Another maintenace!!!!

Dallasali · August 2016

Qbiken wrote: »

Tia413 wrote: »

Qbiken wrote: »

Btw, anyone knows how long this maintance will be? (Approcimately)

6 hours if nothing goes wrong....10-12 hours if they run into problems

Well, I guess it´s time for me to begin Witcher 3 Blood and Wine DLC then XD

Get ready for fun!! It was awesome.

Garldeen · August 2016

People will be more accepting of continued maintenance IF things seem to get fixed. They claim to repair the group finder each week, yet within mins of the server coming back up, it is clearly not fixed.

Bryanonymous · August 2016

Loud noises!!!!!!!!

Are you new? They do maintenance every Monday morning. Smh.

MishMash · August 2016

Just make use of the PTS! Try out different builds. Before you know it the main server is back online.

wenchmore420b14_ESO · August 2016

Asata wrote: »

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

For Akatosh's sake people. They have to do maintenance. Just like you have to defrag your computer to keep it running smooth. They have to clear caches, LUA, etc. If they only did maintenance once month, the game would be laggy and glitchy as hell. I have seen it, the times they went 3--4 weeks without maintenance. And all large MMO's have to do it. WoW was once a week and be down 8-20 hours!
Be thankful they don't have to do it twice a week anymore like they did at launch. Also, maintenance is not the same thing as "fixes", even though this is the time they use to insert fixes, but not always. So stop thinking that every maintenance is going to fix everything!
Be happy they do them regularly. If you need your ESO fix, go play PTS for 3-6 hours..

No they don't, man. There are many MMO's out there that don't do weekly maintenance. They might have a maintenance once every few months.

Not sure what MMO's you are referring to, unless they are games like CoD which are about 1/64th the size of ESO. WoW is every Tuesday, Diablo is every week, any Large MMO, does regular maintenance.
And to reiterate, Maintenance is not the same as Patches! Just because they do maintenance on the server, does not equate to fixing or patching bugs in game.

LaucianNailor · August 2016

Maintenance and patches are a good thing and need to be done.

Just asking for a little bit of an even approach really. US players have their US server taken down in the middle of the night for a patch: 3AM.

EU players on the EU server have it taken down during the daytime: 9-11AM depending on which part of Europe they are in. Add hours of server downtime and this is clearly well into useful online time for EU players. ZOS please carry on with patches and maintenance but just carry it out in the same localised time slot as you grant the US players i.e. 3AM EU time.

magnusthorek · August 2016

Too bad that every recent maintenance takes like 6 hours to fix like 6 things

wenchmore420b14_ESO · August 2016

Just to clear up why maintenance is necessary and needed, I went back and found this awesome response to what a "Server Maintenance" actually entails. Thank you @Cronopoly !

Cronopoly wrote: »

I'll answer as I have 21 Years of enterprise IT experience in a world class data center that powered a top 5 in the world retailer. This is just an example as I do not know Zenimax's architecture.

In any AAA MMO system you have several Enterprise class components that are responsible for your session running smoothly.

Firewall's: Enterprise systems must use them for protected DMZ's, Demilitarized Zones as they are called which protect all network traffic within (Incoming and outgoing) as having Firewalls controlling data coming in and out by port and protocol to prevent unwarranted traffic & hackers etc... We used separate Firewall Zones for Initiall Web ingress of traffic, Credit Card zone, Database Zone, Application Zones, this way all different types of data was protected separately. So much easier to put rules around it that way, though not simple. I'll skip the talk of State tables, and NAT's getting full...

Most enterprise level Firewalls are configured in pairs with a crossover cable to make sure that if one side fails the other can take the traffic seamlessly without users knowing a failure occured. (redundancy is huge)

Firewalls maintenance windows for vendor updates (security etc) are required unless you want to be hacked sooner than later. this can sometimes take the Firewall team hours as they do one Firewall Pair at a time. Firewalls are most finicky when updating and sometimes require rebooting several times to become stable. And being that a leading vendor is in Israel (Checkpoint) makes this a pain if you have to contact them with timezones involved.

Application Servers / HTTP Servers Many applications can use app servers to host the users session, that in the case of an MMO might hold the states of a users session with the mirrored variables of the users location, stats, all actions etc.

