restarts

Latest

  • Rolling restarts for January 23rd, 2010

    by 
    Daniel Whitcomb
    Daniel Whitcomb
    01.22.2010

    It looks like we have some quick play disruption coming our way this Saturday morning, as Blizzard has announced rolling restarts for all realms at 5 AM pacific, or Noon pacific for Oceanic Realms. Judging by Ghostcrawler's words in a recent thread, this is likely meant to jump start the resilience hotfix. Either way, if you're one of those folks weird enough to get up early on a Saturday morning, you may as well grab another hour or sleep or so, since you may not be able to jump on WoW for a 15 minute window. There's still no word on Tuesday's downtime, so maybe we were spoiled by the past couple of weeks. Then again, maybe they're just seeing if they can get that minor patch ready for a release this week too. Either way, keep it here, and we'll keep you informed.

  • Maintenance continues, restarts for many realms [UPDATED]

    by 
    Alex Ziebart
    Alex Ziebart
    06.02.2009

    Rolling restarts are currently in progress on many realms, apparently to address a talent issue that cropped up with patch 3.1.3. These restarts shouldn't take more than 2 hours across the board. Meaning that your server shouldn't be down for very long at all, because that two hour window is for the entire process. The battlegroups being hit with these restarts are: Ruin Vindication Rampage Shadowburn Stormstrike Nightfall Whirlwind Emberstorm Retaliation We're not sure if this will mean the end of today's maintenance woes, but we can hope.Update: They're still working on getting the downed realms into working order, but don't currently have an ETA. They say an update will come soon.

  • Rolling restarts, some maintenance

    by 
    Adam Holisky
    Adam Holisky
    04.06.2009

    The opening in game announcement tells us that there will be rolling restarts tomorrow beginning at 5:00 a.m. PDT / 8:00 a.m. EDT. Each realm will be down for about 15 minutes, and all the restarts should be done by 7:00 a.m. PDT / 10:00 a.m. EDT.This is important in that shows patch 3.1 will not be going live tomorrow. No server downtime means no patch, so everyone can relax and enjoy the game as is for another week.There is a possibility a few more realms will be down for an extended amount of time – and if that turns into anything major we'll let you know here.

  • Breaking News: Mystery of the melting ice solved!

    by 
    Adam Holisky
    Adam Holisky
    02.11.2009

    Kisirani, "your friendly neighborhood World Designer" posted earlier tonight that they have a fix for the rather benign (or slightly annoying, depending on your take) bug that calls out "The Ice Stone has melted!" every once in a while.The fix will require the realms to be restarted, and according to Kisirani they will "be doing [the restarts] off-peak so we don't interrupt this evening's gameplay."So right on, Kisirani. Mystery of the melting ice solved.Now... about those clams...

  • "Emergency" rolling restarts

    by 
    Adam Holisky
    Adam Holisky
    02.06.2009

    Logging on and playing might be rather difficult. All US servers are undergoing what now appears to be multiple restarts (Eldre'Thalas has restarted twice in the last 30 minutes).The logon announcement tells us that the process will take two hours, and each realm will be down for about 15 minutes.Ideally this won't be something that impacts the game too long. And dang nabit, it better not, because yours truly has a lot of free time this weekend he plans to use leveling up his Shaman.While the servers are down, why not check out WoW Insider's Guide to Patch 3.1? It'll at least keep you wowified for the time being.And if the servers do stay down for too long this weekend, I just want to let our Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Harper know that I'm going to join Alex in playing Warhammer.

  • Rolling restarts on all realms

    by 
    Zach Yonzon
    Zach Yonzon
    02.05.2009

    Bornakk broke the news earlier today that all realms will be going down, saying that Blizzard needs to perform urgent rolling restarts today, Thursday. He notes that all realms will be down for approximately 15 minutes and that the procedure, slated to start at 10:30am PST, will last approximately one hour.However, reports indicate that restarts have taken on a different form than expected, as many realms went down several times for a short period several hours earlier. These rolling restarts, lasting no more than a few minutes per realm, occurred much earlier than Bornakk's announcement. Blizzard did not indicate what problems they will be fixing with these emergency restarts. We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

  • Note to self: Don't level a profession right before a restart

    by 
    Adam Holisky
    Adam Holisky
    12.05.2008

    Here's a pro tip for you all this morning.Don't level a profession right before a server restart.I finally got around to creating a Death Knight yesterday, and after working through the starting zone I decided to stop off and level my herbalism a bit before heading to outland. I know the market for herbs is strong right now because of Inscriptions (which I'm also leveling), so that seemed like a good idea.I was working my way through Elwynn Forest gathering up all the flowers I could. After I hit 75 herbalism I went back to train to the Journeyman level and pickup Apprentice Inscription. There was about 5 minutes left before the server restart, so I decided that I would sit there and mill some herbs and make some ink.

