I'm in a lot of trouble!

Barks · 31 Jan 2013 at 22:54

I have just wiped the contents off a server of a client website and immediately re-uploaded the website from Dreamweaver via FTP.

It now says from the browser:

"Error 403: Permission denied/HTAccess Error"

Any ideas how to fix this? Would be really grateful.

Barks · 31 Jan 2013 at 23:30

I don't know what the hell is going on but I fixed it by creating a .htaccess file using Textedit and typing in "DirectoryIndex index.html"

Hyburnate · 31 Jan 2013 at 23:32

My guess is that the permissions are wrong, now I believe you may be able to change the permissions of the files via FTP however you may need to come up with an .htaccess file.

Google may be able to help you, but without knowing every single file I'm pretty unsure that we'll be able to help you.
What kind of files were on the server?

Barks · 31 Jan 2013 at 23:41

Hyburnate said:
My guess is that the permissions are wrong, now I believe you may be able to change the permissions of the files via FTP however you may need to come up with an .htaccess file.

Google may be able to help you, but without knowing every single file I'm pretty unsure that we'll be able to help you.
What kind of files were on the server?

It's a very basic HTML/CSS based website.

There's an index.html on the root.
All the sub pages are in a pages folder, PDF documents in a documents folder, CSS in a CSS folder etc.

GravyMonster · 1 Feb 2013 at 09:12

In theory the hosting company should have a backup from the previous night which they can restore for you.

If you don't want to overwrite to a live site, get them to restore to a secure folder somewhere else on the server which you can reach by FTP. You can then compare the files you need.

cheechm · 1 Feb 2013 at 09:23

If it is a simple HTML site, and everything works, then you should be good to go.

Deleted member 77746 · 1 Feb 2013 at 09:57

Did the site not have an automatic backup or a cron job enabled?

fez · 1 Feb 2013 at 15:01

Just out of interest, how did you wipe the whole contents in one go?

P.s. I don't know about the other guys in here who deal with servers but I managed to kill an entire server about 5 years ago by forgetting that I was logged in as root and doing a beast of a chown on the root of the server.

The feeling you get when you realise what you have done is ...... unpleasant to say the least.

aln · 1 Feb 2013 at 16:37

fez said:
Just out of interest, how did you wipe the whole contents in one go?

P.s. I don't know about the other guys in here who deal with servers but I managed to kill an entire server about 5 years ago by forgetting that I was logged in as root and doing a beast of a chown on the root of the server.

The feeling you get when you realise what you have done is ...... unpleasant to say the least.

It's pretty easy when you have root to servers and spend a lot of time in the terminal. Most everyone who has done a lot of work on servers has broke something at some point. Of course the real WTF is the fact he used FTP to restore it.

I dropped a production database running the entire business of a pay-as-you-go web-hosting provider back in like 2007-2008. I actually felt like I was going to throw up at the time and thought for sure I'd get fired.

fez · 1 Feb 2013 at 17:04

aln said:
I dropped a production database running the entire business of a pay-as-you-go web-hosting provider back in like 2007-2008. I actually felt like I was going to throw up at the time and thought for sure I'd get fired.

Its the sheer panic coupled with plenty of time to think about your mistake. I cancelled the command as soon as I realised (about 1/2 second later) which gave it all the time it needed to completely ruin the system Lesson leant though; I haven't had any issues since then.

I don't normally get stressed but I made a special allowance for that one.

aln · 1 Feb 2013 at 17:36

fez said:
Its the sheer panic coupled with plenty of time to think about your mistake. I cancelled the command as soon as I realised (about 1/2 second later) which gave it all the time it needed to completely ruin the system Lesson leant though; I haven't had any issues since then.

I don't normally get stressed but I made a special allowance for that one.

For me the penny seems to drop the second you hit enter and by the time you figure out what that feeling is, it's already too late. I like to think the lesson is to stop being so cocky, fully considering what you're doing and have a bit of empathy for people who make mistakes though.

I dunno though, I make a habit of breaking stuff. Just not on live systems.

Deleted member 77746 · 1 Feb 2013 at 17:44

Hence why running damaging commands in root isn't a good idea!

aln · 1 Feb 2013 at 17:53

mrbell1984 said:
Hence why running damaging commands in root isn't a good idea!

Written like someone who doesn't get the point in sharing your mistakes.

Deleted member 77746 · 2 Feb 2013 at 00:16

aln said:
Written like someone who doesn't get the point in sharing your mistakes.

I pulled a cable out once.

aln · 2 Feb 2013 at 23:47

Never trust the guy who says he's never made a mistake. He's probably either lying or never done any real work.

Deleted member 77746 · 3 Feb 2013 at 10:00

aln said:
Never trust the guy who says he's never made a mistake. He's probably either lying or never done any real work.

Not necessarily. He may just be an extremely good learner

fez · 4 Feb 2013 at 12:11

mrbell1984 said:
Not necessarily. He may just be an extremely good learner

Suspiciously good.

I usually make mistakes like that when juggling too many tasks at once and having too man terminal tabs open at the same time. Certainly haven't had any calamities since the chown mare.

Etheco · 4 Feb 2013 at 14:17

Surely every good server guy has made a huge mess at least once in there life of doing it

I remember updating one of my servers, core kernal files and well lets say it destroyed the entire server in one, there was noway to recover it except format and hope i have all the backups from recently, I did this at 2am in the morning and didn't get to sleep until 8am

i have also witnessed a friend running rm -rf on a folder he shouldn't off because he thought he was in the correct folder. Always second guess what your doing before the enter key is pressed