XMB Forum Software - Server Down Time From 20 Jan 2012 - Powered by XMB 1.9.12 (Debug Mode)

Server Down Time From 20 Jan 2012

miqrogroove - 1-26-2012 at 05:58 AM

As described on my personal home page, the xmbforum.com server has been offline since 20 January.

http://www.miqrogroove.com/blog/2012/xmb-forum-offline/

Discussion continues here on this mirror forum, which we set up on 26 January.

vamsee - 1-26-2012 at 07:06 AM

what went wrong ?
i thought xmb just vanished !

lottos - 1-26-2012 at 07:14 AM

Good work miqrogroove! Seems faster loading than the original host.

miqrogroove - 1-26-2012 at 08:06 AM

Hey lottos, I'm glad you like it. I adjusted some settings just now so it might be even faster

Kellter - 1-26-2012 at 01:17 PM

Appreciate everything Robert! Good job! DOn't neglect your studies though!

kuba1 - 1-26-2012 at 01:42 PM

Nicely done Robert!! Oh, yeah this is way faster than before ....

Adam - 1-27-2012 at 08:27 PM

Quote: Originally posted by kuba1

Nicely done Robert!! Oh, yeah this is way faster than before ....

Really?

For me, in the Uk, the pages load slowly at times.
Where is the server located, out of curiosity?

miqrogroove - 1-27-2012 at 09:56 PM

I'm looking into this now. The CPU throttle was triggered in the past hour for some reason. Should be resolved shortly.

miqrogroove - 1-27-2012 at 10:31 PM

Everything has been running smoothly for about 15 minutes now. That was an unusual problem so I don't expect it to happen again, but I will certainly keep an eye on that.

BTW, that's pretty good resolution time. These guys usually have things fixed before I can pick up the phone.

It is BlueHost in Utah.

lottos - 1-30-2012 at 04:05 AM

Should we ask iEntry if we can take over xmbforum.com and load it onto vanderaj's VPS? I believe we get better support from volunteers than them.

miqrogroove - 1-30-2012 at 06:37 AM

There are a lot of questions that need to be asked. At the top of my list are:

Why was the server not restored correctly?

Why were we locked out of the server for six days after it was moved?

Does XMB even need a VPS? (We can put the code repo on sourceforge.net for free)

If xmbforum.com stays with iEntry, do we move the forum back there? Are we considering a permanent move to a different domain?

How much redundancy do we need to add to our disaster recovery capability? Perhaps monthly data backups independent of the hosting network?

These questions are for everyone, including iEntry, XMB staff, and members.

Aerosmith - 1-30-2012 at 07:16 AM

As an FYI, I have a few dedicated servers with much disk space and bandwidth going unused. If need be I'll donate.

lottos - 1-30-2012 at 11:32 AM

Quote: Originally posted by miqrogroove

There are a lot of questions that need to be asked. At the top of my list are:

Why was the server not restored correctly?

Why were we locked out of the server for six days after it was moved?

Does XMB even need a VPS? (We can put the code repo on sourceforge.net for free)

If xmbforum.com stays with iEntry, do we move the forum back there? Are we considering a permanent move to a different domain?

How much redundancy do we need to add to our disaster recovery capability? Perhaps monthly data backups independent of the hosting network?

These questions are for everyone, including iEntry, XMB staff, and members.

There's a post from a Michael Marr who stated he would monitor xmb and whether to maintain... no one at iEntry is interested as proven in the past and over the last week or so.

With the numerous offers of hosting, offsite backups shouldn't be a problem.

kuba1 - 1-30-2012 at 09:18 PM

It is painfully obvious that something needs to happen ...

1 and 2 must be answered by iEntry

3 Not really .... with the proposed sourceforge code repository, our vps requirement pretty much goes away

4 Seems like we are in a wait and see posture at the moment .... based on the lack of support from iEntry one must question whether they have any interest at actually restoring it, themselves. So, we need to ask ourselves if we care to do it.

5 Weekly backups has been my policy, personally ... although, I do slack from time to time.

Aerosmith - 1-31-2012 at 11:38 AM

I'm old school. I do a daily/weekly/monthly remote FTP tower of Hanoi back up of all client data on all of my servers. Its all automated and includes all files in the users home directory and all mysql databases at a minimum.

SVN Service Evaluation

miqrogroove - 2-1-2012 at 02:39 PM

The first matter up for vote is the SVN code repository, previously at svn://svn.xmbforum.com/ which has been broken since January 20.

I think the best idea to come from discussions so far is to move the code repository to SourceForge. They offer free open-source development hosting with no disk quota. The admins would be able to make independent backups in case of any failure at the host (which we would not expect to last for weeks, anyway).

I looked at some other free services and concluded SourceForge would be the best fit for XMB if we decide to go that route.

