Running smooth again
Posted by david on 27 Jun 2017 at 01:26 am | Tagged as: Uncategorized
As you probably noticed, for the past 2 months things have not been running smoothly. The server that Green Felt runs on is *really* slow and I think the disks are going bad. This, interestingly, didn’t cause things to just die, but rather it caused everything to just run slower than normal. At some point it crossed a threshold and couldn’t handle the amount of traffic the site gets.
We’ve been screwing around with carefully constructing the replacement server (mentioned in the last post), and last weekend Jim and I made a final push to get the main database running there. We knew it would take a number of contiguous hours of work to get it going, and that’s why it took 2 months—it’s hard to get both our schedules aligned when we’re both busy with work and non-work life. But in the end, we got it going. I was hoping that normal spinning disks would be enough, but our test run of the DB at about 3:00pm Pacific time had the exact same symptoms—constant “502” errors (which get reported as the infamous “backend server not available” error). The new server is currently living in my house, so I went off to Fry’s to buy a giant SSD to hold the database (well, technically just part of the database). After that got installed we powered it up and things started looking good again. It’s now been 2 days and things are still looking pretty good.
I like graphs so here are some pretty graphs that show the difference between good and bad. This first one is number of games played per hour:
Notice how spiky and horrible it looks on the left, compared to the right. The big gap is when we were actively working on the DB last Saturday. Usually when we do that there is a message about “maintenance mode” but for some reason we haven’t investigated yet, that failed and so none of the games got saved during that time :-(.
Here’s another graph. This one shows the amount of CPU the server uses (basically how hard it is working):
Notice that the CPU is pegged to 400% (it’s greater than 100% because there are 4 CPUs). When we stopped the database on that server the CPU pretty much instantly drops and the server becomes more responsive. Even more importantly than the CPU is the white line, which represents “load”. It basically says how many individual programs were trying to run at the same time. If it’s more than the number of CPUs then things have to wait (there’s technically more to it than that, but that’s close enough). Notice during the bad left hand side it’s up at 75 to 100! This meant that everything was super slow and barely anything was getting a chance to finish.
The last one is arguably the most important one:
This one shows web server errors. Remember the 5xx (and 502 errors in particular) are the ones that cause the “backend server not available” message. At the peak of the bad days we were returning 100 errors (the red line) per second! Ouch. Notice they dropped to zero after the Saturday work. This lets us know that things are generally working. I’m not sure what’s causing those spikes you see in the last 2 days. They look kinda bad at this scale, but when you zoom in they are just a handful of really really short spikes (less than a minute each). It’s certainly not the constant horribleness represented on left hand side of the graph.
Forum Stuff
One thing you may not know is that every forum post gets emailed to both Jim and me. We use the posts/emails to gauge the health of site and appreciate people telling us when things don’t work (less so the demands to fix things, although I do understand the frustration of trying to use something that isn’t working and is only fixable by someone else—really, I do). Even when we don’t respond we’re at least keeping up.
That said, this 2 month period was overwhelming in terms of bug reports. On Saturday I had 3000 unread emails in my Green Felt folder. 1000 of those were automated emails for various errors happening. Jim had similar inbox issues. We knew, of course, that things were not working well (the graphs show in plain detail all the errors that were happening), but we got overwhelmed and got really backed up on emails. So if you wrote something on the forum in the last couple months that wasn’t related to the server being on the fritz, you might want to send it again.
Also a special shout out to Sage, who was patiently responding to people even when we weren’t.
Donations
There’s been a lot of people offering to donate money for the hardware and upkeep. That sort of generous spirit of our users warms my heart, but I’m not sure taking donations is the right thing to do. I haven’t spoken with Jim about this yet, so this is all just my own opinion. Donations are nice, but I’d rather offer something more tangible in exchange for money, even if it’s just some sort of “premium membership” thing (I have no idea what that would entail). I know some people use Patreon for this kind of thing, but most of the people I’ve heard of that get good money from it are YouTube people with very large followings. I’m not sure we’re big enough for that.
I know I whined about the cost of the SSD in my forum post, but that was mostly just because at $800, I think it’s the single most expensive single disk I’ve ever bought. But the fact is, neither Jim nor I are strapped for cash right now, and the amount we’ve sunk into Green Felt is surprisingly little when you consider it’s been running for over 10 years.
What’s Left?
We still need to convert the rest of Green Felt over to the new server. Then we need to move it from my house into our hosting facility. This is requiring us to learn new stuff—we’re basing our new server on NixOS, which is new to both of us. That makes things go slower since we’re adding a fairly big learning curve on top of everything. Still I think it’s the right thing to do and it should give us a more reliable, more portable environment (it would be nice to run it on Amazon’s or Google’s cloud without a whole bunch of work).
Hi Green Felt Guys – Many thanks for your extraordinary generosity of spirit in providing time and resources, both personal and financial, for something that appears not to be in your own interests – except perhaps for the satisfaction of a job well done?? Or the challenge?? You are the genuinely nicest fellows in an increasingly self-absorbed and greedy world!
The only way the Green Felt Community can show our appreciation in a practical way is by contributing financially.Those of us getting so much pleasure from the games should be the ones paying for the hardware, certainly not your own coffers, regardless of their status. Just give us a means to contribute. The server might be a one-off cost but there must be continuing expenses for the ‘hosting facility’ that any over-subscription could help pay. The only reward subscribers need is that the site continues to operate and you have already achieved that. I certainly wouldn’t expect anything else.
Thanks so much for all your work on Green Felt. It has been frustrating, but you said you’d get it fixed and you have. This website provides me with endless hours of non-productivity, but it is a great place to escape to.
