Maintenance
Latest
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.
Today's Maintenance Extended
An error in the automatic honor calculation process during this week's maintenance has required the honor calculation to be re-done for many realms - leading to an extended maintenance period for many of us. Realms in the following list may be offline as late as 1:00 PM PDT: Aegwyn, Aerie Peak, Agamaggan, Akama, Altar of Storms, Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Azshara, Black Dragonflight, Cenarion Circle, Cenarius, Chromaggus, Dalaran, Daivengyr, Dark Iron, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Dentarg, Detheroc, Doomhammer, Draka, Drak'thul, Duskwood, Eitrigg, Emerald Dream, Executus, Garithos, Greymane, Hakkar, Haomarush, Hyjal, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Jubei'Thos, Kalecgos, Khadgar, Khaz Modan, Korgath, Kul Tiras, Lethon, Lightbringer, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Mal'Ganis, Malorne, Moonrunner, Mug'thol, Norgannon, Rexxar, Runetotem, Sargeras, Scilla, Staghelm, Steamwheedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Twisting Nether, Uldaman, Ursin, Uther, Wildhammer, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed.Update: Maintenance for some of these realms may slip to 2:00 PM 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.
Patch 1.11: Today!
Today's maintenance will be extended by two hours in order to apply patch 1.11. However, instead of pushing maintenance time two hours later (to 1:00PM PDT) they're starting maintenance two hours earlier (at 3:00AM PDT). I don't know about you, but I can't wait to jump online and dive into the new scourge invasion content with my real characters. Not to mention the rest of the patch - mage changes, shaman changes, Naxxramas, updated PvP armor, new items for Argent Dawn & Cenarion Circle reputations, a legendary caster item, keyrings (yay!), new flightpaths (Ratchet and Un'Goro, primarily), debuff prioritization, and probably a number of other changes that have slipped my mind. Hopefully the patching process will go as smoothly as possible and let us get back to playing.
Brief Maintenance Wednesday Morning
A number of realms will be brought down at 4:00 AM PDT this Wednesday for about an hour to correct a database setting. So, if you play on any of the following servers, maybe that will be a good time to go find some breakfast: Altar of Storms, Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Dalvengyr, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Dentarg, Doomhammer, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamwheedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Uldaman, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed. I recognize a number of these realms as running at the new site on new hardware, but I'm not sure if all of them are.
Servers Coming Back Online
After a few hours' extended maintenance, most realms are starting to come back online. Not coming back up yet are the realms involved in the migration. At 11:10 AM PDT there was an update saying that we should expect the migrating realms (Cenarius, Cenarion Circle, Hyjal, Lightbringer, and Uther) to be down for 10 more hours. Several realms from the migration site (Blackrock, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Khaz'goroth, Kil'Jaeden, Kilrogg, Ner'zhul, Proudmoore, Sen'Jin, Silver Hand, Tichondrius, and Vek'nilash) will be down for another 4 hours. All other realms should be online by 12:10 PTD, so within the next ten minutes or so.
US Realm Migrations Tomorrow
During tomorrow's maintenance, the servers Cenarius, Cenarion Circle, Hyjal, Lightbringer, and Uther will be migrated to the new World of Warcraft site. What does this mean to us? Well it means that these five servers will be down for about 18 hours (starting at 3AM PDT). However, it also means that servers at the same site those five are migrating from will be down for 12 hours (also starting at 3AM PDT). So if you play on any of the following servers, I hope you have alternate morning plans: Blackrock, Bonechewer, Dragonmaw, Eldre'Thalas, Firetree, Frostmane, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Gurubashi, Khaz'goroth, Kil'Jaeden, Kilrogg, Nathrezim, Ner'zhul, Proudmoore, Scarlet Crusade, Sen'Jin, Shadow Council, Shadowsong, Silver Hand, Silvermoon, Smolderthorn, Spirestone, Skywall, Terenas, Tichondrius, Vek'nilash, and Windrunner.
Apple's 'Quick Assist' support document edited, drops permissions repair and 'restart just because' tips
Remember that 'Mac Maintenance Quick Assist' Apple Support document we found that seemed to be aimed at those new to Macs and computers in general? You know, the one that recommended fundamentals like dusting your computer and using file names that actually mean something? Well, John Gruber today fortunately pointed out that the document has been slightly edited, as it no longer recommends questionable voodoo repair permissions tactics, nor disk defragmenting (Mac OS X automatically does most of that work itself automatically) or "restarting your Mac every few days just for kicks". Three cheers for sensibility.
TUAW Tip: Mac OS X can verify itself now
Disk Utility is a great maintenance and troubleshooting tool for those times when your Mac starts acting up. Repairing permissions can sometimes be handy (even though its true validity is in question as of late), but using the Verify and Repair Disk operations is often a more useful tactic. However, until Mac OS X 10.4.3, you had use Disk Utility to verify or repair your Mac's drive from some sort of an external source. You either had to plug into another Mac in Target Disk mode, or reboot and use the install disks that came with your Mac - not the most friendly process to your workflow. But now, With 10.4.3 and later, you can start up Disk Utility right from within Mac OS X and chose the verify option to make sure system level elements like your file catalog are all in order. One warning though: it is completely normal for your Mac to temporarily freeze or 'seize up' at the beginning of running this operation (you should get the infamous beachball), as this Apple support document explains. After a little while, depending on your Mac's speed and all that jazz, it will come out of its daze and you can continue working/chatting/surfing while it finishes the disk verification process.This is a really handy tool, perhaps even more valuable than checking permissions, and should be a welcome addition to any Mac maintenance arsenal.
