Down again

HokkaidoStu

I get this error

"Internal Server Error - Read

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Reference #3.adaea1d2.1271086990.3f23bb6d"

Only me?

photowinz

Me too!

Wicked_Dark

No unfortunately. Spoils my immediate plans.

Erick L

Same here.

Pinto Pony

Grrr me too!

NateA

Me too. Been down for about the last 8 or 9 hours. Basically down while I was at work all day (I'm in Germany). Hope it comes back soon!

RBrogen

This is crazy....
WHY IS THIS STILL AN ONGOING ISSUE SM? Every single outage now appears to be a site wide, everything stops working outage and it seems you are having issues every week or two. I am PO'd because right now I have a professional sports team reviewing my damn images from a game on Saturday and they can't get to my site and therefore can't buy what they can't see! UGH it makes me look really bad.

swintonphoto

Not even listed on the status blog...

Stime

Same here. I just started a promotion on Facebook (http://facebook.com/lightofthewild) where fans were visiting my site and sending me emails to enter. And, SmugMug crashes right in the thick of it. Killed any momentum.

Horrible timing.

RBrogen

I'm seriously having to consider moving to another provider. I've been on SM a long time and as a start up it was ok but I can't run a high-end business with people of this caliber sitting looking at some cartoonesqu graphic saying OOOPS. It appears to be back up now but damage done.

EDIT: Spoke too soon...it's in "READ ONLY MODE" so the images I was in the middle of uploading when it went south still can't be uploaded and my potential client is still without access to dnload.

dereksurfs

Stime wrote:

Same here. I just started a promotion on Facebook (http://facebook.com/lightofthewild) where fans were visiting my site and sending me emails to enter. And, SmugMug crashes right in the thick of it. Killed any momentum.

Horrible timing.

While I like SM's functionality, reliability has never seemed like a top priority. All the lip service in the world really means nothing. Actions speak much louder than words. If it truly was a top priority these constant outages would not occur plain and simple.

Since I am not selling my work yet I am just more annoyed by all these problems. But if I start selling my work I will most likely be forced to move to a more reliable service with a stronger backup, failover system. There should always be a read service available as a bare minimum. If its your business these outages make you look like an amatuer. Real action with less promises/excuses need to occur.

Derek

LCKatMPN

Updates and improvements are always frothcoming, but maybe it is time to just step back and cement what is in place. I am out of town with limited Internet access and this is just about as bad timing as it can get. What would help would be a quick comment from Smug, even if it is just to say: "Check back again." It helps to have an idea of whether this is a major problem or a problem that can be fixed sooner rather than later. I am so confused right now it hurts.

LCKatMPN

LCKatMPN wrote:

Updates and improvements are always frothcoming, but maybe it is time to just step back and cement what is in place. I am out of town with limited Internet access and this is just about as bad timing as it can get. What would help would be a quick comment from Smug, even if it is just to say: "Check back again." It helps to have an idea of whether this is a major problem or a problem that can be fixed sooner rather than later. I am so confused right now it hurts.

And we're back. Thank you. Despite the breakdowns, Smug has so much to offer it would be an extremely hard call to shift elsewhere. I trust things are in check and that ours can be a long-term relationship. Thanks again.

drsPIX

Down 12 April
I have to agree that frequent outages are a big problem.

Maybe less effort on adding new functionality and more planning for smooth operations.

(Re-evaluating my "pro" membership)

dereksurfs

drsPIX wrote:

I have to agree that frequent outages are a big problem.

Maybe less effort on adding new functionality and more planning for smooth operations.

(Re-evaluating my "pro" membership)

Similar to what M$ finally tried to do with Windows 7 after much disatisfaction with Vista and continued market share loss to Apple. Sometimes reliability and performance are more important than all those new wiz bang features put together.

Derek

sojourn

Wow, my first day as a paid subscriber and the site is down. This does not bode well, eh?

I guess I should have visited the forum before making my decision to join up.