Moving the code repository also means that we would no longer have a WebSVN website. Some of the more frequently accessed packages might need to be copied to the XMB Downloads page for ease of use.

Such a move would also mean that the old URL would not work. We could set up a new bookmark URL such as xmbforum.com/svn/ that would redirect visitors to the repository front page. We could also redirect the old WebSVN URL to the new repository if that would be helpful.

Other possibilities for the sake of brainstorming: We could continue to wait for iEntry to fix the broken SVN server, knowing that this problem could reoccur at any time in the future. We could continue trying to repair it ourselves. If nobody is using the repository, I could set up my own local server just so that I am able to use it for development purposes.

Discuss.

Kellter - 2-1-2012 at 05:08 PM

Just saw the DMCA takedown notice here.

Sad day

What are the options?

miqrogroove - 2-1-2012 at 06:32 PM

Our options are greatly simplified now that we have an answer from iEntry.

We no longer have permission to use xmbforum.com so we will have to use other domain names.

Kellter - 2-1-2012 at 06:35 PM

What was a DMCA sent to Bluehost for? What are they trying to get removed from xmbforum2.com?.

miqrogroove - 2-1-2012 at 06:46 PM

iEntry asked BlueHost to block the website and all subdomains of xmbforum2.com.

Adam - 2-1-2012 at 07:32 PM

Why are iEntry doing this?

Any idea what they intend to do with XMB Forum?
Where do we (XMB Community) and iEntry stand legally with regards to the forum software / domain?

miqrogroove - 2-1-2012 at 08:34 PM

I really don't know any of that. :umm:

But the software should be fine.

Adam - 2-1-2012 at 08:55 PM

Have iEntry not given a reason for removing access to their servers?

There must be issues between current developers and iEntry for it to go this far.

miqrogroove - 2-1-2012 at 09:05 PM

There has been very little communication overall, if that can be considered an issue. We asked them to respond in writing and they shut down the server. No reason given.

Kellter - 2-1-2012 at 09:10 PM

Has BlueHost confronted you about the DMCA? I'm keeping an eye out on Webhostingtalk to see if they bring it up there. Who owns the Copyright for logos, files etc from xmbforum.com.

Hopefully they are bluffing but I feal they may throw the baby out with the bath water for spite.

Have a bad feeling about all this.

miqrogroove - 2-2-2012 at 01:31 AM

I have a good relationship with BlueHost going back many years. If they find a problem I will keep everyone informed about it.

All of the files and logos were contributed to the community by its members and licensed under GPL. This is sometimes referred to as copyleft.

lottos - 2-2-2012 at 04:00 AM

I was about to vote for sourceforge.net but just read the update and you've already done it.

miqrogroove - 2-2-2012 at 05:53 AM

I appreciate it, lottos. We are still in disaster mode here because of the server we lost this morning.

miqrogroove - 2-3-2012 at 06:22 AM

I threw together a little wiki page at https://docs.xmbforum2.com/

Be sure to see the example page https://docs.xmbforum2.com/index.php?title=User_Status_Permi...

Is anyone feeling the nice clean look? A volunteer or two would be needed to copy old stuff into the new wiki.

Or, we could just slap Drupal back in there and not have to mess with it much.

DavidT - 2-3-2012 at 05:38 PM

Apologies for the length of time it has taken me to respond. Let me know if I can help in any way with this situation!

- David

miqrogroove - 2-3-2012 at 05:47 PM

Welcome back, DavidT

Let me know your SourceForge username so that I can get you back into the code repo. I'll have to send some details about which things are workable in the new system.

anendeth - 2-5-2012 at 02:33 AM

Quote: Originally posted by miqrogroove

I threw together a little wiki page at http://docs.xmbforum2.com/

Be sure to see the example page http://docs.xmbforum2.com/Webmasters/Permissions_Chart

Is anyone feeling the nice clean look? A volunteer or two would be needed to copy old stuff into the new wiki.

Or, we could just slap Drupal back in there and not have to mess with it much.

I have the time to spare to copy old stuff into the new wiki, just let me know what still needs to be put in there

miqrogroove - 2-5-2012 at 02:46 AM

I think I got everything back in there except the "Customization" section. So, all the technical stuff I wrote is restored.

If you find anything else missing or just feel inspired to work on documentation, we all love you for it. :heart:

lol Also I think you will find this wiki is much easier to work with than Drupal was.

anendeth - 2-5-2012 at 02:52 AM

Quote: Originally posted by miqrogroove

I think I got everything back in there except the "Customization" section. So, all the technical stuff I wrote is restored.

If you find anything else missing or just feel inspired to work on documentation, we all love you for it. :heart:

lol Also I think you will find this wiki is much easier to work with than Drupal was.

Yeah, I just browsed it quickly.. much.. much easier than Drupal. Why did we ever switch to that?