  • Rolling restarts for selected realms this afternoon

    by 
    Adam Holisky
    Adam Holisky
    10.25.2008

    Fresh from the news bulletin upon login is an announcement of rolling restarts for a handful of realms this afternoon. At 12:00 noon PDT the realms of Dreadmaul, Caelestrasz, Nagrand, Aman'Thul, Barthilas, Thaurissan, Dath'Remar, Frostmourne, Khaz'horoth, and Jube'Thos will be going down for restarts.Many people have still continued to experience connectivity issues and major lag since patch 3.0.2 dropped nearly two weeks ago. Instances seem to be a particular problem with people not being able to zone in, getting disconnected upon loading, or generally having issues with mobs and other objects appearing correctly.I wouldn't be surprised to see more realms added to this list today, and perhaps some extended maintenance (if not an outright patch) this upcoming Tuesday.

  • Rolling restarts

    by 
    Adam Holisky
    Adam Holisky
    07.27.2008

    Between 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. PDT today (Sunday July 27th) all U.S. realms will be undergoing a rolling restart. Each realm should be down for about 15 minutes, though these things have a tendency to last longer than scheduled.The login announcement tells us that the servers are getting a hotfix applied to them, however there is no indication what the hotfix is for. If anything does happen to extend this restart, you'll see it here on WoW Insider.

  • Rolling restarts at 5am PDT today

    by 
    Daniel Whitcomb
    Daniel Whitcomb
    06.22.2008

    Just a heads up to all our American night owls and Oceanic players: There will be rolling restarts for all Realms starting at 5am PDT, about an hour and fifteen minutes from now. Each realm will be down for about 15 minutes, and the entire process will take about an hour. It's likely that this downtime is for working out a few kinks with the Midsummer Fire Festival. Kisirani confirmed earlier that there is a problem with the Striking Back quest for those under level 65, so it's likely that these rolling restarts will institute the hotfix to that problem. In addition, there's been some rumors that Lord Ahune's Normal and Heroic loot tables are not properly separated, so it's possible that this will fix those issues as well. Speaking of Ahune, be sure to keep your eyes glued to WoW Insider today. We're writing a complete loot guide and a strategy walkthrough for the new holiday boss as well speak. You can also check out the Midsummer quest walkthroughs we already have set up -- they're perfect reading material for the downtime. Happy reading, and we'll see you on the other side of the restarts.

  • Rolling restarts for most US realms this morning

    by 
    Elizabeth Harper
    Elizabeth Harper
    02.05.2008

    It's Tuesday, and you know what that means: weekly maintenance! This week most realms are getting rolling restarts instead of a full maintenance -- which means the vast majority of US players won't notice a thing. (Sorry, Australian players, as the restarts still fall dead in your prime evening hours.) For rolling restarts, Blizzard brings down all of the realm servers for a quick reboot (no longer than 15 minutes of downtime) one by one. (The restarts no doubt follow some kind of pattern which we are not privy to.) The restarts will begin at 5:00 AM PST, and though your realm may not be restarted exactly at five, the whole thing should be over by six or so. A handful of US realms will have a brief maintenance: an hour of downtime between 5:00 AM PST and 6:00 AM PST. Sounds like a good time for an powernap for players on: Area 52, Auchindoun, Azuremyst, Blade's Edge, Blood Furnace, Coilfang, Exodar, Ghostlands, Shattered Halls, Terokkar, The Scryers, The Underbog, Velen, and Zangarmarsh.

  • Voice chat being rolled out to all US realms

    by 
    Elizabeth Harper
    Elizabeth Harper
    10.01.2007

    Rolling restarts are happening this afternoon on all US realms that do not yet have voice chat enabled in order to enable voice chat. I can only presume that voice chat is working well on the 42 realms it's currently enabled on, because Blizzard is adding the remaining 183 realms to the service en masse. I can't personally comment on the quality of the service, as it has not yet been implemented on any of the realms I play -- but if this round of restarts goes well, we'll all know by tomorrow. Drysc's original thread about voice chat has been updated with the list of realms that will have voice chat enabled today and Nethaera chimes in to clarify that, yes, this is all remaining realms. Restarts are expected to be finished and all realms back online by 2:00 PM PDT (that's 5:00 PM EST for you on the opposite coast). So if all goes well, expect your realm to be back up soon.