Nice to meet you all, hope I don't have to meet you in this thread very often.

Barb

NateA wrote:

Me too. Been down for about the last 8 or 9 hours. Basically down while I was at work all day (I'm in Germany). Hope it comes back soon!

Hi Nate,

We were down this morning for about 20 minutes (around 8:40 am Pacific Time). We certainly were not down for 8 or 9 hours. Have you been able to connect from your work in the past? Many work environments block sites such as SmugMug. Not sure if that may be the issue with you or not. When you get home (maybe you are there now), and if the site is still not working for you, please email our support heroes so we can see what might be causing you problems. http://www.smugmug.com/help/emailreal

Barb

Hi Folks,

We are very sorry for the technical issue we had a bit earlier today! It was a small issue, and our engineers were right on it and got the problem solved quickly.

Again, our apologies for the hassle and inconvenience to you and your customers.

rolette

Barb wrote:

Hi Folks,

We are very sorry for the technical issue we had a bit earlier today! It was a small issue, and our engineers were right on it and got the problem solved quickly.

Again, our apologies for the hassle and inconvenience to you and your customers.

Problem is back again (just now)...

Jay

mlee

Are we down again, now? 11:35AM?

Photos aren't loading and the site is sloooowww..

neverone99

SmugMug Outage
Check again...it was up for like 5 minutes and down again. I am in agreement with everyone here...the service is just shaky...and has been for a while. Am I paying for beta? (btw, the subscriptions are NOT cheap).

RBrogen

Barb wrote:

Hi Folks,

We are very sorry for the technical issue we had a bit earlier today! It was a small issue, and our engineers were right on it and got the problem solved quickly.

Again, our apologies for the hassle and inconvenience to you and your customers.

Hi Barb,

I appreciate the efforts from the heroes however I completely disagree with your assessment that it was a "small issue". Perhaps in a metaphorical, easy to fix sorta way it may have been an small issue, BUT, in a VERY LITERAL way it was and IS a VERY BIG issue with me and others who are paying to use this service. Just in the past few responses you can see that there are several people who are in the same boat and have been made to look bad in front of clients and potential clients. What we need SM Corporate to listen to and understand is that this is our livelyhood and not some sandbox to play around in. I love all of the features and options that SM provides but it is not something that I would trade up-time for. All of the great features in the world aren't worth a hill of beans if your client's can't get to them. Several month's ago the CEO got on here and proclaimed that a TOP PRIORITY was to reduce/eliminate down time resulting from these issues. What is being done to permanently address this?

Thank you.

Andy

RBrogen wrote:

Several month's ago the CEO got on here and proclaimed that a TOP PRIORITY was to reduce/eliminate down time resulting from these issues. What is being done to permanently address this?

Thank you.

Lots, more Ops resource, working on infrastructure improvements, and more. It is indeed extremely high priority for us to improve the reliability and availability of the site.

We don't ever mean that it's a small issue to you, Randy - or any of our customers. Barb was trying to say it was a small issue on our end and it was promptly repaired. We're sorry that it came across in a different way to you.

RBrogen

Andy wrote:

Lots, more Ops resource, working on infrastructure improvements, and more. It is indeed extremely high priority for us to improve the reliability and availability of the site.

We don't ever mean that it's a small issue to you, Randy - or any of our customers. Barb was trying to say it was a small issue on our end and it was promptly repaired. We're sorry that it came across in a different way to you.

Thank you for commenting Andy. I understand there have been things in those areas you mentioned above that have been started or done to try and resolve this but, and I think you would agree, that the number of service affecting outages has continued to be an albatros around all our necks. I've always said that the SM Heroes work diligently to resolve any issue, and that remains the case here. The problem is that the issues are still occuring at a rate and severity that is beyond acceptable. With the economy in the shape that it has been in, every single client/prospect we can get on our sites and in our galleries ordering product is crucial to our survival not to mention growth. I'm in the very early stages of this process with that pro team which would be a HUGE opportunity for me and now I have had to go and eat crow and explain how 3rd party hosting works and that it wasn't me, per se that was down etc. etc. you get the picture. Not a real good situation which is why I have been so vocal on this one as it had a potentially big negative impact on me and my image as a professional on a big stage.

