We have a strange error with the forums that’s currently being worked on. Apologies, it’ll be fixed as soon as possible.
Update:25/Feb I’ve managed to fix the issued. Technical babble, but it was due to a wrapper and a binary being out of sync due to a server software update resulting in things going awry! Coffee drunk and helped solved issues!
Don’t worry if you find blank pages or error messages in the news or forums occasionally, upgrades are currently in progress at the moment.
We’ll be online while the work is completed, so the odd thing will look odd while the updates are completed.
So far I’ve updated the core software to the news system which has prompted a complete rebuild of the site design. The old front page theme used deprecated code (old) which quite simply doesn’t work with the new core systems. The forums are completely rebuilt and should be working just fine.
There’s lots for me to tweak and get how we would like it and now we are finally running the new software I can get upgrades done that I’ve been meaning to do for ages. Do bear with and if you spot anything you would like changed, is obviously broken, or just feel the need to send me us email!
UPDATE 1500GMT: I’ve got a working shell up and running but we’ve got a long way to go so do bear with me. I’ve also been digging out old artwork so I can make a start on the new images for the new layout as it develops. The updates are being applied to the site whilst live to keep it all working well for everyone.
Sorry for the downtime, completley unavoidable and out of my hands.
I won’t bore you with the technical stuff but there was a corrupt file int he network configuration which meant that duyring the forum updates when we went to reboot the machine for the first time ever the network went offline, this meant we couldn’t physically route or talk to the machine.
It’s taken until today for us to get access and repair the issue. Now everything is back, I can continue to get the forums fixed. There was a massive upgrade needed to them, Invision (who we lease the software from) provided a custom fix to their UTF8 conversion as the pound signs were lost and a few other special characters when we first ran the upgrade. I’ve run it with their custom code and it just needs checking now to make sure all went well, the skin can be quickly rebuilt and the forums turned back on again.
More good news coming!
Update: the database for the forums has been updated, all looks good, I am now waiting for IPB (Invision) to check it so we can enable the forums and ensure there’s no data loss. We can’t merge posts so have to ensure that the upgrade has gone smoothly otherwise we have to revert back tot he backup and run the update again.
So I pushed out the DNS updates last night which should mean everyone is now looking at the new server. There will no doubt be issues that crop up and bugs we need to sort here.
Regarding the forums they have been upgraded to use SSL (so access will be via https), we’ve also updated Tapatalk, so if you use that mobile app all will be okay.
Upgrades will be gradual over the next few days, any requests please email them in direct or drop us a line in the forums!
We’ve moved servers and I’ve implemented the nameserver changes tonight. If you can see this then you’re looking at the new server. That’s good news, which means things are now working for you.
I’m just doing my best to get the forums all fixed and live now. All of the core/software updates are now complete.
Well the updates are going well, the bulk of the front page work is done for the news system, the last part is upgrading our forums. this is taking time, because… well we have a huge forum.
To put it in context for everyone, we have 2.5 million posts, 750,000+ reputation rows, and a half-million PM’s stored. All of this needs to be updated and a large bunch of scripts run to bring the data in line with the new forum software version.
I’ll then have some the look and feel of the forum to tweak but we’ll make the new system live as soon as the functionality is there and it’s all secure. We can happily tweak the look with it live.
The technicians at Interworx aren’t able to commit the time until Monday to finish the updates for us; it requires their expertise and support as the software is theirs and they know the ins and outs of their software and also the solutions to the pitfalls. I expect us to have the forums online by Monday night now. In the meantime I’m going to prep the rest of the updates so they are good to go. Sorry folks, but we’ve outgrown the hardware we have, the OS and the software versions, it’s all being updated at once.
I’ve been updating the lists we have on the front page of airsoft related podcasts and magazines. Do you know of a regular magazine or podcast we’ve overlooked? If so please drop me a line so I can include it.
We sort through the lists every couple of months and anything production that slows down gets removed over time as it becomes less relevant or out of date.
The new server move went well. We’ve had some 50Gb of data moved from our old box to our new machine. the new dedicated machine has much more power and space/memory than the old server.
The old server was constraining our software updates, as our core services could easily not be updated past a certain software version.
The forums and news system are now back up and working as you would expect.
There are some minor issues with outbound emails bouncing due to rDNS problems. I also have various bits of code to update and our entire news front page to overhaul. If there are any issues, please let us know via email or in the forums.
If you can read this we are up and running on the new shiny server.
We’re just doing the final updates at the moment. The forums are open on the new box and offline on the old one.
