NP's database problem + busy server issues

[AHA7]

Hello,

I have got this message several times when the whole NP site goes down:

There seems to have been a slight problem with the database.
Please try again by pressing the refresh button in your browser.

An E-Mail has been dispatched to our Technical Staff , who you can also contact if the problem persists.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

I also get a 'server busy' message frequently saying:

The server is too busy at the moment. Please try again later.

Well, the second issue is normal but what about the first one?

ALSO, the SaveChristine.com image on the homepage is broken!

 

[Millar]

I just had that Database Problem aswell...

 

[PolurNET]

It's likely after effects from yesterday's temporary outage. Not to be concerned, Ron is probably working on things as we speak

 

[RJ]

By your post time I can tell the message was a result of the full daily backup our site does around that hour. We have several gigs of info in our database. It gets pretty server intensive to do a mysqldump of everything, and makes our site unaccessable for about 8 minutes. I'm not sure of a way to avoid this yet.

 

[Gandhi]

This is so wierd, I posted a reply here asking is this causing the chat room to freeze, because in the last 30 mins its happened at least 40 times now. Then I come in here post a reply and I saw the reply, and I clicked to go to the top and got the server not found message, then I refresh and my post is gone, and im not in the chatroom.