Due to a server migration at our forum host, and my not reading my personal emails on time, there has been a bit of an oopsie.
Forum was down for a few hours this morning, and due to complicated reasons (not reading emails mostly) we are stuck with a forum snapshot dated 22-JUN-2020.
Any posts, chats etc between 22nd, and today, have been lost to the nether, and there's no simple way to retrieve them.
If you have posted something important in that time window, I'm afraid you'll have to do it again.
soz m8.
Awh shucks! Please read!!!
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/by Shevron » 04 Jul 2020, 12:17
Awh shucks! Please read!!!
"Whomsoever takes up this blade shall wield power eternal. Just as the blade rends flesh, so must power scar the spirit."
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Shevron - Resident Grump
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- Location: A cave in Northrend
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Serendipity - Blorgh.
- Posts: 6472
- Location: At work, usually.
/by Gergel » 05 Jul 2020, 12:51
To be fair, much of this is the fault of the hosting provider. It went approximately like this.
The email said basically:
"We are going to migrate your web services to a new host on a new IP address.
"In addition to this, we are also going to change the authoritative DNS servers of the rnp-moonglade.net domain. It's your responsibility to update the NS records of your domain."
What they did not do is say, "even though your domain is registered with us and we could do it ourselves transparently."
This "manually update the NS records yourself" bit is what Shevron accidentally missed. And let me reiterate: our domain is hosted with the same provider as our web service, so they could have just changed the NS records by themselves.
In fact, they did some kind of weird switchover of authoritative DNS servers, where the old and new ones never got synced and for ten days contained conflicting data.
At the time of the notified migration, the hosting provider copied the web content and the databases to the new host+IP. But they did not shut anything down on the old host+IP. The forum remained running and operational and we kept on using it for ten days without knowing any better.
On Friday/Saturday night, they finally shut down the old service, which prompted Shevron and I to investigate, determine the issue, and perform the necessary manual changes. Of course the new host has the forum content from the time of the migration. Stuff between June 22 and July 4 is missing.
Unfortunately the old host is now completely inaccessible, which means we can no longer get the database with the intermediate posts/chats. Because of the very low volume of traffic and new posts in the forum, Shevron and I decided to accept the loss and continue like this, instead of attempting to get a backup of the old server's database from the host.
So, what should the hosting provider have done better?
1. Hard shutdown the web service on the old host. When we try to log into the forum after migration and it's not accessible, we will have a lot more motivation to (re-)read the pertinent emails and do any and all switchover tasks on our end.
2. Manage DNS changeover correctly. If you want to change the authoritative DNS servers, synchronize the old and new ones for a while so you don't end up with a split-brain situation.
3. If you are willing to perform some DNS changes (forum hostname A record) for the customer, just perform them all (NS records).
The email said basically:
"We are going to migrate your web services to a new host on a new IP address.
"In addition to this, we are also going to change the authoritative DNS servers of the rnp-moonglade.net domain. It's your responsibility to update the NS records of your domain."
What they did not do is say, "even though your domain is registered with us and we could do it ourselves transparently."
This "manually update the NS records yourself" bit is what Shevron accidentally missed. And let me reiterate: our domain is hosted with the same provider as our web service, so they could have just changed the NS records by themselves.
In fact, they did some kind of weird switchover of authoritative DNS servers, where the old and new ones never got synced and for ten days contained conflicting data.
At the time of the notified migration, the hosting provider copied the web content and the databases to the new host+IP. But they did not shut anything down on the old host+IP. The forum remained running and operational and we kept on using it for ten days without knowing any better.
On Friday/Saturday night, they finally shut down the old service, which prompted Shevron and I to investigate, determine the issue, and perform the necessary manual changes. Of course the new host has the forum content from the time of the migration. Stuff between June 22 and July 4 is missing.
Unfortunately the old host is now completely inaccessible, which means we can no longer get the database with the intermediate posts/chats. Because of the very low volume of traffic and new posts in the forum, Shevron and I decided to accept the loss and continue like this, instead of attempting to get a backup of the old server's database from the host.
So, what should the hosting provider have done better?
1. Hard shutdown the web service on the old host. When we try to log into the forum after migration and it's not accessible, we will have a lot more motivation to (re-)read the pertinent emails and do any and all switchover tasks on our end.
2. Manage DNS changeover correctly. If you want to change the authoritative DNS servers, synchronize the old and new ones for a while so you don't end up with a split-brain situation.
3. If you are willing to perform some DNS changes (forum hostname A record) for the customer, just perform them all (NS records).
What kind of sick individual burns a book full of perfectly good dark arts?!
- Darkscryer Raastok
- Darkscryer Raastok
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Gergel - Gergel Cosmic Smash!
- Posts: 1995
- Location: Estonia
/by Gergel » 05 Jul 2020, 19:45
Was this your avatar? I'm afraid I don't remember offhand. It's from a pretty old previous forum backup version.
If you have the correct image or know the link to it, please try re-uploading the image or re-applying the link in your profile. Other onsite avatars (such as myself, Shevron and so on) seem to work properly. I'm afraid I have no idea why yours is b0rken.
If you have the correct image or know the link to it, please try re-uploading the image or re-applying the link in your profile. Other onsite avatars (such as myself, Shevron and so on) seem to work properly. I'm afraid I have no idea why yours is b0rken.
What kind of sick individual burns a book full of perfectly good dark arts?!
- Darkscryer Raastok
- Darkscryer Raastok
-
Gergel - Gergel Cosmic Smash!
- Posts: 1995
- Location: Estonia
-
Serendipity - Blorgh.
- Posts: 6472
- Location: At work, usually.
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