Github: Investigating an increased number of unicorns

[hunvreus]

https://status.github.com/

[gdelente]

Github is using Unicorn as their web server. If you face the 502 error page (https://github.com/502 with the Unicorn) that only means that the Unicorn worker your request was send too took too much time to process it, and was killed. https://github.com/blog/517-unicorn Nothing crazy.

[brbcoding]

I've gotten the unicorn several times today, actually.

http://i.imgur.com/7Btc4LY.png

[ziko]

Witty attempt to be funny but the reality is that their service which isn't free is down. I don't see the funny side.

[dalore → ziko]

I don't think they were trying to be funny. I think it's just jargon talk. I work with unicorns all day and this didn't strike me as an attempt at humour, more as a technical description of what is going on.

[nosequel → dalore]

When storage availability is degraded and I can't even clone my repositories (not using the web interface at all) it is pretty enraging to see the status page and twitter account talking about angry unicorns. I get that ruby devs understand this, but not all of us who use Github know or care about them using Unicorn as their webserver. It seems to us like they are trying to be cute and funny at a poor time.

[qwerty_asdf → dalore]

I agree. It's a perfectly cromulent description of the problem at hand.

[adamlj]

$ git push origin master error: The requested URL returned error: 403 while accessing https://github.com/[..].git/info/refs fatal: HTTP request failed

Is it just me or has this happend a few too many times the last months?

edit: My push got through, but now I'm getting the Unicorn again..

[munimkazia]

Oh well.. Time to take that coffee break

[mahmud → munimkazia]

It will be a very long one. I have been idle for the last 2 hours.

[zalew → munimkazia]

a break from reading hn?

[munimkazia → zalew]

Heh, you caught me there. I don't actually work on long stretches. I usually check HN, Twitter, reddit after every 15-20 minutes of work. I can't concentrate for longer than that.

[weavie]

Looks like they're running out of hard drive space.

[camus]

what's up with unicorns anyway ? i dont get it. Did i miss a reference to something ?

[evilduck → camus]

Github likely uses it because: http://unicorn.bogomips.org/

Why that project chose the name unicorn is another question though.

[benwoody → evilduck]

Yep! And here is a blog post on how Github uses Unicorns: https://github.com/blog/517-unicorn

[mdisraeli → camus]

As the above link (http://i.imgur.com/7Btc4LY.png) shows, they display a picture of a unicorn on their error pages.

I wouldn't ready any more into it than I'd read into a rabbit with pancakes on it's head (http://uwcs.co.uk/static/img/404.jpg)

[frugalfirbolg → camus]

Not sure, but I thought when I looked at the charts that the spikes to higher latency and exception rates looked like unicorn horns poking over the horizon.

[undergrowth54 → camus]

Perhaps they are Scottish? The unicorn is a national animal of Scotland.

[lotsofcows → undergrowth54]

Well, it's on the coat of arms. I suspect if you asked the average Scot what the national animal was they'd say Golden Eagle or Stag.

[jbrooksuk → camus]

Brony reference perhaps?

[lmm → jbrooksuk]

Doesn't look very MLP-ish in expression. I'd suspect the Invisible Pink Unicorn, except that this one's, well, visible. Perhaps a Robot Unicorn Attack reference?

[jbrooksuk → lmm]

Maybe it's the Unicorn instances running on their servers?