User:Interiot/FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions that I get...

The toolserver tools aren't showing my changes, is this a bug?
For en.wikipedia.org, there is a problem with replication right now. The database architecture has changed, and the toolserver admins are working on a final fix. DaBpunkt has a solution that's partially working, but more work is needed to get it working fast enough.

In all other cases, this is not a bug. Ocasionally, all tools on the toolserver will show data that appears to be a few minutes or hours out of date. Your changes will appear on the toolserver, but it will take some extra time. You can read more about replication lag here. You can see the current replication lag here.

Can you fix it?
The database is designed to automatically catch up to real-time, and in most cases, no action is required.

In a few cases, toolserver admins may need to fix a small problem before replication can start up again. However, even in these case, a toolserver account holder will usually notice the problem before others do, and will contact a toolserver admin as soon as possible.

How long will it take for the replication lag to return to zero?
If the replication lag is 3 hours, it will probably take around three hours for it to return to real-time. If the replication lag is 2 days, it will probably take around two days to return to real-time.

What causes replication lag to grow?
If someone with a toolserver account runs an extremely long query, replication lag may grow slowly. If Wikipedia itself is slow, then the toolserver will lag more. In other cases, replication may stop due to a problem on the toolserver or on Wikipedia, and there may be a slightly longer delay if a toolserver admin isn't immediately available.

Which replication lag?
There are currently three different replication lags that might need to be displayed in a given tool (enwiki, asian cluster, and all the other servers). Some of them are better to display in certainly circumstances. I'm pretty sure I know how to calculate the enwiki replag, but haven't yet developed the framework code necessary to try to display the correct replag in the correct tool (I have many tools, some of them enwiki-specific, some of them not). In the meantime, if you know you're only interested in enwiki replag (and not, for instance, commons, or wikibooks, or something), you can click on this link.