PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

[TheCotMan]

Re: Poor forums box..

Is still unhappy. We hope to switch it in the next week.

Very unhappy. you (DT) had even more problems trying to bring up again this last time, and we are starting to see corruption in the darabase data for the forum content.

I have a copy of the DB archives from last night and now (except for this post) being copied off-site as I type this post.

Everything after this point is at risk for being lost if the forums box dies again like it did twice today.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

This is the test server. Anything posted here is at risk for being lost when the next backup from the old forums server is imported into this system's db.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

This is the test server. Anything posted here is at risk for being lost when the next backup from the old forums server is imported into this system's db.

This is the NEW forums Server - TESTING

This is the new forums server that is being tested for functionality. Please be aware that anything posted for the next few hours is subject to deletion assuming we can get the old forums up long enough to extract a copy of the database for import here.

If you want to post, I suggest waiting until after 10:00pm Pacific time, when we'll probably give up or be finished with an import.

If you encounter any problems or bugs, please report them to defconforums@gmail.com.

Known issues:

* Mail is broken. This means new users can't sign up for acounts because email confirmation does not work. This also means email notice of new PM, new posts in subscribed threads, etc. is also broken. Mail is being examined to find the cause. The last word is that it is close to being done.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Mail seems to be working.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

DT is still trying to get the old forums box back up so we can get a up-to-date copy of the DB and import it here.

[The Dark Tangent]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

So I have given up.. after an hour or so it's still not stable after boot. I say we go with what we got.

DT is still trying to get the old forums box back up so we can get a up-to-date copy of the DB and import it here.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

So I have given up.. after an hour or so it's still not stable after boot. I saw wek go with what we got.

Thanks for trying. :-)


Okie dokie. Forums are open for business. What you see is what we have.

The new forums (what you see) have a copy of forum content on the old box as of 9:14:25pm. The old forums died for their last time today ~2:57 (before I could do a backup at 3:00pm.)

This is nearly 18 hours of lost content. If you remember posting something after July 20, 2005 @ 9:14:25pm, please repost it. (Same goes with PM.)

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Please post bugs related to the move here:

1) https gets dropps with certain links and reverts connections back to http. It seems to happen when clicking on "go to most recent unread post in this thread" and "take me to last post in this thread" but there may be other places. If you notice other places that this happens, please let me know.

2) The little defcon icon seems to be broken on the new forums server. Needs to be fixed.

what else?

[Voltage Spike]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

1) https gets dropps with certain links and reverts connections back to http. It seems to happen when clicking on "go to most recent unread post in this thread" and "take me to last post in this thread" but there may be other places. If you notice other places that this happens, please let me know.

Users drop out of https after posting a public or private message.

Users drop out of https after performing a search.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Users drop out of https after posting a public or private message.

Users drop out of https after performing a search.

Yep. I now know the exact cause of this problem, and have submitted an e-mail to DT with what needs to be changed, to see if he can fix it. The problem is, his time is at a premium now and he may not be able to get around to it.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Expect an outage tonight at 8:00pm pacific time (~25 minutes from now)

Forums are expected to only be down for up to 15 minutes.

Thanks for your patience.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Expect an outage tonight at 8:00pm pacific time (~25 minutes from now)

Forums are expected to only be down for up to 15 minutes.

Thanks for your patience.

I lied. I did not know the exact cause. DT informed me that the thing I wanted configured a certain way was configured that way already.

Crap. I suck. It seems, There was a single web server configuration that was stated later in the file that overrode what I wanted as expected behavior.

My fault for this one.

Except for use of the [ and "url=" and ] to specify static paths to other forum content, I think this problem is once again fixed.

Looks like the icons for the forums is working too.

Any new problems? Report them here.

[Voltage Spike]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Except for use of the [ and "url=" and ] to specify static paths to other forum content, I think this problem is once again fixed.

Just a reminder that the forum software allows the use of [post= and [thread= to link to posts (no need to copy and paste the URL). You can find the absolute post number by hovering over the relative number of a post in the upper right corner (the p= parameter) and the thread number from the t= paramter in your URL when viewing a thread.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Good reminder. In my early days on the forums, I used url= instead of post= and thread=. post= and thread= are much better since they work for people with different user setitings for message browsing, and work for http or https users equally well.

On another note, Thanks to Dark Tangent for buying the new server, and the countess interruptions to his daily life, where server resets and coaxing was needed to bring the failing server back up each time it failed caused him to stop what he was doing and bring back the server. On the very last day of failure on the old server, I hear he spent from 1 to 2 hours trying to reset the box so we could get the 20 hours of lost posts back. Unfortunately, it did not cooperate.

Thanks also to Dark Tangent for buying the new server, buying the SSL Cert for the Server, buying the license for the software we use, buying the fIlters and hardware to support the new server, and buying the bandwidth that we all use-- this stuff isn't cheap.

He has also spent time on the new server to help make sure it worked for us.

The new server appears to be even more zippy under a load than the old server.
Cheers to DT for all of his hardwork in making this migration work, and buying all of the things that make the forums we use possible.

No new problems have been reported, and things seem to be working. Backups of the DB are once again Automated, and all public forum services are working.

Thanks to you (forum members) for being patient with the crappy old hardware, down time, and the last failure which lead to lost posts. (The first time we have lost posts in a very long time.) Thanks to you all for helping the forums work, and giving us the lowest period for the lowest average in /dev/nulling of posts since the first few months the forums went live. Thanks to you all for helping to make the forums a kick ass defcon tool.

You all have made the forums a great place to discuss and plan for Defcon.


[Added:]
Oh yeah. And thanks to beer. :-)

[converge]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Cheers to DT for all of his hardwork in making this migration work, and buying all of the things that make the forums we use possible.

.. and all this while time crunches closer to Blackhat and Defcon .. thanks DT. It really does mean a lot.

And to TheCotMan as well, who seemed to roll with every reboot of the forum server, spent excessive energy rebuilding the new box and humoring misc hounding every time the forums burped.

I know it kinda bites that you missed saving the data by several minutes, but much more would have been lost had it not been for your persistance; and there would likely be either null or crutched forums throughout the con without your compile-fu.

Deep breath, time to enjoy the con!