Thursday 22 May 2008

Back Up and Working

It was a power issue - thunder storms and all that jazz.  Servers in California is almost as silly as trying to launch a rocket from Florida.

Currently Down

Not sure why the server is down.  The good news is I knew about it within 5 minutes courtesy of the management guys we use.  It's being worked on right now.

Thursday 15 May 2008

Downtime over next 24 hrs

UMSF will require a PHP recompile, and alterations to Apache, to fix the missing GD library issues that are preventing new registrations and stopping the generation of thumbnails.  This should happen over the next 24 hours, and will cause some down time.

(UPDATE - All done)
Doug

Saturday 10 May 2008

I'm in

Courtesy of finding out what the hell a host file is, and how to tweak one in OSX - I'm back in, and on the new server.    Those geeky enough to know what a host file is will also know how to find out what to put in it to get it to work.  Those who are not, will have to wait for their ISP's to update.

It all seems to be working, so for now, the UMSF lifeboat blog is done.

Forum Back On

DNS hasn't refreshed to me yet - but using a proxy I can get to a umsf.com that's on the new server and all APPEARS to be working at the moment.  It may take a while to properly check it's OK - but meanwhile some of you may well be surfing onto the new server!

Doug

DNS Pointing changed

The DNS pointing is now changed.  The URL now points to the new server.   However, this may take a few hours, up to a day, to propagate around the world.

Until it's propagated to me, I can't do a full test of the forum.  I can manually navigate to it using it's IP address - however - the settings have to reflect the actual domain.  So while I can navigate to it with the IP - all the links now say umsf.com/whatever  - which means I can't test the functionality as that still points to the old server.

To make a visual differentiation between what should, in essence, be identical websites - I have add ' THE OLD SERVER' in red stamped text over the banner on the top left of the old server.   If you ctrl-refresh, you will probably still see that.


Once I'm NOT seeing it, it means I'm pointing at the new server, and I can check the settings - add a post, delete a post, add an attachment, go to the admin section, and re-open the forum.


Database copied and working

Thanks to the genius of a php script called Big Dump (yes, really) - the database is now copied across.  I left the test-forum 'open' on the new server as a test.  Once the latest DB was squirted into the new server, the test-forum went 'closed' because the setting for the server being open or closed is within the database.

Attachments, conf-global settings, and DNS pointing to go.

Doug

Backup Made... now transferring

The Gzip of the complete backup just appeared in the root of the old forum's space - and the ftp session control on the new server shows the script logged in and moving it across.

Meanwhile - it's bloody hot here today.  I'm home alone for the w'end as Helen's away with her Mum - so I don't have the car.  I sent Gizmo out to get me a drink.  She came back with 4 cans of tuna, and no change.   Stupid cat.  I'll have to go myself.   ;)


Underway

UMSF is now 'off' (Admin team will see the board, but it is offline to everyone else) - and the full backup to the new server is now underway.  That's it for 2 or 3 hours. 

The new server is already running an outdated copy of the forum, so to ready it for receiving the new stuff I will clear out the DB and the uploads folder, and run through the old Cpanel's various sections for any other settings I can take over manually.

(TV update - fortunately I can avoid 'Mission to Mars' by watching the GP2 race on ITV4.  Romain Grosjean and Javier Villa are both drivers I've had the good fortune to meet, so I'll be cheering them both on)



3 hours to go

Three hours till UMSF gets closed for the move.   Fairly confident in the process going OK - after all we did it as a practice last weekend ( just without closing and DNS pointing ) 

Next up, bacon and mushrooms on toast for breakfast, qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix, then I'm good to go.  Somewhat nervous about the fact that ITV are showing 'Mission to Mars' straight after Qualifying though.

Feel free to survive the down time by posting comments in here :)   

Thursday 8 May 2008

Cpanel FTP Full backup now working

The full backup from old UMSF to the new UMSF server just unzipped on the new server and it's fine.  3.6 Gb.  It took about 2 hours to do.  This means that the transfer on Saturday morning can go ahead no problem at all.

Server Move - May 10th-11th

First post on this blog.  News of the UMSF server move from the utterly crap imhosted.com to our new server with WebNX will be posted here.