OSgrid announced yesterday that it had gone into emergency long-term maintenance after discovering that “all IAR files were corrupted.”
This is really bad news for residents who haven’t yet had time to download inventory backups ahead of the grid’s previously announced March 21 database reset. OSgrid is now closed immediately and indefinitely.
“Unfortunately, the current situation has become unsustainable,” the OSgrid team said in the announcement. “After careful analysis, it became clear that it was no longer feasible to keep OSgrid online under these conditions.”
The corruption of Inventory Archive (IAR) files is significant as many residents used these files to back up their inventory ahead of planned asset deletion. Users who have not already protected their content through alternative methods may now suffer permanent loss.
Planned for total rebuild
Considering the new challenges, grid managers decided to completely rebuild the asset system from scratch.
Assets can include objects, clothing, textures, and other items that grid residents store in their avatar inventory. Some assets may have been purchased from OpenSim content creators and may represent a financial investment. Other assets that represent time, effort, and creativity may have been created from scratch by you. As a result, some residents may be hit hard by the loss.
“We have decided to completely rebuild the asset into a new format to address ongoing challenges and deliver a much stronger and more sustainable infrastructure,” the announcement said.
Unlike the previous schedule, which promised a March 28 return, the team now describes the rebuild as “long and meticulous”, with no specific restart date provided.
“We plan to take the time necessary to ensure that the results are reliable, functional and, most importantly, safe,” the OSgrid team said.
Impact on OpenSim users
This sudden shutdown has accelerated the schedule for OSgrid users who were planning to back up their content. Users who created OpenSim archive files (OARs) for that region or transferred items to avatars in other grids will no longer have access to that content.
The situation particularly affects users who:
- I had a backup scheduled in the next few days or weeks.
- I was relying on Grid’s IAR export tool.
- Items were placed in a dedicated storage area set up for conversion.
For the wider OpenSim ecosystem, this emergency closure could increase migration pressure on other grids that have been preparing for a gradual influx of migrating users.
Kitely CEO Ilan Tochner also warns that as other grids become more popular, they may suffer from similar data issues and may need to reexamine their backup policies.
“The entire system needs to be backed up daily to restore it to its last stable state,” he said. Hypergrid business. “If you don’t do this and rely solely on data replication, you will have uncorrupted copies of your files to restore when corruption occurs.”
Kitely said it runs daily backups of all its systems and that Kitely region owners may request that their region be restored from that backup for any reason. This allows people to recover from building accidents without having to manually back up their areas to an OAR file.
“We recommend that any OSGrid user who loses their home considers the data backup policy of the grid they decide to move to,” Tochner said. “The more people using the grid, the more likely it is that we will need to utilize backup systems.”
As the third largest grid by area, Kitely also serves as OpenSim’s primary content marketplace.
Currently, Kitely Market has 20,954 product listings with 41,054 product variants, 35,814 of which can be exported to other grids. Kitely Market users can have their purchases automatically delivered to avatars in other grids. Kitely Market has delivered orders to 642 OpenSim grids to date, Tochner said.
Kitely Market said it also provides sellers with tools to help customers reclaim items they purchased for avatars on the grid that have been shut down or have suffered inventory loss.
volunteer support
OSgrid is run entirely by volunteers and management has asked for the community’s understanding during this difficult period. “It’s important to remember that OSgrid is run by volunteers who have a deep passion and commitment to the platform. But it’s also important to keep in mind that our team is made up of real people, parents and professionals who live outside of their roles within OSgrid.”
The team promised to provide regular updates on progress, but did not say how often these updates would be provided or through which channels.
OSGrid’s history of challenges
This isn’t OSgrid’s first major disruption. In 2014 and 2015, the grid experienced prolonged outages that lasted several months, during which significant amounts of user data were lost.
The current situation looks potentially more dire as the grid is completely rebuilding its asset systems rather than repairing existing infrastructure.
Founded in 2007, OSgrid has served as a social hub and technical testing ground for OpenSim development. As one of the largest hypergrid-enabled virtual worlds, its absence will be felt throughout the OpenSim ecosystem.
For those affected by this closure, other OpenSim grids including Wolf Territories, Kitely, and Alternate Metaverse have previously offered assistance in housing displaced populations.