Anyway, I've also downloaded my dutch lang file, and plan to get ahold of the spanish one, to fix the wonderful errors that I've found. Super surprised no one has said anything to me about it either.

lottos - 2-5-2012 at 02:54 AM

You've been so busy... Doco, new patch, downloads and more!
Does the new patch and download in include footer change to link to XMBForum2?

anendeth - 2-5-2012 at 02:54 AM

Also, mind if I re-read through what you've said and change some things about it? (for instance the way things are quoted now, is different then the way things used to be quoted.. so figured the wiki pages should all be up to date on our latest version and such)

miqrogroove - 2-5-2012 at 03:08 AM

crimson: I made sure you can edit the whole wiki, including the front page. If you wanna rename a page that has me as owner, then some settings are involved. Wasn't sure what you meant about quotes. This is a translation question? Maybe.. https://docs.xmbforum2.com/index.php?title=Translation_File_...

lottos: Yes the footer template is updated in patch #13 along with the bugs I knocked out.

anendeth - 2-5-2012 at 03:34 AM

Quote: Originally posted by miqrogroove

crimson: I made sure you can edit the whole wiki, including the front page. If you wanna rename a page that has me as owner, then some settings are involved. Wasn't sure what you meant about quotes. This is a translation question? Maybe.. https://docs.xmbforum2.com/index.php?title=Translation_File_...

lottos: Yes the footer template is updated in patch #13 along with the bugs I knocked out.

Well quotes currently look like this

Code:

[rquote=1373876&tid=776650&author=miqrogroove]

instead of what they used to look like, which was

Code:

[quote][i]Originally posted by [b]EXAMPLE[/b][/i][/quote]

Where as you have it in the wiki as

Code:

When a quote is generated by XMB, the first line usually contains the author of the quoted post: [i]Originally posted by EXAMPLE:[/i]

So in other words, do you mind if I go through and edit anything that isn't up to date with the current system? Also, I don't really care about who owns the pages. We're all a team here, and you do a lot of the work. All that matters to me is that I can help out.

As a side note, I knew I shouldn't have come here before going to bed. There is no way I'm going to sleep now.. hah

miqrogroove - 2-5-2012 at 03:55 AM

lol go to sleep. This can wait.

Yes, please update anything you like. A quote "generated by XMB" could also be interpreted to mean the quote button on the post page, which still uses the simple quote tags.

Ownership on the wiki only means who first added each page. There are a bunch of related settings that.. probably do something. :bigsmile:

Let me know if you run into any walls with that.

anendeth - 2-5-2012 at 04:03 AM

Quote: Originally posted by miqrogroove

lol go to sleep. This can wait.

Yes, please update anything you like. A quote "generated by XMB" could also be interpreted to mean the quote button on the post page, which still uses the simple quote tags.

Ownership on the wiki only means who first added each page. There are a bunch of related settings that.. probably do something. :bigsmile:

Let me know if you run into any walls with that.

Wide awake now XD Might as well do something while I can't sleep.

Ah, right. I forgot about the just "quote" button inside a post reply. I'm a fan of the quick reply myself.

I can also see expanding on a lot of the points that you already posted. I really appreciate the "guide line" so to speak, as there are many things that can be expanded upon.

I'll try not to mess around with too many buttons. I've already poked around the settings a bit. Extremely happy we're using this now and not drupal.

miqrogroove - 2-5-2012 at 06:02 AM

Quote: Originally posted by crimsontears

much.. much easier than Drupal. Why did we ever switch to that?

It was set up by a well-intentioned community helper who, I think, greatly over-estimated our need for dynamic content.

anendeth - 2-7-2012 at 01:31 AM

XMB is under GPL, is it not? They have no right to place a takedown notice on anything under GPL.

lottos - 2-7-2012 at 01:54 AM

This would be the largest time and energy iEntry have expended on xmb so far?

miqrogroove - 2-7-2012 at 01:55 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lottos

This would be the largest time and energy iEntry have expended on xmb so far?

The irony

kuba1 - 2-7-2012 at 03:00 AM

Quote: Originally posted by miqrogroove

Quote: Originally posted by lottos

This would be the largest time and energy iEntry have expended on xmb so far?

The irony

that is funny!! but, too true!!

lottos - 2-7-2012 at 03:48 AM

If sourceforge are unable to read headers in files regarding open sources licences, perhaps
http://code.google.com/hosting/

Mouser - 2-7-2012 at 04:27 PM

I had some reading to do... Quite sad how they treat you. They wanted this piece of software to run on their servers, they wanted spend money on it, hire a coder etc. Now they want to get rid of it like that? :|

Quote: Originally posted by kuba1

Quote: Originally posted by miqrogroove

Quote: Originally posted by lottos

This would be the largest time and energy iEntry have expended on xmb so far?

The irony