but not sure what's the best (easiest?) way to do this.

Any suggestions or help will be much appreciated.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

If that is a complete list of the tables in your DB, then you are missing most of them.

[Thotos]

That doesn't seem good! What else should I have? phpMyAdmin shows:


Table   Action   RecordsTip   Type   Collation   Size   Overhead
   smf_attachments   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   2,092   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   231.1 KiB   -
   smf_ban_groups   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   20   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   2.6 KiB   -
   smf_ban_items   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   9   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   3.2 KiB   -
   smf_boards   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   7   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   7.1 KiB   -
   smf_board_permissions   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   94   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   5.9 KiB   -
   smf_calendar   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   0   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   1.0 KiB   -
   smf_calendar_holidays   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   167   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   11.0 KiB   -
   smf_categories   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   3   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   2.1 KiB   -
   smf_collapsed_categories   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   23   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   2.2 KiB   -
   smf_log_actions   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   0   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   1.0 KiB   -
   smf_log_activity   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   3,973   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   166.2 KiB   -
   smf_log_banned   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   494   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   26.0 KiB   -
   smf_log_boards   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   875   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   22.5 KiB   -
   smf_log_errors   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   246,176   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   65.0 MiB   -

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Been a while since I've played around with 1.1 databases, but I think there should be some 40 tables all together.

Something like this

smf_attachments           
smf_ban_groups           
smf_ban_items           
smf_boards   
smf_board_permissions           
smf_calendar           
smf_calendar_holidays           
smf_categories           
smf_collapsed_categories           
smf_log_actions           
smf_log_activity           
smf_log_banned           
smf_log_boards           
smf_log_errors           
smf_log_floodcontrol           
smf_log_karma           
smf_log_mark_read           
smf_log_notify           
smf_log_online
smf_log_polls           
smf_log_search_messages           
smf_log_search_results           
smf_log_search_subjects           
smf_log_search_topics           
smf_log_topics           
smf_membergroups           
smf_members
smf_messages           
smf_message_icons           
smf_moderators           
smf_package_servers           
smf_permissions           
smf_personal_messages           
smf_pm_recipients           
smf_polls           
smf_poll_choices           
smf_sessions           
smf_settings           
smf_smileys           
smf_themes           
smf_topics           

[Thotos]

I have another similar car club forum which still works. That has 23 tables which while more than the 14 in the non-working forum is a lot less than the 40 you are suggesting.

   Table   Action   RecordsTip   Type   Collation   Size   Overhead
   smf_attachments   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   4,434   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   447.3 KiB   -
   smf_ban_groups   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   67   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   3.8 KiB   -
   smf_ban_items   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   67   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   4.6 KiB   -
   smf_boards   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   9   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   7.6 KiB   -
   smf_board_permissions   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   162   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   10.4 KiB   -
   smf_calendar   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   13   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   5.3 KiB   -
   smf_calendar_holidays   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   185   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   11.5 KiB   -
   smf_categories   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   1   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   2.0 KiB   -
   smf_collapsed_categories   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   26   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   2.2 KiB   -
   smf_log_actions   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   0   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   1.0 KiB   -
   smf_log_activity   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   1,054   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   49.4 KiB   -
   smf_log_banned   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   0   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   1.0 KiB   -
   smf_log_boards   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   2,023   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   81.7 KiB   -
   smf_log_errors   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   0   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   1.0 KiB   -
   smf_log_floodcontrol   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   0   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   1.0 KiB   -
   smf_log_karma   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   0   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   1.0 KiB   -
   smf_log_mark_read   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   204   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   11.8 KiB   -
   smf_log_notify   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   990   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   27.7 KiB   -
   smf_log_online   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   2   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   4.5 KiB   -
   smf_log_polls   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   87   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   4.7 KiB   -
   smf_log_search_messages   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   0   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   1.0 KiB   -
   smf_log_search_results   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   0   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   1.0 KiB   -
   smf_log_search_subjects   Browse    Structure   Search    Insert   Empty    Drop   11,809   MyISAM   utf8_general_ci   478.1 KiB   -
23 table(s)   Sum   21,133   MyISAM   latin1_swedish_ci   1.1 MiB   0 B

