Safety net for our server - robustness planning

[whole diary]

[grahame]

A duck swims serenely on a flowing river and that's a sight of great beauty and elegance, but under the surface the duck's feet are kicking like mad to keep it there. And this forum is somewhat similar - there's the moderator and admin stuff and a deeper server maintenance level too.  And the software being over-mature at the moment means that occasionally things go wrong and rather like a heritage locomotive need hitting with a hammer to loosen something up or very, very rarely a bit of welding.

I'm away for a few weeks in the autumn and I know that whilst I'll be able to see the server and contribute / do moderator and admin work, I won't be able to get at the deeper stuff.  Red Squirrel has kindly agreed to be available as an emergency accessor, and also to take off site backups on a weekly basis. With his Linux knowledge, a map of roughly what's where on the serve, and some tips on which points need hitting with a hammer far more than I like, he'll be providing a significantly reassuring second string support while I'm away.  He visited on Friday and we've been through what's where, and he'll be logging in / having a look around and trying a bit of wheel-tapping over the next couple of weeks so that anything needed in the autumn won't be totally alien.

The long-awaiting significant software upgrade will NOT go live until I'm back.  Change software and run to where I cannot offer total support would be rather silly. And when that upgrade has happened I would be very hopeful that after inevitable teething problems the hammer and special stuff would be very much less required than at present.  However, I would hope that Red Squirrel could be a part of that process too so that he's available for calling on – once in a blue moon.  All of which is very much amongst our steps to make the forum robust and continuous for the next decade.

[grahame]

-- Out of Office Message -- ... Lisa and I are away from 1st September for a somewhat longer period than our typical vacations.  The forum has a tremendous moderator team, so I don't expect you would notice my absence ... just in case of server issues, Red Squirrel who's a bit geeky too has been briefed on some of the stuff that goes on and will provide second level support.  But this is an "Out of Office" message and not an "Away from Keyboard" one.  I expect there will be copious opportunities between listening to lectures, eating, touring sights and cities, eating, learning to waltz, taking in shows, eating, swimming, drinking and eating to catch up online.

Each morning, connectivity allowing, I plan to put up a "where is this" picture, all taken by myself earlier this year.  Some will be easy, some not so and a little out of the norm - "day in the life of" which has at times been a lot of meetings. I may not be back online to give quite as quick a confirmation of the identity of the place, and what's "morning" to me may turn out to be afternoon to you folks.

[GBM]

Really hope you enjoy your break.  Thank you for all your forum efforts, very much appreciated.
I noted not too many drinking comments for your break, but many eating breaks.
Surely equal quantities of each? You DID^» (Didcot Parkway - next trains) take up the inclusive drinks package ((per cabin)) didn't you? 

[Red Squirrel]

Red Squirrel who's a bit geeky too...

I don't know what he means!

Bon voyage, grahame (and lisae) - and remember:

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like 127.0.0.1

[bobm]

learning to waltz

You poor sod.....

[GBM]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) "Strictly" next year? 

[JayMac]

And they're off!

Bon voyage Graham and Lisa.

[rogerw]

Enjoy your holiday Graham & Lisa. I hope the weather treats you kindly

[JayMac]

Apologies for the down time this evening. The server needed a metaphorical kick.

grahame, via Facebook Messenger, was able to talk me through the steps, and I've given the server a damn good thrashing!

[Western Pathfinder]

Either that or you've found the pile of 50ps that were left for you 😀

[grahame]

Apologies for the down time this evening. The server needed a metaphorical kick.

grahame, via Facebook Messenger, was able to talk me through the steps, and I've given the server a damn good thrashing!

Massive THANK YOU ... bit of a storm of two issues at once and my connectivity is exceptionally poor.  Having done that once it would be easier for bignosemac to do again another time, but I'll look to putting a trigger in to look at doing it automatically too (from Friday 13th!).   Still sorting things from here - will be around for a couple of hours yet, I expect!

[MVR S&T]

Apologies for the down time this evening. The server needed a metaphorical kick.

grahame, via Facebook Messenger, was able to talk me through the steps, and I've given the server a damn good thrashing!

With a large tree branch I hope.
JC.

[Robin Summerhill]

If there are any computer experts out there who would like to assist with problems on another railway-related discussion forum, the Bristol Railway Archive Index forum has been down for a few weeks now.

Perhaps some members here have come across the forum befpre, or perhaps have even posted on it. I have been a member since 2009.

The site owner, Peter Lawson, emailed me last night with an updateL

"Currently the version of php that runs the wiki part of the website (ie. The non-forum bit) cannot run with the required version of php that is required to run the forum.  I’ve tried various fixes that are on the internet, but non have worked up to now. I’ve not given up on it completely, but it’s not looking too good. I’m currently looking at maybe hosting the forum elsewhere and just linking to it from my webspace, but this option is possibly going to be too expensive.

But I shall persevere!"

Unfortunately that means very little in practical terms to me - does it give anybody else some clues?

http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/Main_Page  Clicking on "This way to the forums!" just leads to a holding page.
 

[grahame]

If there are any computer experts out there who would like to assist with problems on another railway-related discussion forum, the Bristol Railway Archive Index forum has been down for a few weeks now.

Might like to and in normal circumstances would be right up my street - no exactly where he is coming from ... however,  "Out there" this month is on an icky connection in the middle of the Atlantic so there is a huge difference between "like to" and "can" for the next weeks.

Have him email me at least.

[Robin Summerhill]

Tanks Graham - I've now emailed him again and passed on your email address