Hey guys! 👋
Today’s story is every developer’s worst nightmare… but it actually happened.
Imagine this:
👉 You run a command
👉 And suddenly… your entire production database is gone
Now imagine…
👉 Thousands of people are watching it happen LIVE 😭
💡 What Was Going On?
Back in 2017, GitLab (a platform used by developers worldwide) was facing some database issues.
Engineers were trying to fix replication problems.
Nothing unusual.
Just a normal “let’s fix production” situation.
⚠️ The Moment Everything Broke
During debugging…
An engineer ran a command to clean up some data.
But instead of deleting a small part…
👉 It deleted the primary production database
Yes. The main one.
😳 “No Problem, We Have Backups”… Right?
At this point, everyone thought:
👉 “Relax… just restore backup”
But here’s the twist:
- Backups were outdated ❌
- Some were corrupted ❌
- Recovery was not straightforward ❌
👉 Basically… the backup plan also needed a backup
🌐 And Yes… It Was LIVE
Now this is what makes the story legendary.
Instead of hiding the issue…
👉 GitLab started a live stream
They:
- Showed the real problem
- Tried to fix it in real-time
- Explained every step
👉 The entire internet watched engineers panic-debug 😅
🔄 The Recovery Struggle
Engineers tried everything:
- Restoring partial backups
- Rebuilding database state
- Recovering lost data manually
It took hours of effort…
Finally:
👉 Most of the data was recovered
But the damage?
👉 Already done.
🧠 What Actually Went Wrong?
A combination of issues:
- Running risky commands directly in production
- Lack of proper safeguards
- Weak backup verification
👉 One small mistake + poor preparation = big outage
🎯 The Real Lesson
This story is funny… but also painful.
As a developer, remember:
- Never trust backups blindly
- Always test recovery process
- Limit direct access to production
- Add confirmations for dangerous actions
🚀 Final Thought
In coding, everyone says:
👉 “It won’t happen to me”
But reality says:
👉 “Just wait…” 😄
Even top companies like **GitLab can fail.
The difference is:
👉 How you handle it when things go wrong
💬 Let’s Talk
Be honest 😄
Have you ever:
- Run a command you instantly regretted?
- Broken something important by mistake?
Drop your story below 👇
Let’s share some real dev pain!
