Adding 2nd IP to my 1and1 server took it down - help?

[IanJ]

Hi all,

My webhosting is with 1and1.co.uk and running dedicated server Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard with Parallels Plesk 12 (64-bit). 5 or 6 domains, just a few websites all on a single IP.

Today I wanted to add a 2nd IP so purchased through 1and1, got the notification it was available.

Went into Plesk and into ADD IP, and as soon as I hit OK the server went down and stayed down.

Called 1and1 and they tried re-booting and although the server is booting all ports seem closed, can't ping my primary IP.

Some troubleshooting later via the serial console 1and1 said it looks like the network settings on the box got screwed.......they fixed some of it but seem to be having trouble changing the gateway.

1and1 said that it would probably be easy to fix stood infront of the PC but that the guys at the server farm do hardware only, not software so if it can't be fixed remotely then I'm screwed.

I do have recovery mode VNC desktop access, but it seems intermittent. The guy wan't sure that anything other than file access is possible that way.

My wee business selling electronics (primarily my Precision Digital Voltage Source!) is looking to take a hit. I do have server backups but how do I restore to a server I can't access!!!

This is one helluva issue that the Plesk software seems to have created.....any suggestions to assist a fix appreciated.

Sickening!

Ian.
www.ianjohnston.com

[urosg]

Ask if they can give you a (temporary) remote KVM access, with that you will get access to the console of the server - i.e. like standing before the machine - and you will be able to change the network settings.

Either the server it self should have some means of a remote KVM Access (i.e. HP has ILO, DELL has DRAC, ...) if they have a special kind of hardware then they should have some other means of KVM Access available.

EDIT: Also I would suggest adding IP addresses only via the windows network interface settings and then mapping it in Plesk.
EDIT2: Also check that the Windows Firewall isn't enabled/mis-configured.

[IanJ]

Thanks urosg, will play with the following tomorrow and call them about KVM access.

https://help.1and1.com/servers-c37684/dedicated-server-windows-c39510/rescue-and-recovery-c76208/use-the-serial-console-with-a-windows-server-a627376.html

Ian.

[IanJ]

STOP press.....1and1 working on it right now maybe?

It must be up.......can now ping the IP and I now get this via http.

"Error displaying the error page: Application Instantiation Error: Could not connect to MySQL."

Also, email server is up......It's a start!

I'll not interrupt by trying RDP......will leave until tomorrow.

Ian.

EDIT: email from 1and1:

With regards to our telephone call earlier today, I have managed to get your server  back on the network
and am able to log in via RDP.

I enabled DHCP on the server through the command line while connected to the serial console, in doing
this it allowed the server to connect back to the network.

I then logged into the server over RDP and changed the Network setting back to static, I also added your
additional IP to the network adapter and can ping to that IP address.

I then logged into plesk and re-read the IP in there.

The server is now back online with ports open and responsive to ping.

Ian.

[IanJ]

Update:

Now have access to my server (RDP) & Port 80 is open and responding.
My 2nd IP is installed.

However:-

My website reporting in IE - "Error displaying the error page: Application Instantiation Error: Could not connect to MySQL."

Backend access is fine, so logged into Plesk and looks like MySQL is down - "Host: localhost:3306 (MySQL) The server is unavailable."

phpMyAdmin won't give me access -
MySQL said:
#2002 - No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.
— The server is not responding (or the local server's socket is not correctly configured).
 mysqli_real_connect(): (HY000/2002): No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.

The Plesk MySQL server is running fine, it's the client one that is dead. Looking at SERVICES MySQL56 - STOPPED and won't restart manually, it just stops right away.

Looking in the log file (being careful to look into the client one) I see:

Code: [Select]

