After 4 hours of BASH commands and weird errors DukeCraft is finally online again! 
DukeCraft back online!
Permanent link to this article: http://www.dukecraft.com/2012/05/19/dukecraft-online-2/
Server Offline Temporarily While Hard Drive Is Replaced
I have received confirmation from the engineer that the hard disk is faulty and needs to be replaced.
As we caught the error messages before the drive stopped working the worlds and databases of the Minecraft server have been backed up, so no progress has been lost! 
Why did the drive stop working?
Hard drives are the component of a computer most likely to fail as they contain moving parts which eventually wear out. A servers hard disk runs 24/7 so can be more prone the breaking down. Some hard disks last for years others die in weeks it’s largely a matter of luck :/
When will DukeCraft be back online?
An intervention has been confirmed and a new disk should be fitted within 4 hours at most.
After the new drive has been fitted I will have to re-setup the server which will probably take around 1 to 2 hours. (Lots of stuff like reinstalling SSH keys, setting up the firewall, binding ip addresses, reinstalling software etc.)
Hopefully DC will be back online soon, realistically the earliest likely time is around 11:30PM BST, but could in theory be tomorrow morning depending on how fast the drive is replaced.
Hope this gets sorted quickly and I’ll see you online soon!
-DigitalDuke
Update #1 – Drive will be replaced within 15 minutes it will then be a further 30 minutes for an operating system to be installed and then I can get onto resetting up the server 
Update #2 – Apparently all has been fixed and operating system has been installed
Now to get all software reinstalled…
Update #3 - Confirmed brand new hard disk has been installed (previous disk had 1300 hours of use, this one has 0 (I have a 7 year old desktop with only 900 hours, so 1300 is quite alot!))
Downside the default partitioning has no swap file so I’ll have to reinstall the OS myself, will probably use it as an excuse to upgrade to CentOS 6.2
Update #4 – Installing CentOS 6 on ext4 which should give a performance boost
Update #5 - Finally some real progress…
Update #6 – Now have a mostly working server
Have some glitches with the spawn signs a chess to fix however.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.dukecraft.com/2012/05/18/server-offline-temporarily-hard-drive-replaced/
Update On The Hard Drive Errors
I sent a ticket to technical support, they have assigned an engineer to look at the issue.
Should the server randomly go offline it will be due to them switching it off to make repairs.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.dukecraft.com/2012/05/18/update-hard-drive-errors/
Server Temporarily Down For Hardware Tests
Our real time monitoring system has detected some errors with the hard disk. We’re currently backing up the server before running diagnostics on the hard disk to ascertain if it’s about to fail and needs replacing.
The server has to be off-line while we do this test as we can’t use the hard drive while it’s being tested.
I’ll update this post with again once I know how long the test will take.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.dukecraft.com/2012/05/18/server-temporarily-hardware-tests/
Economic Solutions
Charges for /tpa & /back are gone
Will be trialing a dynamic server store instead to better regulate inflation.
Charges for /warp, /nick, /suicide & /feed still remain (though are all well below 100 credits now.)
Kits are only free for your current rank (do /list if you’re not sure of your current rank), spawning kits of lower ranks will incur a charge. This is to prevent higher ranks spawning unneeded kits purely to sell.
We’re also offering a full refund on any uneeded/unwanted warps
(including warps in the Nether)
Permanent link to this article: http://www.dukecraft.com/2012/05/16/economic-solutions/
Spawn Animal Shop Now Open!
There’s a shop selling animal eggs at spawn.
Also voting page has been updated with the new listing links (so feel free to click some of the banners and vote for us )
Permanent link to this article: http://www.dukecraft.com/2012/05/14/spawn-animal-shop-open/
A few updates :)
The rules were updated today, the major change being swearing at other players will now carry a permaban. The in game /rules have been updated to show this.
Also local ban appeals must be submitted within 21 days of the ban being issued. Investigating bans that were made months previously is too time consuming.
There is now a guide page on how MCBans works and the relevant commands for staff.
Also the player ranks page has been updated to show the new ranks
Also we have a completely new forum!
Permanent link to this article: http://www.dukecraft.com/2012/05/11/updates-2/
Permanent link to this article: http://www.dukecraft.com/2012/05/08/server-move-2/
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