Have you ever fiddled with something and regretted it?

[londrum]

i was been thinking about installing eAccelerator today through easyApache but my nerves have failed me. im not much of a server person and i know i'll screw it up and kill my site. its probably easy-peasy too, but i have chickened out.

i was just wondering if anyone else has ever fiddled with their server to make it better, only to see it all go up in smoke and kill their website? you start the day with high hopes... and end up crying into your cup of tea

[g1smd]

Many times. This stuff can get very complicated quickly.

Always have a test server to fiddle about with so you can clear most of the issues before messing around with a live site.

[LifeinAsia]

More than a few times!

As g1smd said, always try out on a non-production server first.

And even then, make sure you have a recent backup (and a backup plan) before implementing on a production server. I've had a few times where something went quite well in Development, but caused a meltdown in production, despite being nearly identical environments.

[TypicalSurfer]

get a play toy server, that's easy..Download vmware player, download a pre-configured linux/apache/php Virtual Machine and play away until you get comfortable.

If you are sure you'll break something...well...don't do that on a production server.

[piatkow]

Luckily with a website you can play on a copy to your heart's content. On the other hand I have damaged several physical objects over the years in that way, quite expensively in one case.

[graeme_p]

I have never really messed up a real site.

On the other hand if we included desktop software I would have a long list.

[lucy24]

When in doubt, stick with "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[mack]

I once uploaded a site to the wrong domain... Didn't notice for days. It sort of confused google for a month or 2.

Mack.

[piatkow]

I once uploaded a site to the wrong domain... Didn't notice for days. It sort of confused google for a month or 2.

If you have multiple sites its easy enough to upload to the wrong location if you are in a hurry.

I once spent ages trying to work out why an update hadn't taken despite re-uploading several times. Finally I noticed that the default target domain in my FTP software had changed.

[mack]

I had another real mess up with FTP.

I had a live site, fairly high traffic and established. My main dev system had a disk failure. Basically the HDD was toast. Installed hew drive, os etc then was in the process of getting my files back. I decided to copy the files from the site to local system. Its amazing how similar the word download and delete look to tired eyes.

The moral to that story is backups. I now have a solid routine for backup and recovery.

I did manage to recover the site, but it took days and I had to use recovery software to try and find the site on the crippled disk.

Not an experience I enjoyed.

Mack.

[TypicalSurfer]

> tired eyes

Yes, yes, most of my major blunders were made under that condition. Now, "tired eyes" means "step away from the machine".

[jecasc]

Have you ever fiddled with something and regretted it?

Yes, I was about thirteen, and then my dad came into my room without knocking, which was very embarrassing.

Oh. Woops. That was not what you meant.

[graeme_p]

@jesac, you got tired eyes as well?