Ministering assignments disappeared

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scgallafent
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Location: Riverton, Utah

Re: Ministering assignments disappeared

#21

Post by scgallafent »

We have system backups, but this case would have required restoring the most recent backup to a separate server, comparing the two databases to identify which units were affected, and then manually migrating data from the backup into the production database for affected units.

As I said, there were two developers affected by this who were validating the release after it was deployed (see dogfooding). The decision whether to go through the process of restoring and migrating from a backup was made with the full knowledge that THEY would have to recreate their ministering data or go back to their ward leaders and explain that their data was corrupted and would need to be recreated.
calkinsc
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Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2018 1:50 pm

Re: Ministering assignments disappeared

#22

Post by calkinsc »

Same thing happened to us last week. It's a relief to know I wasn't the only one!
The following day, one of the districts repopulated, the rest were blank. I checked again yesterday and still only had one district.
Upon checking the "Proposed" page all the districts were still there and populated, except one. It had all the companionships, listed, but no sisters assigned to them.
After many calls, texts, emails, etc, I was able to re-create that district.
I'm terrified it will happen again! Guess I'll be keeping an up-to-date spreadsheet at hand. I hate having to print the 23 + pages required to keep a paper copy - especially since in my ward it needs to be changed once or more a month.
eblood66
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Location: Cumming, GA, USA

Re: Ministering assignments disappeared

#23

Post by eblood66 »

calkinsc wrote:I hate having to print the 23 + pages required to keep a paper copy - especially since in my ward it needs to be changed once or more a month.
The reports in LCR are all PDF files. So rather than actually printing it you could just save/download it to your local computer.
scgallafent
Church Employee
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Location: Riverton, Utah

Re: Ministering assignments disappeared

#24

Post by scgallafent »

We don't think it's likely to happen again, but I also don't like to say never. We know specifically what caused this issue and have made changes to address the cause.

There had been some ongoing discussion about the complexities of selectively restoring data from backup for units that we can tell were affected and where we can do a clean restore.
calkinsc
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Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2018 1:50 pm

Re: Ministering assignments disappeared

#25

Post by calkinsc »

I'm not sure that's not the case, but, I do know that I was using the "Proposed" site a couple of weeks before the "crash" so it wasn't blank. Interesting theory though. And no, I'm not prepared to test it! lol
jasonmorganallred
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Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2012 12:55 pm

Re: Ministering assignments disappeared

#26

Post by jasonmorganallred »

Since some units have already tried restoring the lost data manually, has it been considered to simply email the backups as a pdf to leaders in affected units (or provide it upon request), so that we can manually reenter it from the backup? I know my EQ would benefit significantly if we could simply get our hands on a copy of what it was before the data loss occurred.
scgallafent
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Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:55 pm
Location: Riverton, Utah

Re: Ministering assignments disappeared

#27

Post by scgallafent »

Last night, we completed running a process that selectively restored data for units where we could positively identify that they were affected by this issue. Basically, if you had data before and don't have data now, you data should be restored. If you had created any new data, your data was not restored.

For units where the data wasn't restored but they want it restored, the ward clerk can contact the Global Service Center and ask to have the unit's ministering data restored from the backup. THIS WILL OVERWRITE ANY MINISTERING DATA THAT WAS ENTERED OR CHANGED AFTER THE BACKUP.
jasonmorganallred wrote:Since some units have already tried restoring the lost data manually, has it been considered to simply email the backups as a pdf to leaders in affected units (or provide it upon request), so that we can manually reenter it from the backup? I know my EQ would benefit significantly if we could simply get our hands on a copy of what it was before the data loss occurred.
The backup is a restore of the relational database. There isn't an automatic way the generate and email a PDF to leaders from the backup. We would have to stand up a new instance of the entire system, point it to the restored database, and have someone manually log in and generate PDF files. Alternatively, we would have to pull someone off another project and have them do some work to automate generating PDFs for this, which would prevent them from completing other work.
Marcieb
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Joined: Sat Aug 13, 2016 11:26 am

Re: Ministering assignments disappeared

#28

Post by Marcieb »

We have the same issue for our ministering routes. Our ministering secretary made the proposed changes permanent, and now they're all gone. I have a separate ministering assignment spreadsheet I keep that includes a few non-members who are ministered to, otherwise I would have no idea what our assignments are. I'm hoping this is a bug and that our routes and assignments are restored!
Marcieb
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Joined: Sat Aug 13, 2016 11:26 am

Re: Ministering assignments disappeared

#29

Post by Marcieb »

So I guess I should have read this last post before I replied. Are you saying that once we get that pdf backup, we will need to enter everything in manually again? Ot will this allow the ward clerk to restore it?
lajackson
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Location: US

Re: Ministering assignments disappeared

#30

Post by lajackson »

Marcieb wrote:Are you saying that once we get that pdf backup, we will need to enter everything in manually again? Ot will this allow the ward clerk to restore it?
scgallafent wrote:Last night, we completed running a process that selectively restored data for units where we could positively identify that they were affected by this issue. . . .

For units where the data wasn't restored but they want it restored, the ward clerk can contact the Global Service Center and ask to have the unit's ministering data restored from the backup. THIS WILL OVERWRITE ANY MINISTERING DATA THAT WAS ENTERED OR CHANGED AFTER THE BACKUP.
So there is no pdf backup. Your ministering assignments have already been restored if they were empty. If you made changes to ministering data after it disappeared, but before Friday, November 30, the backup was not restored.

If your ministering data right now is not the way you want it, the ward clerk can contact the Global Service Center and ask to have the data restored from the backup. This will overwrite what is there today.

So the clerk needs to decide. Keep it as it is now and continue to correct it, or start over again from the way data was before the glitch. If you want to start over from just before the glitch, call the GSC.
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