  • Rolling restarts this week for US realms

    by 
    Elizabeth Harper
    Elizabeth Harper
    07.17.2007

    Happy Tuesday, everyone! This week's regular maintenance cycle for US realms will be performed via rolling restarts of all realms, starting at 5:00 AM PDT today. What this means, of course, is that we shouldn't expect more than 15 minutes of downtime while the realms are restarted -- though we can't say precisely when the restarts will occur for each realm. (Blizzard will be working their way down the realm list, so your realm could come up right at five o'clock or could be left for last.)In addition to the rolling restarts, Blizzard will also be performing some authentication system maintenance during an unspecified time period today. However, the maintenance shouldn't hinder our ability to log on to the game. So play on, everyone![via Breaking News on the login screen]

  • Rolling restarts this morning

    by 
    Elizabeth Harper
    Elizabeth Harper
    01.25.2007

    US realms will be seeing rolling restarts beginning at 5:00 AM PST today to apply a small fix to introduce a necessary reagent to vendors across the world. Drysc isn't specific about what he might be referring to, but I can only assume he's talking about Wild Quillvine, a reagent required for a druid to cast Gift of the Wild rank 3 (the group buff version of Mark of the Wild). Complaints about the lack of the reagent go all the way back to beta, so it's good to see them finally getting some notice. To those of you hoping for Drysc might be talking about the missing Khorium veins, his wording seems pretty specific to a vendor reagent. The restart process shouldn't last more than 15 minutes -- perfect time for a breakfast break!

  • Rolling restarts for US realms Friday morning

    by 
    Elizabeth Harper
    Elizabeth Harper
    01.05.2007

    Drysc informs us to expect rolling restarts for all US realms starting at 5:00 AM PST to apply a "minor hotfix." Downtime is expected to be minimal (around 15 minutes), and US players probably won't notice any interruption. But a hotfix? Blizzard's not said what they're fixing, which leaves us to guessing games as to the exact nature of the problem. However, poster Tuhljin seems to be on the right track when he points out that "if they won't tell you what the hotfix is for, at least part of it probably involves fixing an exploit." After all, they wouldn't keep us in the dark just for the fun of it... would they?

  • Rolling Restarts on US Realms Tonight

    by 
    Elizabeth Harper
    Elizabeth Harper
    08.03.2006

    Well, they may have already happened on your realm, but starting at 4:38PM PDT rolling restarts began across all US realms. The restarts were apparently necessary to hotfix an issue with enchantments and items vanishing from players' inventories that was mentioned earlier. There's still no details on exactly what the issue with enchantments was, but it would have been serious to merit prime-time restarts...

  • Rolling Restarts Friday Morning

    by 
    Elizabeth Harper
    Elizabeth Harper
    07.20.2006

    All realms will be going offline starting at 4:00 AM PDT Friday morning (that's seven hours from the time of this post). They should all be back online by 5:00 AM PDT, with an expected downtime of about 30 minutes per realm. There's no real information on why the restarts are necessary - Drysc only says they're being done to address a server-side software issue. (Perhaps this is connected to last night's database maintenance - though that was only on a few realms, rather than all realms.) So if you usually play during that time, you'll need to find other distractions.

  • Rolling Restarts Wednesday Morning

    by 
    Elizabeth Harper
    Elizabeth Harper
    07.11.2006

    All US realms will be restarted starting at 5:00 AM PDT Wednesday morning.  The servers should only be offline for about 15 minutes, but you should be prepared for a bit of downtime if you play at that that time of day.  The restarts are required in order to fix what CM Eyonix refers to as a "minor technical issue," though I can't find any further information on what the trouble may be.  I haven't personally seen any problems in playing since today's patch deployment, but perhaps others have.  If anyone has the scoop on what's requiring these restarts, do share in the comments!

  • Early Morning Server Restarts

    by 
    Elizabeth Harper
    Elizabeth Harper
    07.06.2006

    On Thursday morning at 4:00 AM PDT, there will be rolling restarts across the US realms to apply a "small server-side fix" for an unspecified problem.  (If anyone notices any specific performance differences after the realms come back up, I'd be curious to hear it, however!)  If all goes as planned, each realm should only be offline for 15 minutes. While this shouldn't have much impact on players in the US, it seems to hit prime Australian playing time.   Fortunately the scheduled downtime should be brief, and you can get back to your normal playing quickly. 

  • Rolling Restarts on US Realms

    by 
    Elizabeth Harper
    Elizabeth Harper
    05.03.2006

    Not all, but most US realms will be hit by rolling restarts Wednesday morning starting at 5:00 AM PDT.  There's no listed reason for these restarts, but be prepared for a brief downtime if you're going to be playing in the early hours of the morning.  Unaffected realms - which I believe are all running on new hardware - include Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Dalvengyr, Deathwing, Dentarg, Doomhammer, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Icecrown, Kel'Thuzad, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamwheedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed.