Glad the forum is back

[Darius]

Hi,

nice to read and write here again

Regrads

Darius

[egbert]

So glad it works again. I was truly missing the forum.
Now we need a backup plan/procedure to inform ourselves when the forum is down again to avoid any heart attacks

[FalkeEins]

my visitor numbers virtually doubled while the forum was down...but glad to see all's well again

[Black6]

THANK YOU to Ruy

Wonderful to be back here !

[Trendle]

Without 12 o'clock high, life is only half as exciting. Thank you for your outstanding work

All the best

Fred

[SteveR]

Originally Posted by Ruy Horta

Thanks all, but the reality is a little less glamorous.

1. Yes there are back ups, but under the current circumstances it is not realistic to expect these to be restored
2. The forum is still dependent on legacy support from this ISP - they could end it if they choose to do so.
3. I have no clear plans for a migration or upgrade.

Again I am happy that the forum is back online and I am grateful for your enthusiasm and support, but I want to be transparent about the what happened.

I did not notice a database space issue last time I checked, which is infrequent I must admit and I was not warned by the ISP that my database was exceeding its allowed size. I still believe that it was the ISP that decreased the allowed size and that’s why the forum crashed one day to the other.

It was the ISP that blocked my database privileges. It was the ISP that had an issue returning the privileges as there was some kind of synchronization problem on their side. The experience leaves a bitter after taste and I actually cancelled another contract with them as I am not happy with their customer service.

I guess the saying is true, you get what you pay for and that’s double in the “automated IT” era.

So unless there is some upgrade path for TOCH, it is a case of enjoy it while it lasts.

Am I the only one having visions of the Sword of Damocles?

Ruy, what can we, the members, do to help?

If the ISP/storage/upgrade/migration issues are all or in part financial in nature, I'm more than happy to put my money where my mouth is, as I'm sure many others are as well.

If help/assistance/time to do upgrades/migration are issues, I'm more than happy to volunteer my time and all of the assistance I can provide if that will help. I doubt I'm alone in this.

In short, this site is far too valuable to lose. How may we help?

[edwest2]

That is the question. The reality is this: Without complete backup and without reliable storage in the cloud or elsewhere, this can happen again.

The other reality is when things are reduced to digital bits, as opposed to paper, if it goes it's gone. Possibly for good. Around 20 years of research gone overnight? Plans need to be made and implemented.

I mean if Facebook can go down for 6 hours then smaller, independent sites risk a total loss.

I have a lot of books in my library. If there is a fire or flood I know where to get more copies. In the case of sites like this, if there's no backup then nothing is saved.

Respectfully,


Ed West

[JaganP]

I empathize with what Ruy is going through or had gone through. This is not an easy job.

These forums are NOT maintained by IT teams run by mega-corporations like Facebook.. they are dependent on single individuals with a finite set of IT Skills. These skills are sometimes just sufficient to 'Run the Engine' as long as the going is good.

It is stressful for the individual to keep maintaining the sites. If the site goes down for a day, there are mails and messages of concerns from different folks. the sense that you are letting down these members can be soul crushing when things are not working out.

Just to think of the future, or upgrading , and migrating it is a huge mental task. requires advanced preparation. Even when you are taking backups and all how do you ensure these backups are reliable and working, you have to plan a restoration exercise in a test site once in a while. not an easy task. can take up to half a day if everything works.. and if breaks just adds to the source of stress.

The latest Vbulletin software is Version 5. This site is Version 3. Upgrading the version to the latest is no easy task either. Elsewhere I tried a upgrade to Version 5 from 4 and the whole site broke. So we are stuck using an older version of the software but for how long? At some point Vbulletin will pull support and if the software breaks that's it.

Sorry I am just in a gloom and doom mood today

PS: I get a sense from Ruy's post that he is 'locked out' of this site? if there is way to get the 'keys' (To the webserver files) that is all is needed to 'migrate' to a better place
..

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Ruy,

I'm all yours if you need financial support to keep things going or migrating on a more stable platform.

Sincerely
Marc

[Ruy Horta]

Hi Jagan,

That’s exactly what happened.

Because the dbase exceeded it maximum allowed space the ISP automatically reduced my privilege and locked the dbase. The only way to access the dbase was via phpMyAdmin and with limited privilege - I could empty tables etc, but not much more.

However after clearing the data I did not regain my privilege and the dbase was still locked.
That has now been solved.

Although I am ultimately responsible for proactively monitoring the capacity of my data usage, it is normal practice to receive warnings when you near your maximum allowed space / capacity - so you can act in time.

This is an old contract, I am not sure what the original parameters were, but I am almost certain that it was more than the current setting - which would explain the suddenness of the event.

There are back ups, I have made sure to save a week of back ups before the event. However as these exceed the dbase size there is no way to restore as a whole.

I do not stress test, the last time I did a full install of a back up is a decade ago, when there was sufficient space to install two versions of the forum.

Why not increase the size of the database?
I am running on a legacy package, because vBulletin 3.7.x requires an older version of mysql.

However the longer you wait the more complex the migration.
The problem started for me when vbulletin changed their license from lifetime to yearly. Also the price was hiked.

The forum is run on low cost, that’s why I don’t mind maintaining it.

Factors that come into play
1. Where to run a forum - ISP
2. Cost of ISP
3. On what platform to run the forum - the actual software like vBulletin
4. Cost of forum software
5. The ease of migration - If migrating from vBulletin to some other package

One option is going to the vBulletin service, but that’s imo pretty expansive and not something I would prefer.

Another in my opinion preferred option is to find a good forum package that has effective vbulletin database migration tools (for v3.7.x) and can be installed on the latest php (we are running on 5.3 extended support - current version is 8.0!!)

Strato has a few things going for it.
It is cheap, the new contracts offer much more space and should suffice for years to come.

The challenge is finding that forum package that suits our needs.

I am open to suggestions.