Thanks again.
Dear David (and Jim),
I appreciate all your efforts keeping this nice site alive.
Well done!
M
Greenfelt is terrific and you both rock. I love playing here and do so almost daily. I played on in spite of the backend server issues and that told me a lot about myself. When I could see the scores and that it was possible to ‘win’, I would play over again to see if I could win. Without the scores, I just played the daily game once… The enjoyment was the same!
Thank you for all that you do!
xo
Ann (aka Meka)
Thank you both. But you ruined the new game I made up where I tried to beat my record of how many times I clicked the “High Score” button before the scores loaded…I got it up to 99 once!! 😀 Seriously though, y’all have an amazing site that gives a lot of pleasure to many
Thanks guys, as far as donations go we are offering because we want to no because you are going to give us something. The thing you give us is the site and the games, that is our reward. If I could hug you I would – you are great.
Cynthia you beat me, I only got to 53.
Great work – you provide a much needed respite from world and work and I really appreciate it. Plus I reckon the speed/swapping between games/trying out a new game challenges is great for the brain!! Thanks for all you do – I wasn’t too frustrated by the continual back end server – sort of made me adjust my competitive streak but otherwise still enjoyed playing the games. However, now its back it’s even better!
It’s great to see you’ve got things running properly again.
The work – unpaid! – that you guys put into this is beyond belief. you could so easily have said:”Oh forget it!”. But you didn’t.
Heartfelt thanks for all you hard work and for a great site. If you decide to charge, I’ll pay!
ARC
Well done gentlemen, and thank you for fixing it.
We will re-iterate our offer to all send you a buck or two to defray expenses and to buy you two wonderful guys a beer!!
Thank you so much for all the time, energy, expertise and money you invested to fix Greenfelt for all of us adoring addicts! Much appreciated!
My $0.02 First, thank you, thank you, for the site, it is a wonderful source of challenge. It makes me analyze game patterns to figure out how to win when I see that someone else has won before me and it is possible in a particular layout.
That said, I think you are right to preserve your freedom by not going to a pay route. When something is free, it comes with no strings, and there is no obligation on your part.
At the same time I do long for a means to donate in order to offset some of your costs. It would allow those of us who are able and have the desire to GIVE (not pay) something. You would still be free to walk away (if you must) in the future.
Please do not let our many offers to help you financially go by the wayside.
We love you and your efforts to create this site.
Cracking job fellas
JT
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your site and keeping me entertained. try as I might I struggle to get my name on the leader board, I’m wondering if I need new glasses.
If you guys are ever down under, I’ll shout you a beer.
God Bless.
I am very happy things are mostly fixed. There are occasional glitches but I can take it. I love the maple leaf on the diamond. Happy Canada Day!
Hi Guys – Let me reiterate how much joy, relaxation and pleasure you pass around the world and thank you for getting us back up and running smoothly. In my case, it is your site that allows me to tumble back to sleep after an hour of play when I awaken at 2 or 3 in the morning. The green felt background and soft colored cards are of help. Please do let us help give you something back. I have no expectation that if I contribute to your already incurred expenses that you are under any obligations to continue. You have given me 100’s of hours of sleep I would not have had otherwise and I am deeply grateful.
Thank you for everything: thank you for fixing the site, thanks for those awesome graphs, thank you for this post, and thanks for creating the best solitaire site on the internet by a wide, wide margin. Seriously, I’d give Greenfelt 100 and the second-best site a 2. That’s how big the gap is.
I think you ought to start a Greenfelt Super Hopeless Game Addict Club with a membership badge and sell ’em. I’d join.
Thank you for all the work you do normally and what must have been a nightmare fixing the “backserver: trouble. For what it is worth, four comments:
1. If you could arrange a safe way for Greenfelt fans to contribute on line, I would gladly help support the operation.
2. I am getting a lot of the same game to solve lately. I am one of the slowest solvers but still manage to make the top 10, sometimes hitting the #1 spot even with a new game I have never seen.
3. I wish there was a way to contact other users. Some are like old friends just from seeing them do well in the win section.
4. You are bloody geniuses at technology. But…
“One thing you may not know is that every forum post gets emailed to both Jim and I.” should be “Jim and me.” An easy way to avoid this rather common mistake is to think of it as being sent only to you before writing in Jim’s name. You would never say, “One thing you may not know is that every forum post gets emailed to I.”
Ray (“Pogo”)
#4: Fixed. Me and Jim always get that wrong.
Thank you so much David and Jim!
Just know there are legions of us who truly appreciate your unique generosity and who would gladly contribute to a “tip jar” if and when you decide to make one available.
“Me and my husband” also enjoy your subtle sense of humor 😉
I like Green Felt and enjoy playing thank you so very much. Just a question, In Sea Heaven Towers today I had 5 minutes and 81 moves and scored third. There were players much better than that scoring 4, 5 and 6. May I ask why that is?
I would like to ask you to make the site donation enabled because I would like it to have commercial value so that someday when for whatever reason neither one of you are able or willing to continue to operate the site, the games could still be available since they would have commercial value. I ask this since you are far and away the best site for card games, and I am reluctant to play on the other sites as they are very unsatisfactory. I run a small business and I donate to good causes and I know that time and money are always limited so its always preferable to ensure that things can “run on their own”, thus I always insist that every cause have a self funding plan. Thanks for your time and generosity. Lawrence Querin
Thanks so much I love this game. I wouldn’t mind ads if it helps with costs.
love this site. I’m 86 with lots of spare time and I just love solitaire