RealClimate.org – down

UPDATE: As of 10PM PST, RC is back up and running, no mention of the outage though – Anthony

I figured I’d better note this since a number of people have brought it to my attention. Trying to reach realclimate.org was giving a 502 error much of today, which is likely due to an internal problem with their database used to run WordPress. They run a custom version of wordpress code and theme on a LAMP configuration, and it appears the PHP code can no longer communicate with the MySQL database.

After several hours of that 502 error, realclimate.org is now giving a 503 error:

Service Temporarily Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

Here’s some background on these codes:

Error: 503 Service Unavailable
The server is currently unavailable (because it is overloaded or down for maintenance). Generally, this is a temporary state.

Error: 502 Bad Gateway

A 502 Bad Gateway error occurs when the front-end web server cannot communicate with the application responsible for responding to the request. To resolve this error:

  • Confirm that the application is running. If the application crashed, was terminated, or has not yet started following a system reboot, the application must be restarted to respond to requests. If the application was terminated, you will receive a notification email with additional information.To restart the application manually, please see your application type’s documentation or control panel entry for instructions.Most stopped applications are automatically restarted during periodic cron jobs. Please see the application’s entry in the control panel for details.
  • Confirm that the application is listening to the correct port. Check your application’s configuration to make sure that it is listening to the port assigned to the application in the control panel.

Gavin is probably pulling out what little hair he has about right now.

This is why I use wordpress.com – I don’t have to worry about maintenance, hacking, updates, or other server related issues.

Based on the return codes, the issues at RC today are likely due to internal code or maintenance problems, so I wouldn’t speculate beyond that.

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October 17, 2011 6:46 pm

Most likely the database is so much toast… Unless you _really_ know what you are doing databases need periodic ‘spring cleaning’ (not of the deleting posts type) to keep operational – i.e. tweaking configs, checking disc space etc
I’d put my money on that they have run out of disc space… Usually something you can plan for and the OS should be been screaming into the log files that the ceiling was fast approaching..
BTW coding a web site is considering harder than a supercomputer – with web sites you need to deal with the real world on every single request…

October 17, 2011 6:47 pm

Still ‘502’ errors inquiring using Sam Spade:
Host: http://www.realclimate.org
Connection: close
User-Agent: Sam Spade 1.14
HTTP/1.1 502 Bad Gateway
Server: nginx
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 01:40:56 GMT
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Connection: close
Last-Modified: Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:45:01 GMT
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 682
Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate
Pragma: no-cache
Expires: Wed, 11 Jan 1984 05:00:00 GMT
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN”
“http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd”>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=utf-8″>
<meta http-equiv=”pragma” content=”no-cache”>
<title>502 – Bad Gateway</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>502 – Bad Gateway</h1>
<p>The page you requested is currently unavailable. Please try again later.</p>
<p>If you are the website owner, please see
<a href=”http://docs.webfaction.com/software/general.html#error-502-bad-gateway”>Error: 502 Bad Gateway</a>
documentation for more information and possible steps to resolve the problem.</p>
</body>
</html>
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Michael in Sydney
October 17, 2011 6:51 pm

I didn’t notice.

John Crane
October 17, 2011 6:54 pm

Maybe they’re part of the IPCC Cloud and are now frantically cleaning house.

stevo
October 17, 2011 7:21 pm

“Gavin is probably pulling out what little hair he has about right now.”
Hilarious! You must have spent ages thinking of that.

REP
Editor
Reply to  stevo
October 17, 2011 7:28 pm

Stevo, you really need to develop a sense of humor. Gavin has a problem with his site that would lead most of us, many with IT skills, foaming at the mouth. Many of us would not wish it on a nicer person. I’m twice his age and have twice the hair. I think I don’t have enough. Hope Gavin has a better response than hair-pulling.

October 17, 2011 7:21 pm


Maybe they’re part of the IPCC Cloud and are now frantically cleaning house.

Aha “document shredding” … lol …
.

October 17, 2011 7:23 pm

I’m sorry RealClimate has gone down; it provided another perspective on climate change. And the RC moderators’ practice of censoring anything challenging CAGW dogma may have been as effective as WUWT in converting open-minded visitors into skeptics. 😉

jorgekafkazar
October 17, 2011 7:32 pm

It’s wonderful how much I’m not interested.

wotsit
October 17, 2011 7:32 pm

Isn’t that the standard server response to FOI?

Dr. Dave
October 17, 2011 7:46 pm

Y’all are nuts! Clearly the site is possessed of demons.

DavidM
October 17, 2011 7:49 pm

Apparently the IT guys have been told to take Steig’s Matlab class before they can fix anything which is slowing things down a bit. Also, it turns out one of the techs doesn’t have his PhD in Radiative Physics yet.

Dr. Dave
October 17, 2011 7:49 pm

While I am normally loathe to dispense free medical advice, Gavin should prepare a hot, moist herbal poultice and lay it upon his server to draw out the evil humors.

crosspatch
October 17, 2011 7:51 pm

My guess is that it just got suicided in order to prevent any IPCC related FOIA requests.

crosspatch
October 17, 2011 7:51 pm

Or someone has seized their database. That is another possibility.

Frank Kotler
October 17, 2011 7:53 pm

#
Bob Moss says:
October 17, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Maybe their proxy server is upside down.
#
Quote of the week! Thanks, Bob!

Mike Bromley the Kurd
October 17, 2011 7:57 pm

Maybe a denial of sevice hack from some of those Anonymous people, mistakenly thinking it was a Skeptic site….

G. Karst
October 17, 2011 8:00 pm

FBI raid… well, we can at least hope that the long arm of the law, has finally caught up to the team. It may be a brief fantasy, but I think I will enjoy a few more moments, of it. GK

Gerald Machnee
October 17, 2011 8:06 pm

Will give them more time to read “The Spoiled Child”.

Jimmy Haigh
October 17, 2011 8:09 pm

So RC is down? No great loss to humankind.

David Ball
October 17, 2011 8:10 pm

Perhaps the sea has inundated their office, …………

Jimmy Haigh
October 17, 2011 8:11 pm

Mike Lorrey says:
October 17, 2011 at 5:19 pm
I’d noticed that before too. Looks like their sun’s at solar maximum too.
Bob Moss says:
October 17, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Good one!

Shub Niggurath
October 17, 2011 8:14 pm

“Maybe their proxy server is upside down.”
ROFL.

Mike
October 17, 2011 8:24 pm

Perhaps all their tech people are out supporting an “occupy something effort” somewhere ?

Robinson
October 17, 2011 8:30 pm

… and just for a few days at least, the Internet was slightly less stupid.

AntonyIndia
October 17, 2011 8:33 pm

Still: “503 Service Temporarily Unavailable”.
Who pulled the plug on this (private? – government?) project?