EmergencyMaintenance
Latest
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?
Downtime for select US realms today
Sixteen US realms are being taken offline for urgent maintenance early this morning -- that is to say, Thursday, November 30th at 5:00AM PST. The maintenance period is expected to last approximately one hour and, no -- there is not the faintest clue as to the reason for the maintenance, other than the indication that it is "urgent." So if 5:00 AM PST falls into your usual playtime, and you play on any of the following realms, you're going to be forced to take a nice breakfast break: Azjol-Nerub, Bloodscalp, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dunemaul, Feathermoon, Perenolde, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, and Uldum.
Wednesday Maintenance on US Realms
Numerous US realms were pulled down starting this morning because of unspecified problems which may be related to the cross-realms battleground system. Tseric only provided us with the information that the realms were remaining offline because they were undergoing battlegrounds testing, but this may have something to do with the problem of missing characters as well (as the final realms offline for maintenance seem to match the realms with missing characters). However, all realms should be back online and running as of 3:10 PM PDT. If you're still having problems, however, you may wish to page a GM or post about it in the customer service forums.
Downtime Compensation for Select US Realms
Blizzard will be providing a 24-hour credit to the realms that were having so much difficulty over this past weekend, which I suppose is better than nothing. However, I must say that their list of affected realms doesn't match mine, or include mine, which was offline or unplayable for a good portion of the weekend. In fact, the list includes the realm Tanaris, which is the realm I rolled a new alt to play on while my usual realm was offline.The realms 24-hour credits are being applied to include the following 31 realms: Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Andorhal, Anetheron, Anvilmar, Black Dragonflight, Blackwing Lair, Dalaran, Dalvengyr, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Dentarg, Doomhammer, Executus, Gnomeregan, Haomarush, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Khadgar, Lethon, Onyxia, Scilla, Sentinels, Tanaris, The Venture Co, Thrall, Turalyon, Uldaman, Ysera, and Ysondre.However, the 20 realms that were experiencing downtime throughout the weekend were these: Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Daivengyr, Dentarg, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamweedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed. It looks like they've missed 6 of the original problem realms and added numerous realms that weren't listed as having problems over the weekend. Is anyone else confused?Update: The list of realms has been modified to one that appears to be accurate. The official post on the subject can be found here.
Additional Downtime for Select US Realms
For some players, this weekend's adventures has had a distinctive theme - downtime. The same twenty realms that have been having problems since Friday are offline again tonight. Some maintenance was done on Saturday morning and afternoon to fix errors with the in-game mail system - but as to what's caused this most recent maintenance, there's no word. On the player side, symptoms were similar to Friday night's trouble, with an inability to rez, zone in, or use skills, peppered with occasional instances of falling through the world. While there's no official announcement, affected realms seem to include the original twenty problematic realms: Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Daivengyr, Dentarg, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamweedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed.Update: While the servers seem to be online Sunday morning, players are plagued by difficulty/inability to log on, as well as severe in-game lag (several minutes at times), inability to zone in/out of instances, empty mailboxes, random disconnects, etc. (Did I miss anything?) There are no updates on the fourms, and the message on the login screen is still from yesterday afternoon.Update 2: Blizzard informs us that these are latancy issues that they are working to resolve.
Up Again, Down Again
The same 20 realms that were pulled offline last night for maintenance have gone offline again this afternoon (at 1:20 PM PDT to be precise) due to issues with the in-game mail system. Blizzard's technicians are currently working to correct the problem, but there's no ETA on restored service at this point. So If you usually play on the following realms, well, now's just not a good time: Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Daivengyr, Dentarg, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamweedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed.
20 US Realms Down Friday Night
Just after 9:00 PM PDT, twenty different US realms received a 5-minute reboot warning. It was for the best, really, as everyone in my guild seemed to be able to chat, but very little else. Even the "quit" option didn't seem to do anything - the realm was an unplayable mess. However, after going down, neither my realm nor any of the realms that went offline with it, have come back. A message on the login screen vaguely states that Blizzard's technicians are working with a vendor in order to resolve the matter, but there is currently no ETA on the realms coming back online. So if you play on any of the following realms, my apologies - but playtime tonight has been interrupted: Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Daivengyr, Dentarg, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamweedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed.
Emergency Database Maintenance Tonight
Seventeen US realms were taken offline tonight for urgent database maintenance - including the brand-new realm Tanaris. No real news as to what the root of the problem, but the realms appear to be back online for the time being. The service interruption seems to have been brief, but I can't find a specific time when these realms went down. Affected realms included: Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Anvilmar, Blackwing Lair, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Gnomeregan, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Lethon, Onyxia, Sentinels, Tanaris, The Venture Co, and Uldaman.
Update on Offline Realms
Apparently the realms currently offline - Cenarion Circle, Cenarius, Hyjal, Lightbringer, and Uther - are suffering from hardware problems and will require replacement parts. They're expecting the parts to arrive at 5:00 PM PDT, but are working on a temporary fix to bring these realms back up by 3:00 PM PDT (though this time-frame is just an estimate, and sometimes Blizzard is good about meeting these estimates and sometimes not). However, a temporary fix just suggests that there will need to be additional downtime later...Update: Blizzard is giving a free day to the afflicted servers.