2017-02-11 13:59:30 3160 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled.
2017-02-11 13:59:30 458 InnoDB: Warning: Using innodb_additional_mem_pool_size is DEPRECATED. This option may be removed in future releases, together with the option innodb_use_sys_malloc and with the InnoDB's internal memory allocator.
2017-02-11 13:59:30 3160 [Note] InnoDB: Using atomics to ref count buffer pool pages
2017-02-11 13:59:30 3160 [Note] InnoDB: The InnoDB memory heap is disabled
2017-02-11 13:59:30 3160 [Note] InnoDB: Mutexes and rw_locks use Windows interlocked functions
2017-02-11 13:59:30 3160 [Note] InnoDB: Memory barrier is not used
2017-02-11 13:59:30 3160 [Note] InnoDB: Compressed tables use zlib 1.2.3
2017-02-11 13:59:31 3160 [Note] InnoDB: Not using CPU crc32 instructions
2017-02-11 13:59:31 3160 [Note] InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, size = 16.0M
2017-02-11 13:59:31 3160 [Note] InnoDB: Completed initialization of buffer pool
2017-02-11 13:59:31 3160 [Note] InnoDB: Highest supported file format is Barracuda.
2017-02-11 13:59:31 3160 [Note] InnoDB: The log sequence numbers 8767211683 and 8767211683 in ibdata files do not match the log sequence number 14687657615 in the ib_logfiles!
2017-02-11 13:59:31 3160 [Note] InnoDB: Database was not shutdown normally!
2017-02-11 13:59:31 3160 [Note] InnoDB: Starting crash recovery.
2017-02-11 13:59:31 3160 [Note] InnoDB: Reading tablespace information from the .ibd files...
2017-02-11 13:59:31 3160 [ERROR] InnoDB: Attempted to open a previously opened tablespace. Previous tablespace joomla_9_old/jos_jcomments uses space ID: 197 at filepath: .\joomla_9_old\jos_jcomments.ibd. Cannot open tablespace joomla_a/jos_jcomments which uses space ID: 197 at filepath: .\joomla_a\jos_jcomments.ibd
InnoDB: Error: could not open single-table tablespace file .\joomla_a\jos_jcomments.ibd
InnoDB: We do not continue the crash recovery, because the table may become
InnoDB: corrupt if we cannot apply the log records in the InnoDB log to it.
InnoDB: To fix the problem and start mysqld:
InnoDB: 1) If there is a permission problem in the file and mysqld cannot
InnoDB: open the file, you should modify the permissions.
InnoDB: 2) If the table is not needed, or you can restore it from a backup,
InnoDB: then you can remove the .ibd file, and InnoDB will do a normal
InnoDB: crash recovery and ignore that table.
InnoDB: 3) If the file system or the disk is broken, and you cannot remove
InnoDB: the .ibd file, you can set innodb_force_recovery > 0 in my.cnf
InnoDB: and force InnoDB to continue crash recovery here.

So, what caught my eye was "Cannot open tablespace joomla_a/jos_jcomments"

This is an old database long since not used........so I deleted it, along with another couple........then tried to start MySQL56 service and it works!

My website www.ianjohnston.com is alive again.......subject to some testing.

Gawd knows why those old databases were a problem, have never been in the past!

Phew!

PS. No wonder Dave hires a tech guy to look after his website.......far too stressful!

Ian.
[complete newbie at IIS and MySQL but got there!]

[avrishuvorlaz]

No one in their right mind uses 1&1, they're utter garbage.

One URL: squarespace.com

Use your brain.

[IanJ]

No one in their right mind uses 1&1, they're utter garbage.

One URL: squarespace.com

Use your brain.

http://thelovelydesign.co/why-i-dont-will-never-recommend-squarespace/

Granted I know nothing about them.....but hmmm!......And I looked at squarespace.com and don't see the words shared or dedicated servers anywhere. Looks like they have their own ideas and method of domain/website hosting. Fair enough, but not for me.

Thanks,

Ian.

Ian.

[kaz911]

Hi Ian,

any special reason you need a full server? Looking at your website you could do with any kind of hosting

I do have my own server rack - but I have 200-500 GB in/out per day stored for a month or two..

But all my websites are mostly on 3rd party hosting.

Anyway - great you got the site up - so I could sign up for a V2 notification

And remember to setup a backup of your mysql databases..

/Kasper

[gnif]

Let me get this right, you are using Windows to host MySQL and Joomla (PHP), why?

If this was a Linux host you would save on licensing costs, and have options when things go wrong... not being able to change the gateway, how laughable! Adding an IP takes the entire box down... again, laughable.

Add an IP to a network interface:

Code: [Select]

# ip addr add 123.123.123.123 dev eth0

Set the default gateway:

Code: [Select]

# route add default gw 123.123.123.123

Unless you actually have a need for IIS, .NET, ASP, etc... why use windows?

If you are interested I offer full server monitoring and management solutions hosted anywhere globally.

Gawd knows why those old databases were a problem, have never been in the past!

Phew!

PS. No wonder Dave hires a tech guy to look after his website.......far too stressful!

Ian.
[complete newbie at IIS and MySQL but got there!]

It's nothing to do with the age of the database, your server has experienced data corruption, either via a faulty disk or an improper shutdown. Next time this occurs first try to repair the broken table

Code: [Select]

mysql> REPAIR TABLE `some_table`;

Also, Dave has not hired me to work on this site, I do it as a courtesy in repayment for the wealth of information he so freely gives to the public.

And as kaz911 already stated, make sure you keep daily backups at a minimum of your database, preferably off site (I can provide this also, or upload to somewhere like Amazon S3).

[FrankBuss]

No one in their right mind uses 1&1, they're utter garbage.

