# Server/Software Upgrade, Site Downtime



## ScottW (Oct 7, 2006)

While I don't know when exactly, I hope to do a bunch of stuff sometime this weekend, through Sunday evening (CDT). This will include...

1) Upgrading vBulletin to 3.6.2.
2) Upgrading to MySQL 5.1 from 4.1
3) Turning up the fail-over environment and failing the site over
4) Re-imaging the primary server upgrading from Fedora 2 to 4, PHP version, etc.
5) Bringing back up the primary server and bring it back online
6) Implementing a new automated fail-over and load sharing system to eliminate unplanned outages or the occasional high traffic times.

I may not get ALL of this done, even though most of it is already setup in a test environment. The only real downtime will be the vBulletin upgrade which should be fairly brief. Oh, and the MySQL upgrade will cause maybe 10-15 minutes of downtime. Outside of that, everything else should be covered.

Not that anyone cares, but that is just an FYI of what is happening behind the scenes to improve our ability to serve you for your technical support needs.

In the future, we will setup a geo-distant fail-over setup so that we don't have our entire setup in one datacenter or geographical location.


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## ScottW (Oct 7, 2006)

Steps 1,2 & 3 Complete. In theory, we will have no more downtime associated with this upgrade. 

That said, if you get any weird errors or see anything not working like before, we do have a new version SQL and PHP running, so might run into a few snags.


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## bobw (Oct 8, 2006)

On the Nowonder forum page, under Site Forums, I can only see three of the forums;
Site Code 2.0
Site Discussion
Help-The Support Application


There is no link for PMs 
There is no edit button for threads

On the Macosx.com forum page, I see all the Site forums.


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## ScottW (Oct 8, 2006)

Weird. Must be a permission issue. I will take a look.

The above steps are being revised. Due to the "final straw" I am ceasing business with the current datacenter. We will be migrating a new datacenter over the next few days, all services.


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## bobw (Oct 9, 2006)

Also, not being kept logged in. When I open the browser/macosx.com in the morning, I have to log in now.


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## ScottW (Oct 9, 2006)

I'll take a look as soon as we move back to the primary server - which should be in the next couple of hours.


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## ScottW (Oct 9, 2006)

Bob - Fixed permissions on No Wonder, I will play with the cookie issue to see if I can duplicate it.


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## bobw (Oct 9, 2006)

Still only have the three forums under Site Forums.
Still have to log in on the Macosx.com side if I quit the browser and open.


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## ora (Oct 9, 2006)

I don't get the same logout issue, been on and off the board all day without any need to login again.


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## bobw (Oct 9, 2006)

The log in issue only happens in Firefox, not Safari, for me.


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## ScottW (Oct 9, 2006)

Just cut over to the new server a minute or so ago. Should be MUCH faster.


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## bobw (Oct 9, 2006)

Just dumped Catch for Firefox, now everything back to normal, or Scott fixed it


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## ScottW (Oct 9, 2006)

Well, I did fix an issue, because I was getting the same issue as you. But, it is now working for me, and probably was the cache that gave you the correct results.


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## ora (Oct 9, 2006)

Yep, works for me in firefox now I've checked (but its the 2.0 rc2)


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## ScottW (Oct 9, 2006)

I noticed the same issue with Safari. I ended up deleting my macosx.com cookies (all related cookies) and it fixed the issue. I didn't change any cookie stuff, so not sure what is up.


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## Cheryl (Oct 9, 2006)

Since your upgrade/migration I have not gotten any notifications from the volunteer side. No notifications of new questions or responses from users. 

I have gotten the forum subscription emails correctly.


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## ScottW (Oct 10, 2006)

Ah! Found the problem. Crazy Crazy code. UGH.

Emails should be going out, in fact, any email not sent should have been sent, minus of course notifications which are only sent on queue. That was actually a cron issue on the new server.


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## bobw (Oct 10, 2006)

Yep, just got a bunch a few minutes ago.


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## Cheryl (Oct 10, 2006)

Yep, emails came through.


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