[Thotos]

Wouldn't a lack of database tables produce a different error? e.g. table 'smf_xyz' not found?
The error "Unable to connect to the database" implies to me that the SMF software cannot get to any tables rather than looking for missing ones. The MySQL.php successfully connect to the database and lists the available 13 tables.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

That DB really shouldn't work if that is all it has in it. It is missing all the actual content, members,  topics, posts...  Are these on the same server?
Or at least the same host? If so, my first guess would be they are having issues....

[Thotos]

The 23 table SMF forum works fine. Have a look at it at www.131mirafiori.com/smf  (let me know if you register and I'll approve your account).

Both my car club forums are with the same host (GoDaddy) but they are on different servers.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

I believe it works, and I can see it works, but still it doesn't change the fact that those database structures are incomplete, and shouldn't work.
Something is wrong somewhere, and I would point my finger towards the host.

[Thotos]

........ and I would point my finger towards the host.

That's what I've been doing for about the last week since the forum stopped working :-(
I've worn out all my fingers by the amount of pointing but they keep saying "Nothing wrong our end, it's your problem" :-(

[Illori]

can you ask them to restore a backup from before the site went down?

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Perhaps ask them to make a database dump for you - you can then compare the contents of it to the view you have in PhpMyAdmin.
If they differ, you have a tool against your host. If they are identical, you have a mystery.

[Thotos]

can you ask them to restore a backup from before the site went down?

I've already asked that and they said they will restore a backup if I pay them $149.99 :-( and I certainly don't want to do that!

[Thotos]

Perhaps ask them to make a database dump for you - you can then compare the contents of it to the view you have in PhpMyAdmin.
If they differ, you have a tool against your host. If they are identical, you have a mystery.

I'm not sure I fully understand that. How could a database dump by the host not match the view I have in phpMyAdmin? Wouldn't the dump and the phpMyAdmin view come from the same database?

[Illori]

then you dont have any other option, once you decide what you want to do find a new host as they should not charge you to restore a backup.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Perhaps ask them to make a database dump for you - you can then compare the contents of it to the view you have in PhpMyAdmin.
If they differ, you have a tool against your host. If they are identical, you have a mystery.

I'm not sure I fully understand that. How could a database dump by the host not match the view I have in phpMyAdmin? Wouldn't the dump and the phpMyAdmin view come from the same database?

I am thinking that you are not seeing the full contents of the database for some reason, while your host has different methods of accessing it directly.
Also, if the dump is whole - you get a backup

[Thotos]

then you dont have any other option, once you decide what you want to do find a new host as they should not charge you to restore a backup.

My current hosting plan with GoDaddy is up for renewal on 20/01/2018 so moving to a different host is very much an option. But how do I move the database to a new host? Do I use phpMyAdmin to export everything and then import it to the new host's database server?

[Illori]

if your new host is a good one, they will migrate everything over for you.

[Thotos]

if your new host is a good one, they will migrate everything over for you.

Any recommendations?

[Arantor]

Something is wrong here.

Either those 23 tables aren't the full story and there are hidden tables, or the forum isn't as functional as claimed (on the basis that there is no members, no messages and no topics table)

There isn't, say, a 'next page' button or a page dropdown or similar?

[Illori]

if your new host is a good one, they will migrate everything over for you.

Any recommendations?

https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?board=155.0

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Just finishing recovering forum with similar problem.  GoDaddy somehow managed to screwup the database server, it's fixed now, the database was not damaged.  If you can pm your GD username/password, will try to get to it tonight.  Have another trashed forum to work on, but should have time to take a look.

[Thotos]

Just finishing recovering forum with similar problem.  GoDaddy somehow managed to screwup the database server, it's fixed now, the database was not damaged.  If you can pm your GD username/password, will try to get to it tonight.  Have another trashed forum to work on, but should have time to take a look.

