TuesdayMaintenance
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Rolling restarts this week for US realms
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]
Regular maintenance for all US realms this week
Yep, last week most realms had rolling restarts, which means that this week we have a regular maintenance. This week all US realms (which means AU realms, as well) will have a regularly scheduled maintenance period, starting at 5:00 AM PDT and ending at 11:00 AM PDT. Sure, on good weeks, the realms can come back up early, but it's just as common for them to come back up late. So for those of you who usually play during this period of time, my apologies -- maybe you can join me in my downtime hobby of re-playing the original StarCraft![Information via the login screen -- nope, there's nothing on the official site, or I'd link it]
Some downtime, some rolling restarts for this week's mainteinace
This week in server maintenance, most realms will have rolling restarts instead of downtime (these restarts will be starting at 5:00 AM PDT, and such things usually involve around 15 minutes of downtime per realm), but selected realms will have a longer than usual maintenance cycle starting at 3:00 AM PDT and lasting until 1:00 PM PDT. No word on what the additional downtime is for (perhaps this particular hardware simply needed a regular maintenance cycle this week?), but if you're playing on any of the following realms, expect downtime during this week's maintenance cycle. The list includes: Agamaggan, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Azshara, Baelgun, Balnazzar, Blackhand, Cho'gall, Dark Iron, Destromath, Dethecus, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Garona, Gorgonnash, Greymane, Gul'dan, Hellscream, Illidan, Kael'thas, Kalecgos, Kirin Tor, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Ravencrest, Sargeras, Spinebreaker, Staghelm, Stormreaver, Twisting Nether, Ursin, Whisperwind, and Wildhammer.For those of you without downtime tonight, grats. For those of you with extended downtime... well, I can recommend some good books.
Patch 2.1.2 coming this Tuesday!
You know the PTRs are up and running with patch 2.1.2, don't you? So far, patch 2.1.2 is a mix of bug fixes, minor tweaks, and Season 2 arena rewards (for full patch notes, check here -- though note, these are the PTR notes, and there may be some changes on the live realms). And it looks like we have an official release date for it on the live realms! When asked if we could expect the patch to go live this Tuesday, Nethaera replied:The Magic 8 Ball had this to say, "AS I SEE IT YES."She then clarifies:So far things look good. If there is a delay, we'll let people know.As of right now, this means US players should expect this Tuesday to be patch day, and EU players should expect the same on Wednesday.
The extended maintenance cycle begins! [Updated]
Tseric greets us on this pleasant Tuesday afternoon with the news that today's maintenance cycle has been extended until 1PM PDT for select realms. There is, however, no news as to why the maintenance has been extended -- patch problems, perhaps? Though as far as "select realms" are concerned, I suspect the list of "non-select realms" would be shorter. So if you play on any of the following realms, the wait for uptime just got a little longer: Agamaggan, Aggramar, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Arathor, Argent Dawn, Arthas, Azgalor, Azjol-Nerub, Azshara, Baelgun, Balnazzar, Blackhand, Bleeding Hollow, Bloodhoof, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Cho'gall, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Dark Iron, Darkspear, Destromath, Dethecus, Detheroc, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Dunemaul, Durotan, Earthen Ring, Eldre'Thalas, Elune, Emerald Dream, Eonar, Eredar, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Garona, Gilneas, Gorefiend, Gorgonnash, Greymane, Gul'dan, Gurubashi, Hellscream, Illidan, Kalecgos, Kael'Thas, Kargath, Kirin Tor, Laughing Skull, Lightninghoof, Lightning's Blade, Llane, Lothar, Madoran, Maelstrom, Magtheridon, Malfurion, Malygos, Mannoroth, Medivh, Moonrunner, Nathrezim, Nazjatar, Perenolde, Ravencrest, Sargeras, Scarlet Crusade, Shadow Council, Shadow Moon, Shadowsong, Shattered Hand, Silvermoon, Skullcrusher, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spinebreaker, Spirestone, Staghelm, Stonemaul, Stormrage, Stormreaver, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Thunderhorn, Thunderlord, Trollbane, Twisting Nether, Uldum, Ursin, Warsong, Whisperwind, Wildhammer, Windrunner, and Zul'jin. (Wow, that was a mouthful.)Update: Tseric informs us that all realms should be back online in a matter of moments. Huzzah!
Another week, another maintenance cycle...
Well, this week we don't quite have live maintenance, but we don't have a full regular maintenance, either. Eyonix informs us that starting at 5:00 AM PDT (or 8:00 AM EST) all servers will be offline for approximately three hours for maintenance to the authentication databases. Most US players won't notice an early morning maintenance like this, but sadly, it still falls right in prime time for Australian players, for whom it starts between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM, depending on their time zone. Sorry, folks -- I'd be pretty frustrated if regular maintenance hit during my prime time play schedule, too.
