The Ignite-wide issues have been deemed resolve and we are continuing to monitor three issues separately. Please click here for more information.

Thank you for your patience while we worked to resolve these issues for you.

Ignite’s core services are now restored, but we are continuing to monitor three issues:

• Auctions not moving automatically to past

Patches have been applied recently to resolve these issues:

• Image uploads
• Select assets for sale lists not displaying correctly.

For more information and to view updates on the situation, please click here. Thank you for your continued patience while we resolved these matters.

Due to a change in the upstream Internet connection through our co-location facility, the core AuctionServices.com server Internet addresses will be changing soon. Over the course of the next two weeks, AuctionServices.com will be modifying the necessary records and settings on our end to facilitate this change. This should require no changes on your part, and the process will be completely seamless for the vast majority of the hundreds of websites we host.

As the migration progresses, we will attempt to make regular status updates via the AuctionServices.com Blog at http://blogs.auctionservices.com/ignite/. Should any complications arise, please phone our office at 540-206-3311 any time day or night so we can address them swiftly.

Thank you for choosing AuctionServices.com!

– The AuctionServices.com Team

Last week, the AuctionServices.com Team responded to a variety of support requests from customers using our popular IBEAM email mailing list management service. Upon initial investigation, the sending queues in the software were experiencing problems with queuing the messages properly. Closer scrutiny revealed that the queue tables in the IBEAM database were locked while the database management software attempted to repair some damage to the tables apparently caused by a hard disk drive array attempt to rebuild a drive that had fallen out of sync. This repair process continued until it was determined that the hard disk drive in question was reporting itself as rebuilding when it had, in fact, failed. Bypassing the automated alarm systems, the drive was manually labeled as failed and removed from the system to allow the backup drives to kick in and handle the data.

The drive was replaced and rebuilt into the array to restore full performance to the database engine, and the IBEAM service configuration parameters were tweaked to mitigate any future impact from similar performance incidents. Over the weekend, some configuration parameters were changed to allow for faster queuing of IBEAM messages, and we are happy to report that the IBEAM service is now fully functional. Please continue to report any ongoing problems we may be unaware of.

As compensation for any customers who were affected by the IBEAM problems last week, we extend our apologies and would like to offer a Value Marketing Package at 50% off the regular price. You can order your package through the AS Marketing Center site and use the coupon code HALFVAL at checkout.

Best regards,

– The AuctionServices.com Team

Who: Affects all AuctionServices.com Members and Customers

When: 1AM Eastern Time, December 15th, 2009

At AuctionServices.com, we constantly seek to improve our products and services. This includes evaluating and implementing recommendations and feedback from auctioneers, but it also includes upgrading our infrastructure and hardware to continue to meet the growing demands and needs of AuctionServices.com’s Members, Member Companies, and organizations we serve. To further increase the performance, availability, reliability, and security of our systems and products, we will be performing after-hours maintenance tasks tonight at 1AM Eastern time, December 15th, 2009 that will require restarting of some of our core servers and services. Doing so will entail necessary, scheduled downtime for AuctionServices.com and AuctionServices.com-related customer websites and portals. We do not expect this downtime to last any more than one hour.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns, and thank you for choosing AuctionServices.com.

Best regards,

– The AuctionServices.com Team

The Ignite system is currently experiencing difficulties publishing changes to auctions. We are aware of the error messages and working actively to resolve them. During this time, you may encounter an error message “We’re sorry but something went wrong,” while attempting to publish a new or existing auction. This post will be updated shortly with more information as it becomes available.

Our apologies for any inconvenience this error message may cause.

Best regards,

– The AuctionServices.com Team

12/2 2:18PM EDT

Publishing is now working properly. Please contact AuctionServices.com if you are continuing to experience any problems publishing auctions and/or changes to auctions.

Best regards,

– The AuctionServices.com Team

UPDATE: 10:56 AM EDT – The Zimbra service is now responding to requests. We are continuing to work on the Zimbra system to restore full functionality and capacity.

UPDATE: 12:30PM EDT – Service is now restored, but there is currently a backlog of email in the Zimbra queue waiting to be delivered. We are flushing the delivery queues as quickly as possible.

UPDATE: 5:00PM EDT – We are continuing to flush the email delivery queue on the Zimbra servers. Due to the exponential rate at which the email deliveries speed up once the queue size becomes more and more manageable, we do not have an estimate at this time as to when all of the emails currently in the queue will be delivered; however, we expect the bulk of the queue to catch up during off-peak hours.

10/21/2009

UPDATE: 9:00AM EDT – As of this morning, the backlog of email in the Zimbra queue was successfully scanned for viruses and delivered to the appropriate inboxes. Thank you for your patience while we worked to resolve this issue. We will continue to monitor the queue throughout the day to ensure it continues to function efficiently.

Last night we rolled out the new optimization for Ignite. I could not believe how fast auction lists now come up!!! We have been working on this optimization since before the NAA Conference & Show in July. However, it could only be rolled out after we changed templates and a few other items, which we accomplished over the weekend.

If you’re using Ignite you will be extremely pleased with the speed that your auctions and as a result your website loads up now. Bench-marked calendar loading averaged less than 3 seconds.

If you’re not using Ignite you can look at any of our state sites and or portals to see the speed.

http://auctionservices.com/auction-portals.php

Google Partnership:

On a different note we have not formally announced this yet but we have partnered with Google for email management via their Apps. We have moved two auctioneers so far in a beta mode. They are extremely pleased and we are as well…

The short of it all is that Zimbra, our current email client, and three servers are not doing it for us and the 2,800+ email accounts that we manage. Google has all the horsepower plus many great features included. All email that our auctioneers currently have in the Zimbra system will be ported over for them after we have setup their email accounts. They email addresses will still be youremailaccount@yourdomain.

This is a huge advantage for our clients and will streamline email plus scan junk mail much better as well since we have the power of the Google backbone…

We will do this transition in batches not to have anything fall through the cracks. Please stay tuned for more information…

Respectfully,
Richard A. Romanus Sr.
President & CEO
AuctionServices.com, Inc.
Roanoke, VA 24018
Office: 540-206-3311