Having RE / Hosting Issues?

Joanie Rogers

Hi all,

Has anyone been experiencing issues in RE that just seem odd?  Last week we ran a series of queries that we run every other month with no issues.  It should have produced a little over 2,000 records and we got just under 900.  So we waited a day and sure enough it was fine the next day.  Then our assistant was running a batch applying pledge payments.  A fund that has been in our system forever, couldn't be seen.  Again we waited a day and it was find the next day.


Just now, I tried to get out of a record and had the donor screen blend with the home screen. Screenshot attached. 


Support couldn't give me any explanation for the query and fund issue last week.  I haven't called yet about today's issue.  I wanted to create a case, but it looks like they removed the button to create a case.....forcing you to call or use chat. 


Frustrated!

David Springer

Joanie Rogers:

Hi all,

Has anyone been experiencing issues in RE that just seem odd?  Last week we ran a series of queries that we run every other month with no issues.  It should have produced a little over 2,000 records and we got just under 900.  So we waited a day and sure enough it was fine the next day.  Then our assistant was running a batch applying pledge payments.  A fund that has been in our system forever, couldn't be seen.  Again we waited a day and it was find the next day.


Just now, I tried to get out of a record and had the donor screen blend with the home screen. Screenshot attached. 


Support couldn't give me any explanation for the query and fund issue last week.  I haven't called yet about today's issue.  I wanted to create a case, but it looks like they removed the button to create a case.....forcing you to call or use chat. 


Frustrated!

Hi Joanie! 


While the query and batch behavior you're describing definitely sound odd, they don't sound like anything that would be caused by the hosted environment. More often, issues like that come from changes in security rights (one user who doesn't have access to a given fund or constituent code, for example) or changes to the query/records themselves. 


Since you mention the queries have been run every month, it could also be that they've gotten old and need to be recreated. Sometimes if the same process is run many times (like a query, report, or batch template), it can become less reliable. If that's the case with the queries and batch, and it happens for the same ones again, it may help to recreate them. 


The screen shot you attached looks like a connectivity blip to me. It can happen on local installations too, and usually means that the screen behind the recently closed window just hasn't loaded yet. If it continues to happen, you're welcome to call in or chat with support and we'd be happy to help get to the bottom of it. 

Patrick Manning 2

Joanie, we've had a lot of problems with our hosted database/access lately:

 - Plug-ins that we frequently run simply disappear.  We can reboot and sometimes they would re-appear but other times we have to contact Support.  They do "something" and the next day the plug-in appears.

 - We lost two full days of gift entry (and gift editing) because RE would crash for all users that did anything with gifts.  The third business day, everything was back to normal while BB support had no explanation and was still researching the issue.

 - Sporatically, when someone would try to open an individual record, their RE would crash.  All users for this one record.  The next day, everything was back to normal (again, BB support had no explanation and was still researching the issue).  This has happened a few times this year, different individual records but same results.  And never an explanation.

 - Run a report once, no problem.  Run the same report a few minutes later and RE crashes and the user is locked out.


When you add these strange issues with the lack of communication from support, and throw in the slow (at times unusable) performance, we're likely going to leave Blackbaud Hosting.  In my opinion, their hosting solution is a disaster and there is ZERO light at the end of this tunnel.  While the NXT web view will be missed by our fundraisers, this is how bad the hosting experience has been.