FlightDesk Server Crashes

[Evan Reiter]

When developing complex software for FSX (itself one of the most complex pieces of software ever written), occasionally we run into situations which are temporarily beyond our understanding. Recently we have been trying to develop some pretty exciting new functionality for FlightDesk and were just about to launch a new version of FlightDesk in beta. For about 2 weeks we have had the versions running in parallel with no issues.

 

Unfortunately we have recently encountered several crashes of the primary, current FlightDesk server. If you were flying in today's event, or yesterday, you've likely noticed FlightDesk shut down and require a re-start. We have been monitoring the server extra carefully to try to determine when FlightDesk crashes and re-start it right away, as well as to try to figure out the sequence of events that leads to these issues.

 

The good news is that these crashes have not been caused by the new version we have been working on. During today's event, for example, we were running just the current version of FlightDesk. The bad news is that we aren't sure exactly what is causing the issue and we have not been able to duplicate it on command. That makes it very difficult to solve.

 

Over the next few days we are likely to see FlightDesk's server continue to crash intermittently. Rest assured that Bill is doing everything he can to find whatever is causing the issue and stop it. Until then, if you are online when FlightDesk's server crashes, here's what you can do:

 

• If the server does not come back to life within a few seconds, it's likely that an administrator hasn't been advised of the crash. Please e-mail [email protected] so we can get the server restarted.
  
• Think about what might have caused the crash. We think that the crashes might be related to people entering/leaving the session or briefing room. If just before FlightDesk crashes you left the session, or if you just entered the briefing room to change your aircraft, please let us know. Any new information we can gather is a possible lead which will help us solve the problems.