DBEDT Web site fix found

A vendor working with the state says it has discovered why the server for the local government's most popular Web site has been crashing for the past month, and state officials say they hope to have a fix in place by Monday.

The Internet site for the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism is expected to be transferred off a faulty computer server to a new one, eliminating the crashing problem and allowing the agency to regain editing access to the site, according to Mark Lane, chief executive of Empowerosity, the company working with the state to fix the problem.

For about the past month, DBEDT has been unable to update the bulk of its data on the Web site, www.hawaii.gov/dbedt, because the server typically would crash when such attempts were made.

The server also would crash at other times without warning, and the Department of Accounting and General Services, which hosts DBEDT's Web site, wasn't sure why.

Even though the problem inconvenienced many people who rely on the site for economic data and other information, it took nearly a month to determine that the cause was a corrupted operating system on the server, according to officials.

Empowerosity, which created DBEDT's Web site, was only brought in recently by the state to do extensive troubleshooting to help resolve the problem.

Lane said the cause was difficult to pinpoint because the crashes only occurred when a high enough level of load usage was placed on the server.

He likened the problem to a car owner hearing strange noises coming from the vehicle's engine, but whenever the car is taken to a mechanic, the noise isn't heard.

"There's not really anyone to blame," Lane said.

When asked why it took so long to discover what was causing the problem, Lane said, "That's a very good question that I can't understand."

Russ Saito, DAGS director, said the troubleshooting efforts in retrospect should have been more intense in the beginning. Saito and DBEDT Director Ted Liu agreed that a Web site limping along for a month was unacceptable.

"We're trying to set things in motion that will prevent something like this from happening again," Saito said.

Saito told the Star-Bulletin Thursday that his agency had checked the server in question and its related software, and everything appeared to be working properly.

Lane said he understood how the agency could have missed what was causing the problem, noting that DAGS's troubleshooting didn't replicate the high load demands.

Lane said officials don't know why the server's operating system became corrupted.

He said Empowerosity staff worked extensively on the problem this week and discovered the cause Thursday evening. Lane met yesterday with state officials to discuss the fix.

The goal is to have DBEDT's Web site transferred to the new server and to become fully functional by Monday, he added.

If the transfer and the related software adjustments take care of the problem, that will be the permanent fix, DBEDT's Liu said.