App servers along with getting required security and O'/S patches which can take hours to apply, (shutdown, patching, startup), can be just that servers that get "Dirty" over time especially with the use of code that leverages JVM's (Java) that can get corrupted over time and have frequent memory problems. spelled pain in the butt. Required weekly reboots are common to prevent alot of problems. With an MMO there are many many servers to reboot and double check that they come back up clean, as users are pretty unforgiving if after maintenance something is not fully working...

Network Typically the most stable part of an enterprise once setup correctly, however with more and more exploits targeting Internet facing Routers with new vulnerabilities that you guessed it have to be Security/firmware patched.

ACE/VPN concentrators: Commonly used to provide a secure tunnel of connected users from the Internet to datacenter backend systems. These must always get patched like everything else and care taken to deprecate old protocols that over time always have vulnerabilities pop up. TLS etc...

One network component that does have a higher failure rate (and time fixing them) are Load Balancers / Content Switches. These can take more maintenance as they are typically setup to take a network request targeting a single IP address and rout traffic round robin etc to multiple backend servers. The pain this causes during longer maintenance window due to Network team members not being thorough or overworked cannot be understated. I always cringed when I saw a change control for a CSS (content switch).

Database servers I'll state this simply as I've gone down the wabbit hole too far already considering this is a gaming forum and not "Unpaid consulting hour" Obviously all your data in several databases in an MMO have millions of transactions of reads and writes. Databases need maintenance in order to optimize paths to the disk to shorten read and write times. Database Administrators can run Stats, Reorgs, create new Indexes or refresh index to keep your data access optimal.
Simply put on large databases this can take HOURS. Nothing is free here and it's typically not optional unless you want your system response time to slow to a crawl, and in an MMO that would kill your application for all users...

You have the same level of complexity with other related systems:

Storage Farms: Servers are typically connected to their remote NAS or SAN hard drives (EMC etc) which require periodic maintenance as well.

Backup and Recovery Servers need to be backed up just in case of catastopophic failure which does occur. Many backups need to take place when users are not on the system. This can sometimes take hour(s) depending on how much local storage of the O/S+ Application and Data are on the server. I can see this occuring 1st during a maintenance window.

TL:DR - Running an MMO requires mandatory maintenance to keep everything running and "secure". No free lunch.

And I would be remiss If I I didn't state that it takes dedicated people to do all this work right. My personal opinion is that IT is the backbone of any modern company and most times no one praises or hears about them unless something goes wrong. I wish they were valued more and staffed appropriately across more US companies.

Glamdring · August 2016

Keep thoose maintenances comming, but for the sake of god, why in the middle of the day for eu server??!?!? Do em 3 am cet or something. Geez, can someone send ZoS a timezonecoverter pls.

Cously · August 2016

I dislike maintenances but I have played other games where it was guaranteed a routine maintenance every week and eventually you learn to live with it. If your prime time is affect by it, nothing you can do. Suck a lollipop and be happy.

WikileaksEU · August 2016

I agree. Too many hours for too few fixes. In GW2 there is no maintenance. What happens is GW2 when a patch is released is the best thing mmorpgs have had. Why don't ESO have the same thing?

Reevster · August 2016

JD2013 · August 2016

Yes. It's Monday. Monday is maintenance day.

Bigevilpeter · August 2016

The point is they don't need all these maintenances or all this downtime, and if they do then they have a serious issue.

Don't try to convince me this is normal, it is not

Bigevilpeter · August 2016

Reevster wrote: »

Well if i could pew pew i wouldnt QQ

BFT88 · August 2016

LaucianNailor wrote: »

US players have their US server taken down in the middle of the night for a patch: 3AM.

EU players on the EU server have it taken down during the daytime: 9-11AM

US servers go down at 4 AM, not 3.

And do none of you people have jobs? For gods sake it's Monday (almost Tuesday in some areas) morning you should be at work not complaining about a video game's weekly scheduled maintenance.

This has always made me wonder, does everyone in EU live in their mothers basement, thus the no need for a job thing?

Or have all of you EU players forgotten the fact that some folks don't even have a dedicated server? I.E. Aussie/NZers, Japan, Indonesia, etc etc.

