FIRST Server Issues

[kmckay]

Originally Posted by Larry Lewis

Neat idea. Only issue would be if you didn't get into that week 5 event you wanted and your fallback was a week 2 event. It is probably filled at this point.
But going off of that maybe you could stagger it by team timezone. So just do each time zone at noon. That way it gives preference to the local teams to get into their events but avoids as much of a rush.

Stagger it by time zone of your regional event. Then at least you'd spread them out over a couple hours.

[PayneTrain]

If a reliable scaling solution is too infeasible, perhaps you register 2-3 district systems per day, then open up regionals?

[bdaroz]

Meanwhile.. in the FIRST Datacenter...

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

If a reliable scaling solution is too infeasible, perhaps you register 2-3 district systems per day, then open up regionals?

The problem is the big crush of people - they need increased availability for about an hour. Set 1st district and 1st regional registration on different days (even 1 day apart) and you'll cut the number in half on each day. And it's not like those two groups really need to be registering on the same day either - district teams can't get into regionals for another two-ish months, and regional teams can't do districts at all!

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

The problem is the big crush of people - they need increased availability for about an hour. Set 1st district and 1st regional registration on different days (even 1 day apart) and you'll cut the number in half on each day. And it's not like those two groups really need to be registering on the same day either - district teams can't get into regionals for another two-ish months, and regional teams can't do districts at all!

3k is NOT a "big crush of people"

[Tsom467]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

3k is NOT a "big crush of people"

Agreed! We're not talking Amazon or Facebook amounts of traffic here. This could have and should have been tested and ready to go.

The sad part is, I've seen this happen in the past. They should not have been surprised by this.

[Trying to Help]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I called FIRST, and someone actually answered. They said they are working on the issue and hope to have it resolved soon. I asked if I needed to stay glued to a computer, or if they would re-launch at a future date and time. The representative I spoke with said she didn't have any information about that.

They really just need to call it off and do a re-launch, with it working.

I'm glad someone answered and you posted this! This is not a problem that should happened. It's either a capacity problem (server, bandwidth), a failure to load test the a database or a failure to test the event registration process sufficiently. These are not problems without solutions. FIRST set the date. They knew this was going to happen unlike the reddit "hug of death".

I'm sure that there are plenty of mentors, donors, etc. that would be only too happy to lend their expertise to prevent this.

Why are we stuck with this?

[Tsom467]

Originally Posted by Trying to Help

I'm glad someone answered and you posted this! This is not a problem that should happened. It's either a capacity problem (server, bandwidth), a failure to load test the a database or a failure to test the event registration process sufficiently. These are not problems without solutions. FIRST set the date. They knew this was going to happen unlike the reddit "hug of death".

I'm sure that there are plenty of mentors, donors, etc. that would be only too happy to lend their expertise to prevent this.

Why are we stuck with this?

This +100!

[Larry Lewis]

I just got off the phone with FIRST. Their server are down and they are working on it. She mentioned that they may possibly postpone registration and that there would probably be an announcement going out soon.

[Tsom467]

Ah yes, FIRST's web sites, doing what they do best... not work! I recall many years at this time trying to register and just seeing error pages. Refresh after refresh. As someone above mentioned, this is a solvable problem, I can't understand why they have an issue with this.

[g_sawchuk]

Too bad, inconvenient but expected time for this to happen.

Not sure why FIRST doesn't section off registration for certain events at certain times - it would limit their total traffic, as opposed to everyone registering at a single time.

With districts becoming more and more popular, it's even easier to set boundaries for which events are open for registration when. Plan it based off of time zones so everyone ends up registering around their time noon.

Of course, a simpler solution might just be to fix their website.

[pyrtle]

First year mentor here, for a rookie team nonetheless, and glad to hear it's not just me. Any idea where/when we would hear from FIRST, if they choose to postpone? (Aka how long should I sit here refreshing the page...)

And thanks for those posting their updates with the calls!

[ATannahill]

Originally Posted by pyrtle

First year mentor here, for a rookie team nonetheless, and glad to hear it's not just me. Any idea where/when we would hear from FIRST, if they choose to postpone? (Aka how long should I sit here refreshing the page...)

And thanks for those posting their updates with the calls!

Probably on the blog or email blast. They might also put a notice on the TIMS log in page.

[bcampbell]

While I understand that the server is down it would be nice if someone at HQ could send an update via twitter or something.....

[hionwind]

Originally Posted by bcampbell

While I understand that the server is down it would be nice if someone at HQ could send an update via twitter or something.....

If FIRST was paying attention they could respond on this thread.