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

[TheCotMan]

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

A user has reported that mail from the forums is not coming to them.

I've verified that the forums are unable to pass mail to the Internet at this time, so password resets, and new user account requests are "stuck" until that is fixed.

[Edit: Removed manual work-around]

[Edit: added]
Just got word that they are looking at email right now to find the problem, It may be an hour or so before there is another update.

[TheCotMan]

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

Mail from forums appears to be working again. Please let us know if you see otherwise.

[The Dark Tangent]

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

There is going to be some down time today and tomorrow.. possibly this weekend.

In preparation for the summer surge I am adding more memory to a server and updating the router IOS and firewall software as well as moving all the systems into a different rack.

The first stage is just creating backups and getting new configs ready, but just want to give everyone a heads up!

[TheCotMan]

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

Separate from the above, there is going to be some scheduled maintenance coming up next week:

In the evening on Wednesday June 10th and Thursday morning, June 11th 2009 there may be service interruptions to access several defcon.org servers.

There will be no need to scratch pentagrams in the ground with chalk, perform ritualistic animal sacrifice and chant the bogeymen away but hey, if you really want to do those things in your own time, I won't stop you.

Thanks!

[TheCotMan]

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

If I can stay awake long enough, there will be maintenance on the forums tonight between 11:00pm and midnight pacific time.

[TheCotMan]

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

Most of the maintenance is complete. I have a few more things to get done, like backups.

This is a test... can I still post?

Maintenance completed.

[TheCotMan]

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

We've never had a contest with lots of traffic canceled after the forum was created, so I don't know what the best method is for dealing with this.

Initially, the idea of dumping all the threads into "New Ideas" and then closing the forum that contained them made sense, but then that would make it difficult to find the related threads later.

So, here is an alternative:
[forum=456](CANCELED) DefconBots Robot Contest (CANCELED)[/forum]

And this is within a new forum container:
[forum=476]DC17: CANCELED Official and Unofficial Events and Contests[/forum]

I further went on to apply strike-out to the description... Is that too much? Is the new location enough? I am looking for feedback in this thread. (Please don't respond in the PUBLIC-NOTICES: thread, so it can be limited to public notices.)

Thanks!

[TheCotMan]

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

Email from forums is broken for now...

The forums cannot contact the smtp relay that it uses to send out email, so email from forums is broken, for now.

This means password reset, and new account creation won't work, and any email notified on PM receipt and updates to threads you've subscribed to won't get emailed to you either.

For now, if you have to do either, please email: defconforums@gmail.com

We can manually do what is required there until the forums can email again.

Thanks to the user that just reported this. :-)

[The Dark Tangent]

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

Network upgrade / migration is going to start today.

This means some DNS problems for the next couple days, email interruptions, etc.

I'm going to start making the major switches now, expect strangeness!

21:00 PST - Time for a food break, more changes later. Please report any performance issues, things are still being tweaked, MTU sizes checked, etc.

[TheCotMan]

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

DCG 815, and DCG816 added to the forums.

All US DCG published here are now synchronized on the forums in the Defcon Groups forum container.

[The Dark Tangent]

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

Anyone notice any difference with the forums or the site?

L3d and I made some changes to the network a few days ago, everything should be dialed in now. Does it seem faster / slower? We should have gone from 3MB/sec to about 10. (2 bonded T1 frame circuits to a 50down/10up business cable connection)

[TheCotMan]

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

This Saturday, starting at around noon, I'll be performing scheduled maintenance on the forums and pics. This may take a while, and both may be up and down over a 3 to 4 hour period from Noon to 4pm pacific time.

[TheCotMan]

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

This Saturday, starting at around noon, I'll be performing scheduled maintenance on the forums and pics. This may take a while, and both may be up and down over a 3 to 4 hour period from Noon to 4pm pacific time.

Some prep work is needed for tomorrow maintenance. At 10:30pm, both forums and pics will be down for maintenance.

I hope to finish this first test, in about 15 to 30 minutes.

[TheCotMan]

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

It took about 1 hour. There was more data to copy that I expected.

Please report any strangeness you observe between now and the next maintenance cycle on Saturday.

Thanks!

[TheCotMan]

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

Ok. I think the testing is complete. Now the main forums are going down. If I have everything staged as it should be, the forums should only be down for about 1 minute.
If not, well... you can figure out what will happen.

Downing forums at 5:50pm pacific time.