I hope you see where I'm coming from and why it is vital to my business that I have a very high uptime percentage.

Barb

neverone99 wrote:

Check again...it was up for like 5 minutes and down again. I am in agreement with everyone here...the service is just shaky...and has been for a while. Am I paying for beta? (btw, the subscriptions are NOT cheap).

We are up and running and have been since the initial outage earlier this morning (with the exception of about a 10-second hiccup an hour or so ago. Sorry about that If any of you are still experiencing problems with the site, please email our heroes, so we can help. Site is up and running.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/emailreal

havanese

RBrogen wrote:

I hope you see where I'm coming from and why it is vital to my business that I have a very high uptime percentage.

From one Randy to another I understand and fell your pain as SM has an outage right at the time you email everyone to visit your galleries or you just email a sale with coupons or upload a new wedding...but I don't depend of my photos for my living and trust me I would have an ulcer the size of a basketball if I did...

btw your shots look great...

If you depend on your site being up 100% of the time I would look into the following

A rackspace dedicated managed server with fall over...then you would have to add a shopping cart and connectivity to a printing company...you would also need a backup server for images and other media.

When I looked the basic managed server option at rackspace is 419.00 per month then add a few hundred for shopping cart software and then say another $99 per month for backups.

So for close to 100% up time it would be around 7,500.00 per year. The good news is you would get 100% of your profit from your sold prints.

My point isn't to be a jerk, but to say folks as a Public Library IT Coordinator who deals with low end networks and servers we are getting a bargain for 150.00 per year.

RBrogen

havanese wrote:

From one Randy to another I understand and fell your pain as SM has an outage right at the time you email everyone to visit your galleries or you just email a sale with coupons or upload a new wedding...but I don't depend of my photos for my living and trust me I would have an ulcer the size of a basketball if I did...

btw your shots look great...

If you depend on your site being up 100% of the time I would look into the following

A rackspace dedicated managed server with fall over...then you would have to add a shopping cart and connectivity to a printing company...you would also need a backup server for images and other media.

When I looked the basic managed server option at rackspace is 419.00 per month then add a few hundred for shopping cart software and then say another $99 per month for backups.

So for close to 100% up time it would be around 7,500.00 per year. The good news is you would get 100% of your profit from your sold prints.

My point isn't to be a jerk, but to say folks as a Public Library IT Coordinator who deals with low end networks and servers we are getting a bargain for 150.00 per year.

Hey Randy,

Thanks for the kind words on my photos and I actually fully understand every detail it takes to achieve the uptime that I mentioned. It happens to be that photography is a second job/passion of mine and in my day job I am the chief technology officer for an international corporate real estate firm with over 57 locations around the world. I've been in technology for over 25 years and have years of first hand knowledge with designing and implementing the 99.9999% uptime systems. I am also very aware of the cost associated with those system as I am also a principal owner in that same company and manage the budget which at some level comes out of my pocket at the end of the day.

The point behind the SM service model is to spread that infrastructure cost among the Pro members membership fees while achieving a profit. I have always commended the efforts of the SM support team in good and bad times. What I have issue with is the recurrence of service affecting outages on such a regular basis. A system, as stated by the SM CEO, that has the redundancies designed in should not be having these service affecting outages. That is my sticking point. If the system is not designed to be redundant then say I have a server running in my basement that is providing the service and not a LEVEL 3 co-located system with auto-failover detection and load balancing.

SM support has always been super fast to respond to issues and work diligently to resolve the problems when they occur. The issue is that the problems are occurring way too often with no apparent reduction in rate.

-Randy

havanese

Coming in loud and clear.

It does seem there are more outages in the past year (short or long), but that could be because I pay more attention to it now since paying for the pro level.