One URL: squarespace.com

Use your brain.

I'm using 1&1 for my servers for years, didn't have major problems. Last year I downgraded my dedicated server to VPS, which works great, too. But I always use Linux, less headache than Windows for an internet server.

[IanJ]

Kudos to Gnif for your free hand.......thats a great gift of some great help to Dave.

kaz911, I chose a Windows server as a change. I've had a linux shared server with various companies since 1997. I've had my fair share of shared servers that went south for other people's problems, companies that have gone south also (anyone remember Communitech.net or Blue Virtual?) and even hosted a wee home server (Windows) at home on the end of a DSL line at one time.

I used to own and run the world largest webzine dedicated to motorcycle trials and a few years ago (at it's limit for traffic on a linux shared box) I sold up. That site had a lot of Perl/CGI which I wrote some of (I had a lot more time back then). Ahhh, the good old days of coding html by hand then Dreamweaver to help things.

An old snapshot from 2000:
https://web.archive.org/web/20000619153223/http://www.trials.co.uk/

After that, I was without a server for a couple years then decided it was time to get back into the game starting with my electronics. Dedicated servers used to be horrendously expensive but not now......and as I'd been burnt a number of times I thought what the hell let's just go dedicated. I chose Windows because I didn't want to learn anything new, and whilst Windows is less stable and less accessible thats the price I chose to pay for the familiarity.

To put something back for what I earned off the internet as well as my own site on my box, there's also a load of other domains I host also for family and friends......one of them to be quite big in the future (a family member's business).

PS. 1and1 credited me a months free for the inconvinience I experienced. They admitted their FAQ's need updated in regard to adding IP's. There are a few ways to add IP's.....I happened to chose the way that put the server south. Moral of the story is don't use Plesk's functionality.....use IIS.

For me I just want a familiar, easy life so I can crack on with the soldering iron.......the Windows dedicated box fits that better than anything else right now.

Thanks for all the comments guy's.

Ian.

[madires]

BTW, you can configure network stuff on a Windows system via the netsh command in a command shell. That should be also possible via 1&1's SerCon. There are tons of how-to's on the Internet about using netsh.

[IanJ]

BTW, you can configure network stuff on a Windows system via the netsh command in a command shell. That should be also possible via 1&1's SerCon. There are tons of how-to's on the Internet about using netsh.

In this occasion netsh was failing to reset the gateway address (1and1 were trying it live whilst I was on the phone and were getting frustrated as to why it wasn't working) thats why they ended up configuring DHCP via SerCon instead, re-booting which then gave us RDP back and from there was easy to reconfigure the gateway addr.

Ian.

[kaz911]

I do not complain about using Windows I have my company running on IIS as well so I have 3 Windows servers running.

I have 2 network cards in each - one running on a "private" backbone accessible through my router VPN - the other on public IPs. The private backbone also has Server Insight modules connected (So full KVM remote control) and full hardware diagnostics etc. One server has an "emergency" Mobile GSM VPN access so if everything else fails...

I used to run an ISP in the early days ('94-...) so I have seen my share of disasters. So we had at peak around 300-400 inbound single modems before things started going digital and you could buy racks of modems. Our inbound phone lines cables was 4 cables x 2" diameter....

[Halcyon]

 

I used to run an ISP in the early days ('94-...) so I have seen my share of disasters. So we had at peak around 300-400 inbound single modems before things started going digital and you could buy racks of modems. Our inbound phone lines cables was 4 cables x 2" diameter....

My first job as a young kid was working for an ISP that started in a garage. I have fond memories of the entire operation sitting on a fold out table with nothing more than two Windows NT 4.0 machines (one was the mail server and the other was the web/accounting/in-dial server).

The backbone of the entire ISP back then was a bunch of ISDN lines. Customers would dial-in to a pool of internal 33.6K ISA modem cards inside two Equinox modem pools that provided a total of 32 in-dial ports (pictured below). The modem pools connected to one of the NT boxes via a "SuperSerial" interface card.

Of course they could only have 32 customers dialled in at any one time (which believe it or not hardly ever resulted in a busy signal). Although back then, internet billing was charged in time blocks (not data allowances). I think we started on a plan for something like 10 or 15 hours per month. Whatever data you could suck down in that time was yours.



Other than a UPS, whatever was on that fold-out table was "the internet" for many people.

It was also around then I got my first CD writer. It was a Sony x2 model which you needed a caddy to load the disc into the drive. I remember it being slow as hell (a good 35-45 minutes to write a CD) and that's if it finished writing at all. You usually wasted a few discs when the entire writing process aborted due to "buffer underrun errors"... I literally couldn't use the computer for anything else while writing a disc... those were the days.