retug December 23, 2022

Website Database Scare

On Decemeber 10th, I logged into my website to be greeted by a scary error message

I had not done anything to the site, so I figured something bad more than likely happened.

The work week was busy, so I was not able to start troubleshooting until December 17th. Running the command heroku logs --tail  led to message that stated:

File "/app/my_website/settings.py", line 108, in <module> raise Exception("DATABASE_URL environment variable not defined") Exception: DATABASE_URL environment variable not defined

Reading this, I knew the database had somehow gotten disconnected. Logging into heroku where I host the website and database, I was greeted with a scary red warning label:

At this point, real panic sets in, what happened to my database? I knew that I was paying heroku to host my website, so I thought was just a warning they were putting on all dashboards. At this point, I open up the 10 emails I received from heroku stating that they are removing free hosting and database services. After some research, I realized that I was paying for the server, but not for the database; I was still using the free tier postgres database. 

Tail tucked between my legs, I follow heroku's "hey you dummy, you ignored all of our emails and you want to get your website back" tutorial and within 4 hours of opening a ticket and 9 bucks later, my database was restored.

The take away

DONT IGNORE IMPORTANT EMAILS!

Web Dev

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  • Latest Comments
  • 316Jq on Transfer Diaphragm Design -

    Just wonder how do you separate inertia force and the transfer force? The inertia force might be controlled by the Fpx,min per ASCE12.10-2,  while the transfer force might need to be multiplied by rho or omega. This is also briefly discussed in NHERP design guidance you used. 

  • retug on Section Cutter - ETABs Plugin -

    Hi Rodrigio, thanks for reaching out.

    My email is retug.austin@gmail.com, feel free to shoot me an email.

    The section cutter tool needs a bit of updating to work with the newer version of ETABs, but happy to discuss what you might have in mind for the add-in.

    Thanks

  • Rodrigo_Gomez on Section Cutter - ETABs Plugin -

    Hello good day! My Name is Rodrigo, and im trying to install your plugin in my Etabs, also i would like to know how to profit this tool. i would like to ask you a few questions about it. Can i have your contact information? 

    Rodrigo