Keep in mind, you are ****LUCKY**** to have a dedicated server and not be forced to play with 300-400 base ping. PLEASE STOP COMPLAINING ALREADY, YOU LOOK LIKE BABIES.

daswahnsinn · August 2016

Bigevilpeter wrote: »

Seriously are they going to have a maintenance every 2 days or what? this is like the 5th maintenance since the SoTH patch. I was against those subscribers who said ZOS has to make up for the lost time, but now it actually makes sense.
Every maintenance is at least 6 hours.

Get your *** together ZOS!!

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/75114/regular-maintenance-days-times-for-pc-mac#latest

Please read some of the stickied threads here to avoid pointless threads like this one. This thread should be closed to due to lack of constructiveness.

tat2mano · August 2016

BFT88 wrote: »

LaucianNailor wrote: »

US players have their US server taken down in the middle of the night for a patch: 3AM.

EU players on the EU server have it taken down during the daytime: 9-11AM

US servers go down at 4 AM, not 3.

And do none of you people have jobs? For gods sake it's Monday (almost Tuesday in some areas) morning you should be at work not complaining about a video game's weekly scheduled maintenance.

This has always made me wonder, does everyone in EU live in their mothers basement, thus the no need for a job thing?

Or have all of you EU players forgotten the fact that some folks don't even have a dedicated server? I.E. Aussie/NZers, Japan, Indonesia, etc etc.

Keep in mind, you are ****LUCKY**** to have a dedicated server and not be forced to play with 300-400 base ping. PLEASE STOP COMPLAINING ALREADY, YOU LOOK LIKE BABIES.

A lot of Europeans actually have Vacation atm.
And its a fact that the maintenance timing is mostly beneficiary to Americans since its an American company.

tat2mano · August 2016

daswahnsinn wrote: »

Bigevilpeter wrote: »

Seriously are they going to have a maintenance every 2 days or what? this is like the 5th maintenance since the SoTH patch. I was against those subscribers who said ZOS has to make up for the lost time, but now it actually makes sense.
Every maintenance is at least 6 hours.

Get your *** together ZOS!!

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/75114/regular-maintenance-days-times-for-pc-mac#latest

Please read some of the stickied threads here to avoid pointless threads like this one. This thread should be closed to due to lack of constructiveness.

Posts get closed on this forum way to easy.

TUHD86 · August 2016

The maintenance IS getting a tad long... it started 4 3/4 hours ago? And still not finished.

Cogo · August 2016

I would complain if they didn't do maintenance.

LaucianNailor · August 2016

BFT88 wrote: »

LaucianNailor wrote: »

US players have their US server taken down in the middle of the night for a patch: 3AM.

EU players on the EU server have it taken down during the daytime: 9-11AM

US servers go down at 4 AM, not 3.

And do none of you people have jobs? For gods sake it's Monday (almost Tuesday in some areas) morning you should be at work not complaining about a video game's weekly scheduled maintenance.

This has always made me wonder, does everyone in EU live in their mothers basement, thus the no need for a job thing?

Or have all of you EU players forgotten the fact that some folks don't even have a dedicated server? I.E. Aussie/NZers, Japan, Indonesia, etc etc.

Keep in mind, you are ****LUCKY**** to have a dedicated server and not be forced to play with 300-400 base ping. PLEASE STOP COMPLAINING ALREADY, YOU LOOK LIKE BABIES.

And where abouts are you based?

Actually if I or anyone on this forum has a job or not is none of your business, what my and any others working hours actually are are also none of your business.

Why is requesting the parity of patch/maintenance initial commencement time so upsetting for you that it causes you to invoke a god :'( ......you doth protest and cry like a baby too much I fear.

Zerok · August 2016

I know it does not fit the subject, but while I was searching for a fitting meme I came across this:

Glamdring · August 2016

BFT88 wrote: »

LaucianNailor wrote: »

US players have their US server taken down in the middle of the night for a patch: 3AM.

EU players on the EU server have it taken down during the daytime: 9-11AM

US servers go down at 4 AM, not 3.

And do none of you people have jobs? For gods sake it's Monday (almost Tuesday in some areas) morning you should be at work not complaining about a video game's weekly scheduled maintenance.

This has always made me wonder, does everyone in EU live in their mothers basement, thus the no need for a job thing?