Thanks for your offer of help and might well take you up on it but I finally managed to get GoDaddy to admit it's their problem. 
Oh and I was wrong about the working forum only having 23 tables, I was looking at an old damaged database  The working forum has 87 tables! I am an ignoramus but I am learning... 

I've just spent the last couple of hours with GoDaddy tech support in Phoenix Arizona! (but by calling a local STD number!).  I finally spoke to a tech support guy who admitted to me that they migrated the database server on the 19th of December and that's what's  killed my forum as the database has been corrupted. He also admitted to me that they've had lots of similar support calls from many others in the past week.  They are trying to locate a backup of my database from before the 19th to restore but so far they are not doing well. Their support guy, who has sent me an email with his details, has promised me that he'll stay on the case until they find a backup and restore it. Hopefully they'll find one.

At work we use Carbonite Backup (https://www.carbonite.com/). When something goes wrong, simply right-click on a file, select Carbonite and restore any of the backups going back 3 weeks. I'm surprised GoDaddy can't find and restore a backup from the 18th of December 

Sir Oris is it possible to recreate the database tables from the forum data?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

The forum content (settings, members, topics, posts, etc.) is in the database tables, if you lose the tables, the data is gone.  My host has R1Soft in cpanel, it backs up files and databases daily, saves them for 30 days.  I recently recovered a large forum that I had moved from GD to my host (Crocweb) using R1Soft, it worked fine.  I also run cronjobs that do daily db backups on my production forums and saves them for a month, just in case.  I believe some GD packages support cronjobs, but I'd get out if I were you.  Been working on GD forums for several years here, and they're worse now than they ever were.

[Thotos]

.... but I'd get out if I were you.  Been working on GD forums for several years here, and they're worse now than they ever were.

The GD Tech Support guy admitted to me that a lot of their servers, especially on their shared hosting,  are very old (9-10 years old) so they are replacing them. Unfortunately they are getting the data migration wrong and messing things up. The guy said "I'm not sure if we are helping by upgrading the servers or making things worse". He even suggested that I either change to one of their other hosting plans or change hosts!!  GD do offer a daily cloud backup for $1.99/month so I'll go for it if they fix my forum and I decide to stay. I would take everyone's advice and move hosts but I don't see that being a simple straightforward thing to do. As I mentioned above, my GD hosting is up for renewal on the 20th of January so I have some research to do in the next  3 weeks or so....

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Depends on what else you have running in the account, moving a forum is pretty routine.

[Thotos]

Depends on what else you have running in the account, moving a forum is pretty routine.

Not much. A simple website and a single SMF forum.
Will look into alternative hosts...
But first I need GoDaddy to find and restore a pre-19th December backup of my database.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Have you done any backups with cpanel backup utility?  They would be in /_db_backups.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

I've just spent the last couple of hours with GoDaddy tech support in Phoenix Arizona! (but by calling a local STD number!).  I finally spoke to a tech support guy who admitted to me that they migrated the database server on the 19th of December and that's what's  killed my forum as the database has been corrupted. He also admitted to me that they've had lots of similar support calls from many others in the past week.  They are trying to locate a backup of my database from before the 19th to restore but so far they are not doing well. Their support guy, who has sent me an email with his details, has promised me that he'll stay on the case until they find a backup and restore it. Hopefully they'll find one.

At work we use Carbonite Backup (https://www.carbonite.com/). When something goes wrong, simply right-click on a file, select Carbonite and restore any of the backups going back 3 weeks. I'm surprised GoDaddy can't find and restore a backup from the 18th of December 

That sounds like progress, but really - combine this new information, the amount of time you have suffered from this problem, and their attempt to charge you 150$ to fix it ( while now it seems they can't even do that ) ... I'd say get away from them as fast as you can.

[Thotos]

That sounds like progress, but really - combine this new information, the amount of time you have suffered from this problem, and their attempt to charge you 150$ to fix it ( while now it seems they can't even do that ) ... I'd say get away from them as fast as you can.

