Health care website gets down time for repairs

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

WASHINGTON (AP) - It's not the sign the Obama administration wants people to see on its health overhaul website: Down for repairs.

Using overnight hours this weekend to debug the system, the Health and Human Service Department hopes to fix the technological problems that overwhelmed the launch of new health insurance markets. Glitches have frustrated millions of consumers unable to complete their applications.

Enrollment functions of the healthcare.gov site will be unavailable during off-peak hours this weekend, HHS said Friday. The department did not release a schedule for hours of operation, but a spokeswoman said the site would be taken down at 1 a.m. EDT each night for a few hours. The website will remain open for general information.

Credit card companies, banks and other online service providers regularly take down websites for repairs. That may also become a feature of the new insurance program.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131005/DA97U5RG2.html

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This photo provided by HHS shows the main landing web page for HealthCare.gov. Bedeviled by technology glitches that frustrated millions of consumers, the Obama administration is taking down its health overhaul website for repairs this weekend. Enrollment functions of the healthcare.gov site will be unavailable during off-peak hours this weekend, the Health and Human Services Department said Friday, Oct. 4. The website will remain open for general information. (AP Photo/HHS)

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Every database-driven website (other than Free Republic)

goes down for periodic maintenance - to apply patches, fixes, upgrades, etc. Whereas FR goes down when the IBM XT server crashes.

I'm sure the AP wire itself is one such site and the stringers know it's par for the course.

[Roland99]

3. XT? I think it's running an Atari 1200XL...a C64 at best!

[Paulie]

10. Healthcare.gov is not a database/content management system driven site

It's dynamically generated static pages.

http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/06/22/why-the-way-the-healthcare-gov-exchange-was-built-matters/

[Roland99]

2. Still not working after last night's shutdown

I can't get past the completely blank userprofile page after entering username/pwd

[MyNameGoesHere]

4. I hope people don't sugar coat this

and say "this is normal" "every site goes down for maintenance" This is not normal. And even more important, it should have never, ever and 20 minutes after I die, happen. What a bonehead situation that should not have happened.

[penultimate]

7. I agree, the people behind the tech side of it screwed up.

If it was just slow and if just some users were denied access, or even if the service went down for a day, that would be expected. But this system simply doesn't seem to work.


*when I say system, I'm referring to the technical stuff, not the ACA itself. I just want to make that clear.

[MyNameGoesHere]

12. " I'm referring to the technical stuff, not the ACA itself" Absolutely.

I should clarify that as well.

[Roland99]

5. I know the problem now!

They're using Oracle for their back-end!


(sorry...long-time SQL Server developer here...honestly can't stand Oracle)

[penultimate]

8. They should have used an MS Access database :P

[Roland99]

9. At this point, would it hurt??

[B2G]

11. Based on performance, I would have guessed FoxPro

Lol.

[ChromeFoundry]

14. Since they were touting this as an Open Source site...

...shouldn't they be using MySQL?

And OpenLDAP or OpenAM for the SSO capabilities?

[Pterodactyl]

6. Even a health care website needs to visit the doctor every now and then!

[ForgoTheConsequence]

13. Still can't get through.

How the fuck can it be overloaded at 11PM on a Saturday night?????????

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. Denial of Service attack?

I wonder if the website was contracted out ...

... and in which country the programming was done?

[hedgehog]

16. You were checking it out at 11PM on a Saturday night, weren't you?

Lots of other people sitting up late on Saturday!

[Posteritatis]

17. It's trying to service a third of a billion people. (nt)

[ramapo]

18. Give them a break

This is a complex system being accessed by tens of thousands of users which had to work at the flip of a switch. EVERY large application rollout has problems, often major ones. It is simply impossible to really stress test an app for what is going to happen in actual use.

I have had a lot of problems trying to get an application submitted. This morning I logged in and ran through the whole process without a glitch.

People point to Amazon, etc. as a point of comparison. There is no comparison. Amazon et al had years to develop and implement applications to satisfy their business needs. With all that, there are still problems.

I'm not sure I love the flow of the exchange process but I am fully sympathetic with the challenges and stress that the implementors are under. I am sure they are working their asses off to iron out the problems.

[tonekat]

19. This is just one limitation

They are understaffed and face a lot of roadblocks. I can't believe it's up and running at all. And yes, there will be corrections, that's what happens on big projects. Anyone who expected it to be 100% efficient upon release doesn't complain this much when software companies use them as beta-testers.