Rolling Restarts on US Realms Tonight
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...
Emergency Maintenance on Select US Realms
Sixteen US realms have been taken offline for emergency database maintenance. One of Blizzard's database administrators is on-site to ensure that downtime is kept to a minimum. All are expected to be back online by 11:00 PM PDT, but expect status updates throughout the evening. But if you play on the following realms, you're out of luck for the evening: Agamaggan, Azshara, Dark Iron, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Greymane, Kalecgos, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Sargeras, Staghelm, Twisting Nether, Ursin, and WildHammer.
Emergency Database Maintenance on Select US Realms
The title says it all. At 4:00 AM PDT today (Thursday), a number of US realms will be taken offline for database maintenance. If all goes as planned, it shouldn't last longer than two hours. So if you play on any of the following realms during that time, you'll need to make alternate plans: Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Dalvengyr, Dentarg, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamwheedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed.
Additional Downtime for Sixteen US Realms
The sixteen realms (including the two new realms - Sentinels and Venture Co.) that were having hardware problems yesterday have been brought offline again as of 11:44 AM PDT. While a work-around was used to bring the realms back online last night, the problem that caused the failure still remains, and needs to be addressed. The following realms are offline for now, with no current ETA on being brought back up: Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Anvilmar, Blackwing Lair, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Gnomeregan, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Lethon, Onyxia, Sentinels, Uldaman, and Venture Co.
Additional Downtime for Several US Realms
While I wrote earlier that these realms, which had some unexpected downtime, were brought back online at 11:51 AM PDT, apparently additional technical problems brought them down again at around 2:21 PM PDT. The two new realms - Sentinels and Venture Co. - have gone offline as well, leaving a total of sixteen realms offline, including the following: Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Anvilmar, Blackwing Lair, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Gnomeregan, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Lethon, Onyxia, Sentinels, Uldaman, and Venture Co. The trouble has been isolated to a hardware failure, and downtime is expected to last until 11:59 PM PDT while the hardware is replaced and brought back online.
Urgent Maintenance: Several US Realms
Fourteen US realms were taken offline at 11:07 AM PDT in order to "troubleshoot technical issues." While Blizzard hopes to have the realms back online as soon as possible, there's no current ETA. Impacted realms include Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Anvilmar, Blackwing Lair, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Gnomeregan, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Lethon, Tanaris, and Uldaman. Comments on the realm forums seem to mention recent lag and stability issues, but CM Tseric mentions no specific reason for the realms being pulled offline.Update: These realms should be back online as of 11:51 AM PDT.
Emergency Maintenance
An issue that was preventing players from logging on has resulted in the following realms being brought down for emergency maintenance at 4:15 PM PDT this afternoon. The plan is to have them back online by 8:00 PM PDT. Offline are: Aegwynn, Aerie Peak, Akama, Alleria, Altar of Storms, Anetheron, Archimonde, Cenarion Circle, Cenarius, Crushridge, Dalaran, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Duskwood, Eldre'Thalas, Garona, Hyjal, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Khadgar, Kilrogg, Lethon, Lightbringer, Mal'Ganis, Moonrunner, Norgannon, Spirestone, Steamwheedle Cartel, Stormrage, Turalyon, Uldaman, Uther, and Zuluhed. My server's on this list, too, so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that whatever is being done doesn't really take four hours to complete.
Free Day Credit for Select EU Realms
Players on several EU realms are receiving a day's credit to their accounts for an emergency shutdown (caused by a power outage) on the 12th of April. The affected realms included Ahn'Qiraj , Bronzebeard, Chromaggus, Dentarg, Drak'thul, Emeriss, Executus, Hakkar, Khadgar, Kul Tiras, Mazrigos, Moonglade, Scarshield Legion, Steamwheedle Cartel, Talnivarr, Trollbane, Vek'nilash, and Xavius. Also, Burning Legion and Warsong realms have recently experienced multiple crashes and restarts due to technical issues. As a result, Burning Legion and Warsong players will also be getting an extra day credited to their accounts.
Stability Issues and the Public Test Realms
US realms Bonechewer, Eldre'Thalas, Firetree, and Skywall were taken offline for a little less than an hour today for unspecified emergency maintenance. Checking the realm forums shows that all four realms have a collection of complaints about crashes and unexpected downtime this week, as well as a persistent rumor that the four realms live on the same server cluster as the public test realm - and thus experience heavy stability hits whenever the PTR goes live. While Blizzard doesn't release server information of this nature, it's an interesting coincidence that these realms seem to be having additional stability problems since the PTR came online again. Does anyone from these servers have an opinion on whether performance takes a hit when the test realm goes live? Without detailed technical information being released from Blizzard (quite unlikely) we may never know if this is actually the case - but in the lack of other information, educated guesses may be the best we can hope for in the way of news.
Smooth US Maintenance Today
After so many weeks of reading about extended and emergency maintenance, I'm certain that everyone is pleased to hear that today's maintenance went smoothly. The servers weren't down longer than anticipated, and when they came back up there were no authentication or other errors. Very nice! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for Wednesday's EU maintenance, during which they're scheduled to roll out patch 1.10.1. Since it was pushed back a week on the EU realms, it will hopefully go better than the US roll-out.