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No maintenance this Tuesday
There will be no regular Tuesday maintenance this week. That would be Tuesday, December 26th for you calendar impaired folks. Is this a late Christmas present from Blizzard? Well...sort of. According to Drysc, the retrofits they have been doing to server hardware over the past year have made it possible to go longer than one week in between maintenance periods. Good news! For those of you behind a firewall at work, here is Drysc's post in it's entirety:"Since the game's release, one of our most important service goals has been to reduce the amount of time realms are down for weekly realm maintenance. The various hardware upgrades and retrofits we've done over the past year have put us in a position to begin testing the ability to go longer than a week between maintenance periods. In the upcoming weeks, we will be testing the effect of a live maintenance, where regular maintenance tasks are run during off-peak with realms live. On Tuesday, December 26 there will be no scheduled downtime for weekly maintenance. We will perform all necessary maintenance tasks while the realms are live. We are anticipating the possibility that we may need to perform rolling restarts off-peak if we find that a realm restart is necessary; however the downtime for each realm would be less than 10 minutes if it was required."It would be really nice if this holds and we can make the Tuesday downtime a thing of the past.
Let the delays begin!
Of course having the servers back online as scheduled was too good to be true. And at 12:09 PM PST, Blizzard announced that maintenance would be extended by an additional four hours in order to deal with issues arising from the patching process. Yes, that means you shouldn't expect to be online and playing before 4:00 PM PST 5:00 PM PST -- at least if we're optimistic enough to assume this will be the afternoon's only hiccup!Update: Drysc, always trying to outdo me, posted an update by the time I clicked to post this. We are now looking at 5:00 PM PST.Update 2: All realms should be online and accepting players as of 6:00 PM PST.
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A few patch related items
Just a reminder for you guys about a few Blizzard announcements in regards to tomorrow's maintenance... Remember those select free realm transfers? Well, if you want to transfer a toon, do it quickly. Blizzard will be suspending the transfers beginning with the maintenance tomorrow. They anticipate bringing them back online in about a week, but the word "anticipate" doesn't mean definitely, so if you want to transfer, do it soon. If you happen to be using a European Language Pack to change the default language for your UI, you may want to backup your screenshots before applying the new patch, as they will be erased. For those of you uncomfortable with delving into your Windows folders, Blizzard gives instructions on how to preserve your screenies. Finally, the Tuesday downtime has been extended from 1 AM PST until 1 PM PST. Good luck downloading and installing the patch, and see you all in the arena!
Breakfast Topic: Dealing with downtime
We've all had to do it time and time again -- the servers are down for regular or emergency or just plain unscheduled maintenance, and your evening plans are suddenly ruined. So what do you do about it? Spend the evening trying repeatedly to log on to your realm? Troll the forums? Switch to a different realm? Roll a new alt? Fire up a different game? Go out for dinner? Go outside and try to remember what the sun looks like? Or something else entirely?
Greatly extended weekly maintenance for some realms
Do you play on one of the following realms? Azjol-Nerub, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Dunemaul, Eldre'Thalas, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Gurubashi, Nathrezim, Perenolde, Scarlet Crusade, Shadow Council, Shadowsong, Silvermoon, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spirestone, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Uldum, or Windrunner. Well, if so, I feel sorry for you, because your so-called Tuesday maintenance will be stretched out until 12:01 AM PDT Wednesday morning. They're down for hardware upgrades to -- hopefully -- improve server stability, but such extended downtime isn't exactly fun for those looking forward to logging on and playing Tuesday afternoon. As an additional downer, friend and ignore lists will be lost for those on effected realms, and paid character transfers will be offline for the duration of the maintenance period.
What's a Warcraft player do in Second Life?
Why, plan raids of course! This is, apparently, the perfect activity for Tuesday's regular maintenance (or any of those irregular maintenances) -- log on to Second Life and go over strategy with your fellow WoW players while waiting for the realms to come back online. Sounds like fun!
Extra Extended Maintenance for US Realms
It looks like today's maintenance is being drawn out because of "concerns that have arisen with Cross-Realm Battlegrounds" (at least according to the current login message). So instead of coming back up at 11:00 AM PDT, we're looking at a 1:00 PM PDT uptime for all US realms. However, as of the time of this writing, several US realms have already come back online, so if you're wanting to play, it doesn't hurt to check. Online by the usual 11:00 AM are: The Forgotten Coast, Anub'arak, Cenarius, Lightbringer, Uther, Cenarion Circle, and Hyjal. The rest of us are just going to have to wait!Update: While numerous realms have come back online, officially, maintenance has been extended until 4:00 PM PDT.
