# What happens at 4:00 AM CDT?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-4-00-am-cdt/189092>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [July 17, 2003, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-4-00-am-cdt/189092 "2003-07-17T06:53:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-4-00-am-cdt/189092/1 "2003-07-17T06:53:36Z")

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Around 4:00 AM CDT, the SDMB shuts down. Try to access the site, and you get the standard vBulletin database error page. Around 5:00, the site is up and running again.

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**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-4-00-am-cdt/189092/2 "2003-07-17T07:00:56Z")

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From the FAQ:

> [@](#):
>
> Q: Could [the board] be slow because of board maintenance?  
> A: Usually board maintenance is at the same time every night - from 03:30 to about 04:15 (Chicago, Illinois, USA time) the database is locked down so that we can capture a consistent backup. Due to the current hardware configuration the old system of modifying the status of the SDMB to present a “down for maintenance” screen is no longer in place.  
> Any special maintenance done by the Information Services (IS) team at the Chicago Reader office could happen unexpectedly and we (SDMB staff / posters) might not always be notified of it.

The server clock is about eight minutes slow, currently, so the downtime starts at 03:38 CT and lasts to about 04:22. In my experience, you’ll get a timeout for about the first half of the downtime, and the standard database error page that you mention for the second half.

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**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-4-00-am-cdt/189092/3 "2003-07-17T07:07:02Z")

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Thanks. I missed the FAQ.