Sounds like progress but no real progress yet. I can't believe that a hosting provider would migrate a server without taking a full backup first. Probably an old server died and they migrated whatever they could. Even that doesn't make sernse as they should have backups of all their servers :-(

[Thotos]

Not good!  I've just received this:

"Hi Theo,

My team has looked all over to find any trace of the past database on the account.  They have been unsuccessful.  I didn't want to be the bearer of bad news but they don't have any information aside from what got moved over.

Thank You,
Jim Parzych
Sales and Support Consultant


  I can't believe that a hosting service provider who offers a 99.99% uptime guarantee have not only managed to lose data but now claim not to have backups. There must be a backup somewhere even if it's several weeks or even months old. 

It may only be an insignificant car club forum but it's been running for 10 years and there was a lot of useful information. I certainly won't be renewing my hosting plan with GoDaddy after this.

I have another (older) hosting plan with Netfirms. Anyone have experience with them? Anything good or bad to say about them?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

There's a reason why you're supposed to do regular backups.  GD has a db backup utility in cpanel that works reasonably well, but they don't do automatic backups.  My host runs R1Soft, which backs up all files and databases daily and saves them for 30 days.  I also run cronjob backups on my production forums.  It's your data, you have to take care of it yourself.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

You may want to ask the difficult questions, what were they planning to do when they offered to charge you money for fixing this? And how are they planning to refund you for lost data, and the long downtime caused by it. I would.

When my host did a similar move some years back, I got access to my old server and my new server for a month before the old went offline, just so that I can make sure nothing broke, and could take backups of all I needed to make sure... For free.   

[Thotos]

There's a reason why you're supposed to do regular backups.  GD has a db backup utility in cpanel that works reasonably well, but they don't do automatic backups.  My host runs R1Soft, which backs up all files and databases daily and saves them for 30 days.  I also run cronjob backups on my production forums.  It's your data, you have to take care of it yourself.

I realise that now! But I still cannot believe that a hosting provider does not backup their servers, I simply cannot accept that. When a similar thing happened to another of my forums a couple of years ago, GD reloaded a backup of the database that was a few days old and all was well. I don't understand why this time they have no backups. They must have but probably can't be bothered to find a backup of what is for them "an unimportant database".
My hosting plan with GD is over 10 years old so I don't have cPanel access, I need to change my hosting plan for that. I can make database backups vis the phpMyAdmin panel. While I have backups of the website and SMF software, I naively assumed the database was safe as the host would make regular backups of their shared hosting database servers.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Some hosts (not all) don't save system backups for more than a few days, but you've been royally screwed.  Any responsible host should do a full server backup before migrating to a new server.  GoDaddy has always been a crappy host, but they're much worse now than they've ever been.  I've worked on GD accounts for years, and it's hard to believe that after all this time they still don't get it.  If you were running a commercial site, you'd have grounds for a lawsuit.

[Thotos]

Some hosts (not all) don't save system backups for more than a few days, but you've been royally screwed.  Any responsible host should do a full server backup before migrating to a new server.  GoDaddy has always been a crappy host, but they're much worse now than they've ever been.  I've worked on GD accounts for years, and it's hard to believe that after all this time they still don't get it.  If you were running a commercial site, you'd have grounds for a lawsuit.

Yes, I have been royally screwed by GD and I'm very annoyed as well as ashamed for not having made a useable backup of the database but I never imagined that a host wouldn't backup their servers. Data that came from me i.e the rest of the website is backed up several places. The GD data migration was on the 19th of December. I was made aware of the problem on the 22nd of December. It took me over a week to convince GD that the problem was caused by them, they kept saying "nothing wrong with our servers. It's your software producing too many requests to the database server". I suspect the migration on the 19th of December was due to their server dying so they migrated whatever they could recover....

