Confluence Error - Non Clustered Confluence: Database is being updated by another Confluence instance

So we had an interesting one earlier today - luckily it didn't take too long to troubleshoot, but it wasn't included in any of the Confluence support resource, so thought I'd share it here.

We use a single instance of Atlassian Confluence to host our internal IT Wiki - not critical but very important for the team as all of our process and procedures are stored here, along with all of our detailed infrastructure information.

The following message appeared when we tried to open the Wiki page:


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Confluence

You cannot access Confluence at present. Look at the table below to identify the reasons.

Type
cluster

Description Non Clustered Confluence: Database is being updated by another Confluence instance. Please see http://confluence.atlassian.com/x/mwiyCg for more details.Your server id is: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX


Exception


Level
fatal

Time
local time

This page will automatically update every 60 seconds.

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The online support suggests all sorts of troubleshooting but none of this was effective. Turns out, the transactions logs had grown too large and needed clearing down. Simples! 

I hope this helps reduce the troubleshooting time you spend on a similar issue! 

CISSP (part 3/3)

Passed!

I took the exam in London as planned, very nerve-wracking and took about 3.5 hours. Of the 250, I was sure that I'd answered about 40% correctly, another 40% I though should be OK and the last 20% I didn't want to ever see again! I revisited about 70 questions, second guessed myself a few times and then un-guessed a few of those. By the end of the exam, I wasn't confident of passing or failing - my eyes were starting to un-focus and my brain was fried...

You don't find out until you leave the examination hall if you passed or failed, and if you passed you only get a 'pass' - no score to say how well! If you fail, they'll let you know how you did on each CBK domain, allowing you to focus your future study.

The feeling of elation when they tell you that you've passed is great - I certainly didn't want to have to retake the exam. The next step is to get endorsed and I was able to get this done by a CISSP that I've worked with before who stands in good stead and was impressed with my work and knowledge when we worked together. 5 weeks wait before the confirmation email arrived and another 7 weeks before the certificate arrived in the post.

For those of you about to start studying, or currently preparing for the exam, here is a quick description of my study process:

• I used the CISSP exam study books for reference only - it's not written in an easy-to-read way and by the time you'd finish reading the entire book you'd have forgotten all of the content from the beginning anyway. Find a weak area and use these books to flesh out your knowledge. 
• The 11th Hour Eric Conrad book (know this inside out) - the content in this book came up more often than content from the official study book - but you'll need to know everything that's in there.  
• Skillset & CCCure for very simple and basic exam questions - they're not really anything like the real exam questions but tests your basic knowledge of all the domains. If you can use these to focus your study on your weak areas - I made sure I was hitting 80%+ for each exam I was doing before I booked the exam. 

The exam questions are not the simplest to decipher - make sure you take the time to read each question twice and then make sure that answer is the 'best fit' for the question as there may be more than one correct answer (one will be a better fit than the other though!). Examples here may include questions about encryption or a transmission protocol - there are more than one of each but one will be better suited as a solution to that specific question.

So take your time, know your stuff, be confident and I wish you the best of luck! 

Time to focus on my CPEs now - 40 per year to keep the qualification!

CISSP (part 2/3)

I recently wrote a short blog on my plans to attain my CISSP certification. I was planning to attend a week long revision course (remotely) and then plan my final few weeks of revision before taking the exam.

I've taken the week long course and feel much more confident than I did before hand on the whole CISSP CBKs. I've been working as an IS Admin / Sys Admin / Infrastructure manager / IS dogs-body for upwards of 10 years since I left uni and this experience is definitely given me a broad knowledge of IS security. My recent experience in setting up a Business Continuity Suite and the organisations Disaster Recovery plans was, I thought, going to ensure I knew most of the Risk Management section - but I was very wrong! The CISSP is all about what you have to do to identify, quantify and address risks and includes a raft of equations (not difficult) and possible models for getting this done.

Having spent a week looking at the CISSP exam, I'm getting the feeling that it is a lot of 'read-this-remember-that'. I wasn't under any illusions, I knew it wasn't very hands-on but thought it would be a little more in-depth than it is.

In a nutshell - there's a heck of a lot to learn (mile wide, inch deep) but my general experience in IS over the last 10 years, including 6 of those with a focus on BC, risk management and ISMS will definitely stand me in good stead. I'm not reading the huge exam books from cover to cover, but rather going through the smaller 11th hour and exam cram books - following that up with a focus on the things I know I'm not hugely knowledgeable about yet (e.g. Encryption). I'm slowly getting all of my practice exam scores up into the 80%+ range which is where I want them all to be before taking the exam. Which is booked for October, so watch this space!