Disruption to departmental and module mailing lists

Summary

During routine system maintenance, the MySQL database that stores our mailing list data was shut down and upgraded. At the same time, the automated process responsible for updating the membership of each mailing list was still running. Because the database became unavailable during this process, the resulting data became inconsistent.

To ensure accuracy and reliability, the entire mailing lists database was rebuilt using our automated scripts.

What Happened

• Scheduled maintenance required shutting down and upgrading the MySQL database.
• The process that updates mailing list membership was running at the time.
• With the database unavailable mid‑update, the data was left in an inconsistent state.
• Once identified, a full database rebuild was initiated to restore correct membership information.

Resolution

• A complete rebuild of the mailing lists database was carried out.
• Post‑rebuild checks confirmed that all mailing lists and their memberships were accurate and up to date.
• No further issues were detected after validation.

Next Steps

We will review the coordination between maintenance activities and background processes to reduce the risk of similar inconsistencies during future maintenance periods.