[Thotos]

Is there anything that can be done with what's left of the database? The number of boards are there, the attachment files (a lot of them!) table is there and attachments are saved externally, permissions are there etc. Could I make any use of what's left to recreate the forum even though important stuff such as messages and users are lost? 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Not much left.  You might be able to recreate the basic structure by importing smf_boards and smf_categories to a new install, but easy enough to do it manually.  Not much you can do with attachments, the filenames are hashed.  If you restore the filenames, you could organize the pics into a gallery on a new forum.  I suppose you could go through the table one row at a time and rename the files from file_hash to filename, but you have over 2000 attachments, I wouldn't want to try that.  Might be possible to write a script to restore filenames. 

Do you have the original database credentials from before the move, maybe a copy of old Settings.php?  Anything is possible with GoDaddy, the database could still be running on the old server.

[shawnb61]

Renaming the attachments via batch script is kinda easy using Excel if you have the attachments table.   I did it a while back trying to help someone else  trying to recover attachments.

More info here:
https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=554131.msg3927825#msg3927825

[Thotos]

Do you have the original database credentials from before the move, maybe a copy of old Settings.php?  Anything is possible with GoDaddy, the database could still be running on the old server.

With GD's dynamically allocated database servers, the database and server name remain the same and the same credentials are used even though the database may be moved to a different server. When I've had to make changes to Settings.php due to server changes, I commented out the old server name or IP and added the new ones:


########## Database Info ##########

#$db_server = 'mysql295.secureserver.net';

#$db_server = '10.6.173.12';

$db_server = 'gam073502302533.db.11678243.hostedresource.com';

$db_name = 'gam073502302533';

$db_user = 'gam073502302533';


I've tried connecting to the old servers just in case they still had an old copy of the database but no such luck.

I too thought of creating a gallery of the old attachment files/photos. Renaming the files shouldn't be too much of a problem as the original file name is part of the hashed name e.g. 6_forumgamma_jpga6893352cb45800da2c70f53f1431d26.

Recreating the look and feel of the forum even if it's blank might be better than starting from scratch...

[Thotos]

Renaming the attachments via batch script is kinda easy using Excel if you have the attachments table.   I did it a while back trying to help someone else  trying to recover attachments.

More info here:
https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=554131.msg3927825#msg3927825

Thanks! 

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

That's a handy tip, I'll need to make note of that too

Thotos, as it is quite evident that this is a host issue out of our control, are we ready to mark this topic solved or is there something you would still wish assistance with?

[Thotos]

That's a handy tip, I'll need to make note of that too

Thotos, as it is quite evident that this is a host issue out of our control, are we ready to mark this topic solved or is there something you would still wish assistance with?

Yes definately a host issue (who are not even replying to my emails now )
But I do have a couple of questions which is related to this. I have created a new forum using SMF 2.0.6. I exported all tables from what was left of my old forum which included smf_boards, smf_board_permissions etc and imported the .sql file to the new database in the hope that I would get back the 7 boards previously available and their permission. But while the import in phpMyAdmin seems to take a while, i.e. it's doing something, nothing gets imported. What am I doing wrong?
Second question: Would I be right in assuming that themes from version 1.1.21 are not compatiple with 2.0.6? I loaded my highly modified forum theme from my old forum to the new one but while it looks very similar it doesn't work correctly with button labels missing and buttons not working. Is there a utility to up;grade themes from SMF 1.x to 2.x ?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I have created a new forum using SMF 2.0.6. I exported all tables from what was left of my old forum which included smf_boards, smf_board_permissions etc and imported the .sql file to the new database in the hope that I would get back the 7 boards previously available and their permission. But while the import in phpMyAdmin seems to take a while, i.e. it's doing something, nothing gets imported. What am I doing wrong?

If you dumped the remaining tables to sql, they should import to a new database using pma.  You'd be better off doing a clean 2.0.15 install (why 2.0.6?) with a new database, and recreate your 7 boards manually.

Would I be right in assuming that themes from version 1.1.21 are not compatiple with 2.0.6?

Yes, and there is no way to upgrade a theme other than rewriting it.

[Thotos]

Thank you Sir Osis of Liver 
I have a lot of work to do to recreate my forum    I just wish my knowledge if this was better  but while my old forum was working well I didn't bother to get to know the workings better 
Thanks for all your help and I'll mark this topic as solved.