Test Realms Up, Live Realms Down
We know that Blizzard is upgrading their authentication hardware today (which seems to be running a bit late, though there's no official word on status), but I am a little confused as to how the test realms are up and all the live realms not. Login to the live realms is painless, but there's not a single realm showing as available to play on. The test realms all appear to be up (as of the time of this writing), but with a bit of a queue and massive crowding in the Eastern Plaguelands as everyone heads in for a glimpse of Naxxramas. However, the fact that login is possible seems to suggest that the delay we're experiencing isn't caused by authentication problems...
Maintenance 3.5 released
Maintenance, the Automator action that performs many system repair and clean-up tasks, has been updated to version 3.5. New features include: Ability to automatically restart after Maintenance has run Ability to automatically view the results file Time stamp added to results file Also, for a few versions now, Maintenance has included an AppleScript that I believe performs the same tasks for pre-Tiger 10.4 versions of Mac OS X. Included with the download is a ReadMe PDF that explains what each task is and when/why you should run them.Maintenance is free and available from Automator World.
Database Maintenance on Select US Realms
Several US realms will be undergoing necessary database maintenance starting at 5AM PDT this Thursday morning and lasting no more than 4 hours. So if you're on any of the following realms, prepare alternate plans for tomorrow morning: Eldre'Thalas, Spirestone, Shadow Council, Scarlet Crusade, Firetree, Frostmane, Gurubashi, Smolderthorn, Skywall, Bonechewer, Dragonmaw, Shadowsong, Silvermoon, Windrunner, Cenarion Circle, Nathrezim, and Terenas.
Apple Support doc: Mac maintenance Quick Assist
Apple has released a "Mac Maintenance Quick Assist" support document that is more or less a 10-step guide aimed at beginners for taking care of their Mac, both inside and out. These steps include good, basic practices such as using relevant names for files instead of "DSC_00001.jpg," while also recommending that you occasionally clean your Mac (duh).I was surprised to see a few tips make this list, however. The first: Check for viruses. "Macs don't get anywhere near the amount of viruses that Windows PCs are prone to, but that doesn't mean that they can't get infected," reads tip #8. I guess the guys who wrote this article didn't get the memo from the team who made the "Macs don't get viruses" TV commercials. The other odd tips deal with Mac maintenance stuff, like repairing permissions and defragging your hard drive. I was under the impression that, since Panther, Mac OS X defragged itself. On the permissions topic, there has been a lot of chatter over the last couple of months about whether repairing permissions is actually useful. Just check out the pseudo-series John Gruber had on the topic.All in all, I think I was actually a little frightened by evidence of even cheesier one-liners making their way into Apple's support docs: "As a Mac user, you won't have to do windows, but you will need to do some housekeeping!" Yuk yuk.
Extended US Maintenance Tuesday
This week's maintenance has been extended by two hours to apply a bug fix patch, so be prepared for maintenance to run between 3am and 11am (PST). No information on what this patch may be fixing - but I suppose we'll all find out together, tomorrow.
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.
Select US Server Outages Tonight
Emergency maintenance by AT&T will cause the following realms to be unavailable from 2:00 to 4:00 AM PDT (while Drysc's post dated this 4/20, it only makes sense for it to be on 4/21 - otherwise he's posted warning rather late). 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. Hopefully this is at a sufficiently odd hour that it will be mostly unnoticed, though there are always players somewhere...
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.
Urgent Maintenace
Tseric informs us that the realms Aegwynn, Akama, Chromaggus, Draka, Drak'thul, Garithos, Hakkar, Khaz Modan, Jubei'Thos, Kul Tiras, Korgath, Malorne, Mug'thol, Runetotem, and Thorium Brotherhood have been taken down for urgent, but unspecified, maintenance. Further the continent of Kalimdor seems to be having serious technical difficulties - reports in the general forums suggest that the continent may be crashing (or causing player disconnects) as frequently as every thirty seconds. Ouch. Thank goodness there's a lot of cool stuff in the Eastern Kingdoms - just hope you didn't log out in the wrong place...
Maintenance, Patches, and Migration
Today's maintenance will be extended by two hours (to 11:00 AM PDT) to apply a minor bug fix patch. Of course, what all of us are wondering is which bugs are getting fixed... I guess we'll see when the servers come back up.Also during (and beyond) this maintenance window, realms Doomhammer, Icecrown, Deathwing, and Kel'Thuzad will be migrated to new hardware. This migration may take as long as 24 hours, so users on those realms should plan for extended downtime. All active players with characters on those realms will receive an extra day's credit on their account to compensate for the downtime.
Urgent Realm Maintenance
Several realms (Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Dalaran, Dentarg, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Scilla, Steamwheedle Cartel, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed) were brought down tonight for urgent maintenance around 5:15 PST with a note that expected downtime was to be minimal. The servers seemed to pop up online again not so long after but the uptime doesn't seem to have last - around 6:30 PST most (all?) are offline again. Oddly, all of these servers appear to be those running on new hardware...