To ensure you get to the new box flush your DNS or refresh your browser.
The ticket to update our domain name will be processed on Monday as we’re registered with a UK domain registrar, and they don’t work weekends…
We’ve locked the forums down for tonight so we can copy synchronise our data over from the old box to a bigger, newer and more shiny machine.
Our current box is over 3 years old and has served it’s purpose. It’s time for a new machine, the latest hardware and everything that goes with it.
As of now I’ve locked the forums. This prevents posts and topics made in the interim being lost while we move across to the new machine.
I will update the DNS and point it over as soon as the data is across.
That’s right! Just 4 weeks to go! The welcome packs have been sent out to all who have booked, but there’s still time to take part in one of the friendliest, newbie-welcoming airsoft events in existence!
How many other weekenders give you an opportunity to make friends, shoot your new friends, and then be attacked by shot friends with foam cutlasses?
Key Details in case you have missed:
Core Facts
Venue: Gunman Airsoft, Tuddenham, Suffolk, UK, Europe
Date: Friday July 5th – Sunday July 7th (Gates Open at 5pm Friday but I will aim to be on site from 3ish onwards.)
Green Fee £60 (Including Free Entry into prize draw if 20 bookings received by 31 April)
Facilities: Portaloo & Shop (provided kindly by Gunman), Genny & Charging Facilities. Indoor social / sleeping accommodation in the barn. Camping space is available, and a Travel Lodge is five minutes drive away, as are several takeaways, pubs and a Tesco within ten minutes drive (next to the train station if coming by train).
Game Ideas: Crazy, Arnies themed fast-paced events. If you have ever wanted to play Stalker with carrier bags or take part in a real life forum war shouting out inane slogans while avoiding the wrath of the humourless forum staff, this is the event for you!
Booking & Payment Options
In order to keep the weekend as friendly and ‘intimate’ as always, we’ll be sticking to the tried and tested ’30 player cap’ rule. To secure your place at the event, you two choices available:
A – Pay now the full amount (£62.32 – £60 + Paypal) (go to http://morningafter.konstipation.com)
B- Pay now a deposit (£31.26 – £30 + Paypal) (go to http://morningafter.konstipation.com) and then pay £30 on gate.
20 people are already booked so we already know this will be a blast – there a maximum of 10 more spaces available. For insurance purposes no walk-ons will be allowed so book if you want to play!
For more information visit the MA7 Forum or PM Marlowe on the forums.
There’s an upgrade underway for the forum software. The forum may show errors whilst this takes place.
We should be back up and running shortly. This upgrade addresses various errors and issues we’ve been having since the latest software release.
Update: this is now complete, please report any issues via the usual channels so they can be fixed
Okay well a simple install of a new forum search engine (it’s transparent so you won’t see a physical change.. it’s just faster) produced an error that when I looked in to it crashed the entire server.
We had a couple of issues that cropped up.; This included the fact that we’re incorrectly running a 32bit kernel so not using our full system memory, and somehow our swap partition (virtual memory) was disabled. This meant when the database/mysql crashed and I went to fix it the entire server died due to the load it created. Memory was exhausted and the server just turned itself off and sat in the corner upset with me.
Sadly trouble tickets have not yielded any attention from technical staff so I’ve done a heap of fixes myself. I’ve created a new swap file, mounted it, reconfigured the file mounting system, enabled the swap file, installed the new search engine, catalogued the entire server database and then got the lot running. I can’t easily install the 64bit kernel remotely so this remains outstanding.
We are now live again. With luck I’ve taken a heap of load off the post table with the new search upgrade. We currently host around 2.5 million posts in the forum, so mysql is suffering from this. By moving the search index off mysql and into a separate software system the search engine on the site now no longer locks out everything else while it goes away "to have a think" to find all posts that mention "gbb" for example.
The search index is updated every 15 minutes. As usual ping us any errors you come across on the support pages and I’ll look in to it.
A complete re-index of our server will complete in the early hours GMT so the forums may be slower than usual during this off-peak period.
On Friday we experienced downtime due to a database error which then crashed the server. We are back online however the specifically affected forum table (the one that contains over 2 million forum posts) is currently locked out with an error.
Each time we try to repair this file remotely it is causing over 100% CPU load and then eventually crashing the mysql service. We’re working on the problem at the moment. Sorry for the forum downtime folks.
We’re just upgrading the forum software to the latest version. While this happens the forum will be offline.
This should take up to an hour depending on how much work needs to be done.
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