Vidahost Down

[crossdaz]

Vidahost have been down since about 10:12 am

Check twitter and forum for updates

 

[awebapart.com]

I think there is an issue with the Bluesquare data centre in Maidenhead. Another hosting company which use this data centre, poundhost.com is down too.

 

[crossdaz]

Fire brigade is currently at Bluesquare datacentre. This is obviously a serious event and firstly we hope nobody was injured, and secondly that service can be restored as soon as possible.Apologies for the inconvenience.

Looks like it could be a out a while?

 

[UKSBD]

My hosting is at Bluesquare, just came back online within the last 5 minutes.

Relief

 

[Seb de Lemos]

Everything is coming back online now - take a look at http://forum.vidahost.com/service-updates/2757-network-issues.html for updates.

 

[360interactive]

My hosting is at Bluesquare, just came back online within the last 5 minutes.

Relief

You're lucky, ours is still out.

 

[smo]

2 of the bluesquare datacentres were knocked out earlier this morning.

I've just rung them as i cant get my host and have been told 3 UPS units tripped setting off the fire alarms and shutting down the main power to the datacentre.

Backup generator DIDNT kick in!

Power is now restored to datacentre but only generator power as they await on the UPS's to be fixed and then can restore the main power grid....could be a long wait from what ive been told

 

[crossdaz]

I'm back on-line
Let's hope they have plenty of diesel?

 

[360interactive]

Does anyone know if there is any risk of data loss due to this outage?

 

[logicfusion]

There is a fire in that data centre with fire crew in attendance.

Just google "fire in blue square data centre"

All my sites are currently down.

 

[360interactive]

There is a fire in that data centre with fire crew in attendance.

Just google "fire in blue square data centre"

All my sites are currently down.

I just have, and it gives me nothing.

 

[UKSBD]

Does anyone know if there is any risk of data loss due to this outage?

You would hope not, but first thing I did when it came back up was back up my databases.

 

[logicfusion]

10 minutes ago, Google put a Twitter feed in top position in the SERPS for this. Maybe the fire is sorted now.

 

[Dominic Taylor]

Hi all,

Apologies for the disruption today. This was a fire at Bluesquare which took out both BSQ2 (which we use) and BSQ3. It was in the UPS area, so no servers damaged as far as we know, and I've not heard of any injuries.

Hundreds of thousands of websites in total, including all ours but not some older dedicated clients, and not our DNS service. Our forum where we put status details is offsite and online at http://forum.vidahost.com.

A few servers came online automatically but many required manual intervention. There was a delay as initially fire brigade had to make the area safe so nobody was allowed in.

Most of our services are restored now, or will be in the next few minutes.

Edit: Just to add, BSQ Milton-Keynes, some dedicated clients not in BSQ2, and our DNS service (for non-hosting clients) were not affected.

 

[Jim2k]

Thanks for posting here Dominic and the vidahost forum posts and twitter posts keeping everyone informed was much appreciated. These things happen and the way you deal with it is what makes or breaks you. As with most things I can't fault Vidahost at all on this issue.

 

[logicfusion]

Yep, I think it was very well dealt with. My sites are now up and running.

 

[justintime]

Thanks Dominic. I had a customer ring me today to say his site was down but coming on here I saw the reason why, informed the customer and saved you an extra phone call

 

[Dominic Taylor]

Thanks for your support everyone. A slightly crazy day and fire engines at the datacentre was certainly a heart-stopping moment. We believe at least 250,000 websites were offline today based on the number of businesses, ISPs and hosting companies we know use the datacentre.

None of our servers were damaged or suffered data loss, all powered up first time and a few then required manual intervention to boot (fsck etc). Core network equipment was online quickly as designed (it's UPS'd for clean shutdown) and the shortest outage we recorded was 32min.

The longest was somewhat longer and we do apologise to those affected.

We have various plans and ideas among my favourite of which is fast-tracking the SMS / Twitter system we're developing. I figure we should alert you pro-actively to any problem be it an expiring domain, overdue invoice, or a system issue, so we'll be bringing that online as soon as we can.

 

[Jeff FV]

I've recommended Vidahost to a number of people, and will continue to do so.

Events such as this happen - it is the pro-active way that you dealt with this (and are learning how to deal with it better in the future) that fills me with confidence, hosting my sites with you.

Jeff

 

[justintime]

I've recommended Vidahost to a number of people, and will continue to do so.

Events such as this happen - it is the pro-active way that you dealt with this (and are learning how to deal with it better in the future) that fills me with confidence, hosting my sites with you.

Jeff

Hear hear! I had a small customer hosting base but didn't have the time to effectively monitor their websites so sold them to vidahost. The way they have handled yesterdays outage (which wasn't their fault) has more than convinced me it was the right thing to do.