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Site outage  [message #78141] Sun, 19 September 2021 21:33 Go to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



The Sunday outage is ended. Our host has migrated us.

However, we still retain a host created problem, which they are workig on. There is a likelihood, but not a certainty, of the site beimg offline at some random point, and for a couple of days. If that happens I will not be able to keep you posted, obviously



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: Site outage  [message #78143 is a reply to message #78141] Mon, 27 September 2021 20:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



The server is back. That's obvious because you're reading this message. It takes up to 48 hours for the DNS to propagate globally, which is why some folk can see it before others

 a couple of minor glitches left to solve, like the story that throws a 503 error, but those are minor and annoying

 i think we're now in Chicago but the IP addresses are in LA. Maybe!



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: Site outage  [message #78144 is a reply to message #78143] Mon, 27 September 2021 21:01 Go to previous messageGo to next message
luvtwinks is currently offline  luvtwinks

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Registered: August 2018
Messages: 175



"timmy wrote on Mon, 27 September 2021 20:48"
a couple of minor glitches left to solve, like the story that throws a 503 error, but those are minor and annoying


--
I was just about to post a message about that error! It's like you read my mind. 😀
Re: Site outage  [message #78145 is a reply to message #78144] Tue, 28 September 2021 07:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



I've been extra hamstrung by my laptop being away having its battery replaced so I can't get the drains up on that error until I get the machine back later today. It's likely to be a gremlin inside it that prevents our content management system from serving it



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: Site outage  [message #78160 is a reply to message #78145] Sun, 03 October 2021 20:16 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



I have my laptop back, and running, but the repair team decided to wipe it. So I am in a sub-optiomal condition for managing the site. I have recovered all documenst fomr backups, but need to recover some software befoire I'm ready to roll

Normal service soon!



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: Site outage  [message #78161 is a reply to message #78160] Tue, 05 October 2021 09:54 Go to previous message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



Ok, these are first world problems, but, dammit, the server move was meant to be so simple, and yet they had to move us twice. Before the move a technical thing called rDNS had failed. This is a web host thing. Mere mortals are unable to interface with that. Lack of rDNS meant emails were being marked as spam and blocked. There's only so many times that can happen without irrevocable damage too the mail server's reputation and blocks arrive that are impossible, or almost impossible, to remove.

That problem pre-existed and was a support issue before move number 1. It then existed after move 1, which made move 2 necessary. No idea why, though! Tier one support told us that our server was "special" and thus needed a grownup to move it, so we had to await the arrival of the grownup. He moved us and implemented rDNS on our new IP addresses.

rDNS takes time to propagate around the world. It's just like Facebook's weirdness yesterday took propagation time to solve. At the same time we had to tell our Name Servers where we are located now, and that also has to propagate! Propagation takes up to, broadly, 48 hours

That explains the dark period

Simultaneously, my laptop battery died. The machine had to go away to Czechia for repair, and, when it came back, the repair centre had wiped the entire machine and installed a prior version of the operating system. I was now operating on an iPhone. You cannot manage a complex site on a phone! After leaping through a load of hoops I got my machine back, and now have real access to email

There are still some glitches. Our new IP address is "clean" but also there are some blocks on it. Those blocks have to be negotiated away. They assume we're black hat spammers until we show them our white hats. Even then they don't always believe us, so sometimes our web host has to negotiate on our behalf. Blocks mean email does not get through.

[Updated on: Tue, 05 October 2021 10:00]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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