About the outage and upgrade

[JoeStrout]

OK. I think we are finally back in action.

I'm too tired to type up a complete report of what went wrong, so let me sum up. Dreamhost upgraded their systems, broke the board, denied it for a while, flailed around trying to help for a while, and finally became nonresponsive. It became clear that the old files were not going to be easily fixed, so I decided to do a fresh install. After a few more false starts and lots of googling, I finally got it sorted out, thanks in part to our own Peter Hanely, who converted a sqlite3 dump into mysql format, and poured the data into the new database.

So, we're not only up and running again, we are now running on MySQL (rather than sqlite) and we're running the very latest version of phpBB (3.1.6). So that should help with the performance issues some of you were experiencing.

I am really, really sorry for the very long outage. I won't be using Dreamhost's "easy 1-click install" process ever again. Hopefully we won't run into this sort of junk again.

If anybody notices anything still awry, please let me know right away (admin at talk-polywell.org).

Thanks,
- Joe

[crowberry]

Many thanks Joe for running Talk Polywell and for getting it back up again!

[mvanwink5]

Thanks a million Joe and Peter.

[JoeP]

Thanks Joe, it is good to see TP alive.

[hanelyp]

A correction on the outage report, the old database was in sqlite2 format, which is getting rather long in tooth. The move to a mysql database should also prevent repeats of the occasional cases of severe lag the site used to suffer. sqlite, whether version 2 or the current 3, suffers badly when the database reaches the size of this site.

[CherryPick]

Thank you. Fortunately search engines gave some hints of what is going on. The BB upgrade virus is on on this fall. Another BB that I actively follow has had its problems. Third one is NextBigFuture. I was quite active there and stopped writing when they switched to SolidOpinion.

Thanks also about a light choices for this new version.

[ltgbrown]

Thanks Joe. I have been missing my daily Talk-Polywell fix!

[choff]

We're back in the saddle, well done!

[Giorgio]

Good job guys!

[JoeP]

A correction on the outage report, the old database was in sqlite2 format, which is getting rather long in tooth. The move to a mysql database should also prevent repeats of the occasional cases of severe lag the site used to suffer. sqlite, whether version 2 or the current 3, suffers badly when the database reaches the size of this site.

The site does seems much more responsive. Well done.

[williatw]

I'm too tired to type up a complete report of what went wrong, so let me sum up.

Thanks Joe surprised how much I missed this place...reading all of your posts (most of them anyway). Take a good rest Joe; sometime mental/brainwork can be more tiring than physical work, sounds like you earned yourself relaxing with a few beers.

Can't wait to hear what all of you think of:

The Curious Case of KIC 8462852

The Kepler spacecraft recorded a bunch of irregular dimmings around one of its target stars, designated KIC 8462852. No natural phenomenon explains the dips well.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronom ... 102020155/

[pdxpyro]

Joe and Peter - I'd like to add my thanks! I've missed the forums!

Joe - I'd like to especially call out my thanks for the replies to my emails during the outage. The updates were much appreciated.

Regards,
Paul

[toddzilla]

Thanks for getting TP back online!

[Tom Ligon]

Thanks Joe and Peter! Knowing my level of patience with this sort of snafu, I'd have been screaming like a madman after a couple of days of that.

[krenshala]

Definitely getting faster responses on the new software. Thank you for taking the time to get things back up and running!

I'm looking at (assisting) upgrading an older version of phpBB (close to the version the old TP site ran, but already using mysql) for a site I help on. Were their any big snags to watch out for on the upgrade you did?