[UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 – All Shards

[UO News]

Greetings!



Beginning Tuesday, July 13th at 2:00PM EDT all shards will be brought offline for updates to the current database system. Due to the complexities of this maintenance we anticipate services will be back online by 8:00PM EDT. We thank you for your patience during this extended downtime.



More...

 

[Mapper]

Thanks for letting us know!

For UK players, I make that as 7pm - 1am UK Time. So no prime time playing for us Europeans.

 

[canary]

8pm huh?

I say we all start taking bets on the REAL time it comes back up, LOL.

Personally, it would have been nice if they did it during typical 'office hours'... 9a-5p kinda thing. Seems there are less players on during that time, imo.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Everyone get your "backup" gaming scheduled for tomorrow!

Edit: Oh yeah and brace for the sudden, rapid decay of EVERYTHING

 

[Beastmaster]

Might want to make note of your account age today and compare tomorrow.

 

[Jhym]

The End is Near tee-shirts for sale...

lol

 

[Warpig Inc]

Anyone have a free trial code for WoW to burn those 6 hours? JK rather surf Ebay or YouTube for 6 hours. Even doing yard work ranks higher.

 

[Zodia]

Large Database changes make me scared.

I wouldn't be surprised to log in after the update and find my House full of lanterns, carrots, and horse dung where my chests of items used to be.

We shall see.

 

[Warpig Inc]

As a DoomSayer I would go with everything reverted to natural colors as if the whole game was bleached. And like the bottles there would be nothing they'd do about it. Think about it. Dye makers the new rich charaters.

 

[canary]

I want a blessed anything that says 'I survived the database migration of 2010!'.

 

[Zooithion]

Thanks and . . .
Good LUCK!

*shudders*

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

ZOMG Was giving us a date/time so hard?

 

[Yen Sid]

Wow, Origin has an EM Event at 8 :\, they better have the servers back up when they say they will, its gonna suck missing it .

 

[Viper09]

ZOMG Was giving us a date/time so hard?

You're complaining still? lol

Maybe they just got the plan set today as opposed to the weekend when they don't work.

 

[Lady Storm]

Hmmmm wonder if that house I am watching will fall during that time??

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

You're complaining still? lol

rolleyes:

People on Stratics seriously need new sarcasm detectors.

 

[Sergul'zan_SP]

Hmmmm wonder if that house I am watching will fall during that time??

Yes. One of the guys on the engineering team must have his eyes on that spot.

Time for maintenance!

 

[Viper09]

Hmmmm wonder if that house I am watching will fall during that time??

Shouldn't since the servers will be down. It might, however, fall directly at server-up.

 

[R Traveler]

I going to treat all my pets before downtime.

 

[Entheeya]

Hmmm.. Well thats ok I guess.... I'm going to be at work that whole
time anyway.. Butttt it better be up when I get home whenever that
is going to be.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Hmmm.. Well thats ok I guess.... I'm going to be at work that whole
time anyway.. Butttt it better be up when I get home whenever that
is going to be.

For those who aren't at work, we have a plan. More on this later.

 

[R Traveler]

For those who aren't at work, we have a plan. More on this later.

Bob invasion?

 

[wee papa smurf]

Bob invasion?

Where? on WoW? lol

 

[R Traveler]

Crash some freeshards?

 

[wee papa smurf]

If anyones watched "The truman show", at the end where the show finishes everyones like "So what now?" thats what its gona be like for most of uo players lol!!

 

[Old Man of UO]

Hmmmm wonder if that house I am watching will fall during that time??

What are the house coordinates? We'll help you watch it.

 

[UO News]

[UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

Greetings!



Beginning Tuesday, July 13th at 2:00PM EDT all shards will be brought offline for updates to the current database system. Due to the complexities of this maintenance we anticipate services will be back online by 8:00PM EDT. We thank you for your patience during this extended downtime.



Update 7/13/10 - 10:00AM EST: Additionally, all housing and character transfers are currently unavailable as we prepare for the maintenance.



More...

 

[Magdalene]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

If I were you, I wouldn't do it on the 13th... just in case.

 

[Nastia Cross]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

If I were you, I wouldn't do it on the 13th... just in case.

*points to avatar* Not this week, Magdalene... *sigh*

 

[olduofan]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

I'm not very computer savvy so can someone explain to me what exactly they are doing and do you think they will finally put in the anti cheat code ?

 

[Mapper]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

I'm not very computer savvy so can someone explain to me what exactly they are doing and do you think they will finally put in the anti cheat code ?

Looks like they are upgrading the database system that holds the account info/housing/vet rewards etc.

This won't put in any anti cheat code I don't think.

 

[Beer_Cayse]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

an Oracle upgrade I believe ... there was an earlier statement from Cal that mentioned that product. Mebbe hardware to support heftier requirements? Unknown on that score.

 

[Llewen]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

I'm not very computer savvy so can someone explain to me what exactly they are doing and do you think they will finally put in the anti cheat code ?

In MMO's all the information in the game is stored in a database, or in databases. Databases for MMO's are huge, and extremely complex, with hundreds of millions, and probably billions of bits of information. Everything is there, the colour of your hair, and all the items in your house, custom engravings on items, everything.

Those databases have their own servers, and in this case the software is developed by Oracle. As with anything the software for databases improves with new versions, and takes advantage of the features newer hardware has to offer, and hopefully becomes faster, and more stable - bugs are fixed, etc.

So while upgrades for the databases for MMO's don't happen often, at some point it becomes a very good thing to do, and that is what is happening now. The database server and client software is being updated to newer (newest?) versions. And because database server software, and the databases themselves, are so complex, and crucial to the functioning of the game servers, upgrading them is an extremely complex task involving a lot of planning and preparation.

This would have nothing specifically to do with the anti-cheat measures, although the database software affects absolutely everything in the game, so an upgrade would also involve changes to the anti-cheat code - which is already live by the way.

 

[woody_cats]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

so this might fix the champaign and some em event bottle wine labeling. at least i can hope till after 8pm

 

[Ivory Norwind]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

In Europa 2 pm is about 6.30 pm.
This means that there is an entire day of non-playing because the most people have been playing in the afternoon and evening hours. It's not right. The maintenance, also if it is a special maintenance, have to be made in other hours, early hours.
Iìm very angry. This is a very injustice

 

[olduofan]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

In MMO's all the information in the game is stored in a database, or in databases. Databases for MMO's are huge, and extremely complex, with hundreds of millions, and probably billions of bits of information. Everything is there, the colour of your hair, and all the items in your house, custom engravings on items, everything.

Those databases have their own servers, and in this case the software is developed by Oracle. As with anything the software for databases improves with new versions, and takes advantage of the features newer hardware has to offer, and hopefully becomes faster, and more stable - bugs are fixed, etc.

So while upgrades for the databases for MMO's don't happen often, at some point it becomes a very good thing to do, and that is what is happening now. The database server and client software is being updated to newer (newest?) versions. And because database server software, and the databases themselves, are so complex, and crucial to the functioning of the game servers, upgrading them is an extremely complex task involving a lot of planning and preparation.

This would have nothing specifically to do with the anti-cheat measures, although the database software affects absolutely everything in the game, so an upgrade would also involve changes to the anti-cheat code - which is already live by the way.

thanx for the info !

this leaves with anther question then I'm not sure which dev said something about addressing house storage space by the end of summer could this allow us to have more storage with out lagging the severs ?

 

[Pinco]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

don't worry, tomorrow we wake up and we find a huge green acres with all naked bald characters that run around

 

[Cogniac]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

so this might fix the champaign and some em event bottle wine labeling. at least i can hope till after 8pm

I'm not going to say that this couldn't spontaneously be fixed, but this has nothing to do with upgrading Oracle.

On a more technical note, is this an update from, say, 11.1.0.7 to 11.2.0.1, or this a full upgrade from 10g to 11g?

 

[Jandruz]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

don't worry, tomorrow we wake up and we find a huge green acres with all naked bald characters that run around

Hahaha That would be hilarious.

 

[Llewen]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

this leaves with anther question then I'm not sure which dev said something about addressing house storage space by the end of summer could this allow us to have more storage with out lagging the severs ?

Well if they are upgrading hardware at the same time, it probably would. But whether they would do that or not is another question.

On a more technical note, is this an update from, say, 11.1.0.7 to 11.2.0.1, or this a full upgrade from 10g to 11g?

Given the length of time they have said they have been working on this, I would think this is a full major version number upgrade.

 

[R Traveler]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

I predict "accidentall" loss of suspicious-looking stuff on some accounts due "some upgrading troubles"

"we are sorry, all chests over 100000 stones in ore are lost during upgrade process"

 

[Beer_Cayse]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

Er, folks in the Pacific Rim, all of N. America are also being impacted. Many of them are being hit in *their* play hours as well. My prime playtime is also impacted to an extent as at least one player-run event on my shard has been postponed due to the upgrades.

It's one evening ... spend it with close friends or family. Go to the art gallery, museum, the local bistro or something. It is not going to hurt all that much to pay attention to the real world for a change.

 

[Jhym]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

This would appear to be the 10g to 11g upgrade, though it would be good of them to bump all the way to 11.2.

I suspect their hand has been forced because there is no longer bug support for 10g. Production DBAs try not to do major upgrades until they have little choice, the uproar is usually too much annoyance.

Ah well, 11g wasn't that bad of an upgrade; as long as they patch in the critical security patches too I'll be happy.

 

[Den2]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

It is not going to hurt all that much to pay attention to the real world for a change.[/QUOTE]

There's a world outside of my basement???...maybe I'll go take a look.
AH THE SUN, IT BURNS MY EYES!

 

[Jhym]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

I doubt they will change that anytime soon, except perhaps to add in another "upgrade storage" code.

I'm fairly certain their servers can handle far more objects than they could 8-10 years ago, but they are gun-shy about UO players getting higher limits on anything. The first thing we do when they give us more of "something" is get as much of "something" as possible.

I would love it if they eventually bumped our 60K stacks up higher; however it does keep us from getting too pack-ratty.

 

[wee papa smurf]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

And so it begins.....

 

[Tazar]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

In case you are bored while the servers are down...

 

[James_Mythic]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

Hey folks,

We realize this downtime is an inconvenience to many, but with a global community there is simply no "best time" to do it.

As a policy we pad our estimates because as many of you vets are aware, things don't always go as planned, but most of the time they do! We will work to complete the job as soon as possible, but this is a complex undertaking and I'm sure you can all appreciate our desire to ensure that your play experience is not interrupted further after the downtime and that it's better we do it right the first time

Updating these systems is not a frequent thing but is necessary to provide the best experience possible as we continue to develop and support the game in a world of ever changing technology.

I will update the Herald post when the servers come online or with any additional details/info should additional time be required. As always your patience is appreciated and we'll have you back in game as soon as possible - thanks!

 

[Beer_Cayse]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

I have SPF 100 sunblock ... <shrug>

 

[watchertoo]

Re: [UO Herald] Scheduled Maintenance 7/13/10 - All Shards

Thank you keeping us updated!