Google CloudSQL instance non-responsive, how to get support?

2
votes

When it comes to databases, we want to leave managing them to the pros, which is why we went for a managed solution in the form of a CloudSQL 2nd gen db instance. Today the instance stopped responding, I clicked restart, it has been restarting for hours and is not responding, I have tried clone the instance, also not responding.

I don't know what else to do, our db is crippled and the service that uses it is down. These things happen, fine.

The thing that shocked me is that I am unable to contact anybody to resolve this problem. I understand that I can pay for a support subscription, $150p/m and up. This confuses me though, the GCloud console UI is not responding, am I incorrect in assuming I should not have to pay for support for the core product to at least work?

This leads me to my main question, if I want to continue using Google Cloud products in production, do I NEED a support subscription?

3
google-cloud-platformgoogle-cloud-sql
The Cloud SQL team encourages users to use Stack Overflow to ask questions for troubleshooting. For privacy sensitive issues, a support package is needed. The email alias [email protected] can be used as well but the support from that channel is not guaranteed. – Herman
Thanks for your response Herman, I understand this, in cases where users have small production deployments, and some event causes a critical outage (such as a db going down), is a support subscription the only means of getting a quick response? – AlnDvs
Happened to us today. Production Cloud 2nd generation. Seems that the culprit is "[Note] InnoDB: page_cleaner: 1000ms intended loop took 5087ms. The settings might not be optimal." Too bad no one in the team touched that setting so no one saw that coming. – Claudio
@AlnDvs, yes, a quick response is only guaranteed by a support subscription. – Herman

3 Answers

1
votes

Same happened to us yesterday. The cloud SQL instance did not respond for an hour and a half (from 18h to 19:30h GTM+1).

We couldn't do absolutely nothing, we tried to backup the instance to a bucket but the command was returning an error saying that another operation is in progress.

We are a small startup and we can't pay for a support plan, but when we hired the cloud SQL service we thought that this kind of situations doesn't happen.

Honestly, after this I believe that Cloud SQL is not a good option if you do not contract at the same time a gold or platinum support plan. It is frustrating that something fails and you can not do anything, or even report the error.

0
votes

Try the gcloud command line tool in your active shell, instead of the console UI. Try exporting the data from your SQL instance to google cloud storage bucket by using this command:

gcloud sql instances \
export <sql-instnace-name> \
gs://<bucket-name>/backup.sql

The SQL instance's service account by default has read and write access to google cloud storage bucket.

Create a new SQL instance using this command:

gcloud sql instances \
create <new-sql-instance-name>

Now, add the data to the new SQL instance using this command:

gcloud sql instances \
import <new-sql-instance-name> \
gs://<bucket-name>/backup.sql
0
votes

You can get free or premium support here. You do not need a subscription to get help; it all depends on your needs and the level of urgency you estimate for eventual future problems.

If you have a recent backup of your database, you may consider re-creating it in another instance, from there.

You may consider posting your issue in the Google Cloud SQL Product Issue Tracker. This way, it will enjoy much better visibility from developers and Google support, without attracting any extra costs.