Or have all of you EU players forgotten the fact that some folks don't even have a dedicated server? I.E. Aussie/NZers, Japan, Indonesia, etc etc.

Keep in mind, you are ****LUCKY**** to have a dedicated server and not be forced to play with 300-400 base ping. PLEASE STOP COMPLAINING ALREADY, YOU LOOK LIKE BABIES.

Get down from your high horse mate, some of us work weekends, some are students, some are kids, some are retired, some are on sickleave and so on. A EU SERVER should have maintenance during nighttime, early mornings EU TIME. End of story.

Doctordarkspawn · August 2016

Quite frankly they used to do them in the middle of the afternoon after everyone got home.

Now their doing them in the early morning hopefully to be done either by morning or when people get off work.

...Then again, the matinence times started to get longer and longer after around DB or TG launches, after they *** with the render engine. So.

Is matinence a problem? No. Is longer matinence times possibly indicitive of a larger problem? Possibly.

Asata · August 2016

BFT88 wrote: »

LaucianNailor wrote: »

US players have their US server taken down in the middle of the night for a patch: 3AM.

EU players on the EU server have it taken down during the daytime: 9-11AM

US servers go down at 4 AM, not 3.

Because the whole of the US is in the same timezone, right? Yeah, we have things called timezones. If you happen to be in CST then it's at 3, rather than EST's 4.

magnusthorek · August 2016

Asata wrote: »

Because the whole of the US is in the same timezone, right? Yeah, we have things called timezones. If you happen to be in CST then it's at 3, rather than EST's 4.

I get so confused with so many timezones among guildies that I have to use an online tool to check when the heck something is going to happen in my country XD

The_Undefined · August 2016

It's been like 4hrs now since servers have gone down, hasn't it? A bit excessive. The least they could do is give an estimated time on when servers will be back up. I've actually not seen other maintenance neglect to give a time when things are done.

Nilmot · August 2016

ThatAlaskanDude wrote: »

Bigevilpeter wrote: »

I prefer they do their job correctly the first time, I don't see that much maintenance in any other mmos.

That's like asking an author to write his book with no errors whatsoever. Nobody's perfect. The fact that ZOS is still taking the time to fix their mistakes in ESO shows they still want to bring the best player experience.

Authors have editors, coders have QA.

Sophieous · August 2016

BFT88 wrote: »

US servers go down at 4 AM, not 3.

And do none of you people have jobs? For gods sake it's Monday (almost Tuesday in some areas) morning you should be at work not complaining about a video game's weekly scheduled maintenance.

This has always made me wonder, does everyone in EU live in their mothers basement, thus the no need for a job thing?

Or have all of you EU players forgotten the fact that some folks don't even have a dedicated server? I.E. Aussie/NZers, Japan, Indonesia, etc etc.

Keep in mind, you are ****LUCKY**** to have a dedicated server and not be forced to play with 300-400 base ping. PLEASE STOP COMPLAINING ALREADY, YOU LOOK LIKE BABIES.

Listen mate, the fact that you came here to brag about whatever, when you are nowhere near when it comes to experiencing the discomfort EU and all other players that play on the EU servers experience during downtime, says it all.

To put it simply so you understand, it's always nighttime when ur servers are down, it's always bright sunshine for the rest of the player base. We have AUS etc players too, even worse for them. I'm not gonna say your argument is to stop here, since we're all entitled to an opinion, but still, at least make it relevant.

BTW, 4 am is actually kinda better than 3, since most of the players who play till late at night stop at around 3-4. But whatever you're trying to prove.

Most of the players on the forums, voice their opinions in a civilized and constructive manner when it comes to maint. times. All of them ask for the for the SIMPLEST thing on earth, to make maintenance times suit the current timezone.

If you don't see that they are off big time, you should refrain yourself from leaving unnecessary, offensive and toxic comments that could cause arguments.

Your own comments about 'ALL OF THE EU PLAYERS living in their mothers basement', should give you a hint.

Also, cus you're being way too offensive, I can be a millionaire living the life, not giving a single f**c about a job. I could also be working at night, or mid day. I could be wanting to play from work, since the maint times cover morning till midday in EU. It has literally nothing to do with the fact that I can't access the game during daytime, cus the company's decided to f**c it up.

So please, be constructive and actually have something to say