Extended US Maintenance
After much waiting, the time has finally arrived. Patch 1.12 will be deployed on US realms during Tuesday's maintenance (and presumably on EU realms during Wednesday's maintenance). The maintenance has been extended by two hours to give time to apply the patch, so it should start at 3:00 AM PDT and end at the usual 11:00 AM PDT. However, in addition to the extended maintenance required for patch 1.12, a number of realms will be coming down tonight at 11:00 PM PDT for hardware upgrades - to come back online with the rest of the servers when maintenance ends on Tuesday. Servers coming down early for upgrades include the following: Aggramar, Argent Dawn, Arthas, Azgalor, Bleeding Hollow, Bloodhoof, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Durotan, Earthen Ring, Elune, Eonar, Eredar, Gilneas, Gorefiend, Kargath, Laughing Skull, Lightning's Blade, Llane, Lothar, Magtheridon, Malygos, Mannoroth, Medivh, Shadow Moon, Shattered Hand, Skullcrusher, Stormrage, Thunderhorn, Thunderlord, Warsong, and Zul'jin.Update: Further proof that this is, in fact, a roll out of patch 1.12 is the fact that the public test realms have been closed.
Extended Maintenance for Many US Realms
Well, the maintenance window for numerous realms has been pushed back to 1:00 PM PDT. Some of the realms on this list were the ones undergoing hardware maintenance today, but not all of those are of those are still offline. Further, some realms that weren't having any sort of special maintenance today have extended downtime - so it's difficult to say what's causing the delay. Affected realms include Argent Dawn, Aggramar, Arthas, Azgalor, Bleeding Hollow, Bloodhoof, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Durotan, Earthen Ring, Elune, Eonar, Eredar, Gilneas, Gorefiend, Kargath, Laughing Skull, Lightning's Blade, Llane, Lothar, Magtheridon, Malygos, Mannoroth, Medivh, Muradin, Shadow Moon, Shattered Hand, Skullcrusher, Stormrage, Thunderhorn, Thunderlord, Warsong, and Zul'jin.
Extended Maintenance for Select US Realms
38 US realms will be offline for an extended period during regular Tuesday maintenance. This additional time accounts for additional hardware and ISP maintenance. The affected realms will be taken offline two hours earlier, and thus will be down between 2:00 AM PDT and 11:00 AM PDT. The rest of the realms will be offline during the usual 5:00 AM PDT to 11:00 AM PDT maintenance window. The realms with extended maintenance will include the following: Aggramar, Argent Dawn, Arthas, Azgalor, Bleeding Hollow, Bloodhoof, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Cenarion Circle, Cenarius, Durotan, Earthen Ring, Elune, Eonar, Eredar, Gilneas, Gorefiend, Hyjal, Kargath, Laughing Skull, Lightbringer, Lightnings Blade, Llane, Lothar, Magtheridon, Malygos, Mannoroth, Medivh, Shadow Moon, Shattered Hand, Skullcrusher, Stormrage, The Forgotten Coast, Thunderhorn, Thunderlord, Uther, Warsong, and Zuljin.
Extended Tuesday Maintenance for Select US Realms
This week, maintenance is extended for 22 US realms that need additional database and hardware maintenance. These realms will be going offline at 3:00 AM PDT, while the rest of the realms will be going offline at 5:00 AM PDT as usual. So if you play on any of the following realms, prepare to loose a couple of hours of playtime: Alexstrasza, Alleria, Balnazzar, Blackhand, Cenarion Circle, Cenarius, Cho'gall, Destromath, Dethecus, Garona, Gorgonnash, Gul'dan, Hellscream, Hyjal, Illidan, Kael'thas, Kirin Tor, Lightbringer, Spinebreaker, Stormreaver, Uther, and Whisperwind.
Extended Weekly Maintenance for US Realms
This week's maintenance has been extended - and will be starting at 3:00 AM PDT and lasting until 11:00 AM PDT. Yes, that means additional downtime for all US realms. There's no news as to why maintenance needed to be extended, but if you're thinking this may be a sign of patch deployment, that's highly unlikely. The test realms have always been taken offline before the patch has been deployed on the live realms, and they're currently still up and running. But as to what's actually happening, no one really knows.
Extended US Maintenance Tomorrow
This week's maintenance will be extended by two hours (starting at 3:00 AM PDT rather than 5:00 AM PDT) in order to apply a minor patch. Presumably, Blizzard will be rolling out patch 1.11.2, which was up on the PTR until the test realms were taken offline today. So if you play at that hour, be prepared for a little extra downtime in the name of bug fixes. You can see the patch notes for 1.11.2 here.
It's Tuesday... and I Can't Play Warcraft!
Well, you ought to know that for US servers, weekly maintenance is on Tuesday (Wednesday for those of you in the EU). This means that every Tuesday (or Wednesday), all of the servers go offline so that Blizzard can do whatever they need to do to keep them running. However, despite the fact that this is a regular occurrence, there are always players who are confused or upset by the downtime. Fortunately, community MVP Palehoof has complied this handy guide to answer any questions you might have about the maintenance process. (While the information here was specifically written for those of us on US servers, it might address some questions EU players have as well.)
