Some forum issues fixed

  • Hi all,

    By way of introduction, I've relatively recently started as Project Manager at Red Gate, with responsibility for pushing forwards development on SQLServerCentral. I've also been the one behind the scenes in the last 24 hours trying to put things back together when they fell over. Some of the problems that people have been experiencing with the forums should now be fixed. We found the problem, and a fix, but I'm keen to turn the problem over to the community of experts here, as I'm not quite sure whether this was the correct fix!

    Essentially we had run into the same problem as described here:

    http://www.mydatabasesupport.com/forums/ms-sqlserver/362637-insert-permission-linked-servers.html

    As others have pointed out the problem was in the area of updating your points on the main site when you made a post to the forums. Previously both databases were on the same server, and hence had no problem (as in the post linked to above). Since splitting them onto two servers, however, it appears that only having insert permissions on the relevant table was not enough. I have applied the same fix as in the link above, by granting select privileges on that table to the relevant user, but I am obviously still not convinced that this is exactly 'the correct' solution. If anyone has any input, that would be most welcome.

    Let me echo Steve's apologies about the instability of the site over the last couple of days. Rest assured that we are working hard to both increase the stability of the system, and understand the root causes of the problems.

    Finally, part of what I will be looking at in the coming months is the ways in which we can improve SQLServerCentral. We are taking a pretty wide ranging look at this, so if people have suggestions, or requests, now is a good time to feed them through to either myself or Steve.

    Thanks,

    Mel Harbour

    Mel HarbourProject ManagerRed Gate Software

  • The points showing in forum posts is accurate where as the points on the Member scores and standings page are inaccurate. Will these be properly synced?

  • Eventually we'll sync them back up. I'll look to do a recalciulate of everything at some point.

  • Sounds good, no hurry.

  • Mel Harbour (7/9/2009)


    Finally, part of what I will be looking at in the coming months is the ways in which we can improve SQLServerCentral. We are taking a pretty wide ranging look at this, so if people have suggestions, or requests, now is a good time to feed them through to either myself or Steve.

    Hey Mel,

    Thanks for the explanation of what happened. Regarding the INSERT permission issue - so the procedure exists on Server A, and it does a remote INSERT (four-part name) to a table on server B? I'm sure that many of us would be interesting in looking into this - any chance of more detail? Sample procedure, table, and linked server definitions would help no end 🙂

    As far as imroving the site is concerned, I'm sure you'll have no shortage of suggestions. My personal contribution would be a simple, but wide-ranging, request to make the site generally 'lighter' to improve the speed of rendering and navigation. I have a fixed 10Mbit internet connection at home and 400Mbit at work, so it's not necessarily the size of the pages that is the issue - perhaps it is related to my average 350ms ping time (from New Zealand).

    Paul

  • It looks like the threads for the Editorials are not getting created in the forums. I noticed this yesterday and also this morning when I tried to read the discussion on today's Editorial by Steve "The Worst Advice."

    I first tried to get to the thread from the email and that got me the "Sorry, an error has occurred" paged. Reading the editorial on the web site directy and then trying to go to the thread got the same thing and when I look in the Editorials section of the forums, I don't find the thread for the editorial. I haven't checked threads for any other newly posted articles.

    -- Kit

  • We're still chasing down the create thread issue. I'll try to get more detail on the linked server item, though that might take a few days.

    I do have some poorly performing queries, and I'm looking to write some of them up as a "group tuning" exercise. In the spirit of openness, I think it would be interesting to see how people might tackle a real life tuning exercise.

  • Kit G (7/10/2009)


    It looks like the threads for the Editorials are not getting created in the forums. I noticed this yesterday and also this morning when I tried to read the discussion on today's Editorial by Steve "The Worst Advice."

    I first tried to get to the thread from the email and that got me the "Sorry, an error has occurred" paged. Reading the editorial on the web site directy and then trying to go to the thread got the same thing and when I look in the Editorials section of the forums, I don't find the thread for the editorial. I haven't checked threads for any other newly posted articles.

    This issue should now be fixed. It was a configuration issue with the Distributed Transaction Co-ordinator. Essentially we needed to allow security access for the co-ordinator to run a distributed transaction on the forums database from the main database. Never a problem when they were both living on the same server, but obviously harder when they are on different machines.

    For some information about the changes that we needed to make see here:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/839279

    Mel HarbourProject ManagerRed Gate Software

  • Yep. I can see the threads now for the editorials. I guess when tomorrow's editorials go up we'll see if the fix needs another fix! 😛 (and no, I'm not disparaging whatever you did that fixed the problem, just I know from experience that when you fix one thing, sometimes you miss something else or that fix allows another error to pop up. Ah, the joys of troubleshooting! :w00t: :hehe: )

    Thank you very much for handling it and letting me know.

    -- Kit

  • Hey, I have what seems like a relatively easy upgrade. Need to add Twitter account to the Contact information.

  • grumble, don't get me started, Jack. I've wanted that (with FB/LI) for some time

  • Steve Jones - Editor (7/10/2009)


    grumble, don't get me started, Jack. I've wanted that (with FB/LI) for some time

    At least now you got some backup. I suppose I could replace the web site with it. I mean who has ICQ anymore 😛

  • Mel,

    I broke it... any chance of you taking a look at the following, please. Yeah, it's the code window again but I broke it bad enough to make the thread not work anymore...

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic759734-433-1.aspx#bm759774

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • Steve Jones - Editor (7/9/2009)


    Eventually we'll sync them back up. I'll look to do a recalciulate of everything at some point.

    When you do, I lost 1,000,000 points overnight! Not sure what happened, my count used to be much higher. I'm sure you'll be able to correct that . . .

    😀

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    How best to post your question[/url]
    How to post performance problems[/url]
    Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]

    "stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."

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