How to prevent a catastrophe?

You can't

[tangor]

Just back after five days of office connectivity taken out by a third party (construction crew) who took out communications for three blocks.

If, like me, you don't do "phones" you can't even watch your site disappear. Sigh.

And there's no kind of back up for this, other than distributed on multiple servers/locations.

Fortunately these kind of disasters don't happen that often, and when they do are usually related to something more disastrous than an idiot handling a backhoe.

However, if I had to had an unexpected "vacation" this was a good time of year... got so see a lot more of family than usual.

As my site (that was affected) is NOT commerce it was not that horrible ... just irritating no end!

Just a reminder you can't plan for EVERYTHING that might happen ... or if you do, it will be a lot more expensive than you'd like.

[Marshall]

Just a reminder you can't plan for EVERYTHING that might happen ... or if you do, it will be a lot more expensive than you'd like.

And you are just learning this now?!

[Lexur]

No one can prevent everything but at webmastering (or whatever you want to call this job) a recovery plan is necessary.

1.- Open a new note in your notes app (Evernote, Notes, etc.) and make a list of the elements your business involves:
- hardware
- software
- employees
- providers
- estate

2.- For every point, imagine a small crisis and a big one and search for solutions

3.- When you think you have everything under control, please, make the hit-by-the-bus [webmasterworld.com] exercise.

[tangor]

Chuckles ...

Single site, self-hosted, limited membership ... If the communications lines are cut there's nowhere to go. Sometimes these things are just what they are. Eggs in one basket AND NOT world facing. Or paying annual fees above and beyond a connection for "hosting"...

Merely a comment that sometimes things are beyond your control (or business plan) and one has to live with the consequences of those decisions. In this case it was five days off. :)

Meanwhile, this is a setup that is also NOT reliant on the beneficence of third parties and remains 100% "private", other than the initial IP connection.

Some websites are different.

[iamlost]

Just for tangor’s peace of mind:
* the sun has just made the upswing towards 2024’s solar sunspot maximum so the odds of the earth being in the way of a massive flare that takes out many/most/all satellites and disrupts/destroys electrical grids is once again shortening...

* Betelgeuse, the rogue red giant star in the constellation Orion, with a radius equal to the distance from the sun to Jupiter, due to shortly (in universe time) go super nova, an event that would appear as large and bright as the moon, has just begun behaving erratically... the last major extinction event may have had a similar cause...

* Bruce Willis is getting a bit on in age so may not be available to save us all from the next killer asteroid...

A mere local construction crew cutting a local connection? sheesh, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud don’ need no stinkin’ external ‘help’ in down timing entire regions on a frequent basis...

Me thinks you need to sit back, relax, and put your ‘catastrophe’ in perspective... while billing the contractor in question a beer (or equivalent to taste) per hour down...

Personally, I like high availability geo clusters... and a stargate at the ready.

[lucy24]

Betelgeuse . . . has just begun behaving erratically

Which is to say, it started behaving erratically 642.5 years ago, and by now it could be doing absolutely anything--or nothing. Food for thought on New Year's Eve if you want wild & wonderful stuff to happen in your brain without resorting to chemical stimulants.

[tangor]

I've had enough wild and wonderful for a while. Peace and quiet might be fun to try for a few days. :)

[ken_b]

Bunch of wacky optimists :)

[tangor]

Ahem ... I am a Optimistic Pessimist ... that way I can be surprised.

[iamlost]

Ah, the truth is out: tangor is an oxymoron!
Sigh, never a dancing banana when needed...

Truth be told, and please no one disillusion me, I visualise tangor as WebmasterWorlds very own exuberant boing-ing “T-I-double-Guh-errrr which spells Tigger”!

Note: as card carrying dues paid up Eeyore I know a Tigger when I meet one...
The old grey donkey, Eeyore stood by himself in a thistly corner of the Forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things.
Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "Why?" and sometimes he thought, “Wherefore?” and sometimes he thought, “Inasmuch as which?” and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about...

[tangor]

YUP!