Board Maintenance - Postponed to closer to Christmas

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FishPants
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Board Maintenance - Postponed to closer to Christmas

Post by FishPants »

UPDATE: Things just didn't align today. I'll have time off near Christmas and will try to take a stab at it then.

----


This weekend I will need to upgrade the core PHP BB version in a major way (it essentially requires a full reinstall, and database upgrade). This likely won't be an easy/short process, so if you show up at OO and see that there's a blank page, a server error, or it's just not responding -- rest assured this is me actively working on the problem.

As I get closer to the weekend I should have a better idea of when I will start, so I'll let you know - but for now, consider this fair warning that OO may be down for a large part of the weekend (or maybe just an hour! I've never done this level of upgrade on the board before).

Some things you probably want to know:

1. Why am I doing this? Well today at 5pm, the crew at PHPBB announced that the 3.0.x branch is officially end of life. No more updates on the board, no more mod updates/submissions/support, so security fixes. It's pretty dangerous to run an Internet accessible site on EOL software, so time to move.

2. I will have backups all over the place. I currently back up nightly to the cloud, locally on the server to a secondary drive and a third backup goes to a local FTP backup server at the co-location facility. I will also take another manual backup right before I start, after I shut down the board and ensure I've got it in a number of places (the same three at a minimum) should things go sideways. This will include a full database backup BEFORE I start mucking with it.

3. If I run into too many hurdles, I will revert back to the backups and bring the board back online under this version. That drop dead time would be sometime on Sunday (I plan on starting Friday night or early Saturday eastern time).

Honestly I don't think the core upgrade will be a problem, my main concern is mod support. I've really relied on the mods to control spammers (You'd be amazed at how many get automatically blocked and deleted because of these mods), and theme support is thin as well. With the end of life announcement, I expect to see more mods moving across the line as well to continue their development -- but it might be a bit bare bones for awhile. Still, even if our mod workload goes up with spammers; it's worth keeping us current and not compromised from the next PHPBB vulnerability in this branch.

Keeping everyone informed, if I don't have the web server totally offline for this I'll try and update a manual HTML file with a status. Once the upgrade is completed (or if I need to revert) I'll post details in a replacement global sticky and in Meta.
Last edited by FishPants on Sat Dec 12, 2015 12:59 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Pyperkub
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by Pyperkub »

Any tips on prepping for the demise of Black Pearl would be appreciated...
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by LawBeefaroni »

FishPants wrote:Still, even if our mod workload goes up with spammers; it's worth keeping us current and not compromised from the next PHPBB vulnerability in this branch.
Sounds like the best choice.


Thanks, FP. Good luck and Godspeed!
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by Kraken »

My old eyes need a dark theme. I have to wear sunglasses to read those bright ones. Thanks, Obama!

Srsly, thanks for spending your time dragging us kicking and screaming into the future.
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by LawBeefaroni »

Kraken wrote:My old eyes need a dark theme. I have to wear sunglasses to read those bright ones. Thanks, Obama!
All you crazy Blackpearlers should have something for your delicate ocular stems.
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by Skinypupy »

I know you planned this specifically so we couldn't talk about the NCAA conference championship games this weekend.
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by FishPants »

Skinypupy wrote:I know you planned this specifically so we couldn't talk about the NCAA conference championship games this weekend.
Exactly!

I'm actually hoping that the backups take around an hour, and the upgrade an hour, and another hour of fiddling. I also think the same way when I start replacing the brakes on my car.. It always goes well until that last caliper.
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by DD* »

Many thanks for donating your time and talents to keep the board up!
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by Bad Demographic »

What DD said!
And thanks for the heads up, FishPants.
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by tiny ogre »

They (you know who THEY are) just force upgraded everyone to Office 2016 (from Office 2010) at work. I don't think there's anything improved. There are things that are worse. But mostly it's just pointlessly different. I hate it. Apparently I am old and hate change.

So I hate this idea too! And FFS get off of my lawn.

I am joking of course. Good luck and thanks for keeping this thing running!
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by Moat_Man »

I quite like the Black and Gold theme and dislike the white themes. I hope some compromise can be found between trying to minimize the work required by FP to maintain the board (thank you, your work for the benefit of the community is really appreciated) and the apparent extra themes and us die hard Black Pearler's kinda need/want.

Ultimately I will live with whatever choice you make because it's not like this is a paid service.
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by FishPants »

I will always maintain a black(ish) theme of some sort, and yes it's always going to be a one off. I may have to postpone the work this weekend based on my day job and some things I need to get done (along with writing a paper for my masters that's getting close to due). If I need to change the date, I'll update this sticky.
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by Giles Habibula »

We appreciate all of your time and efforts, FishPants!

And thanks for the warning. I generally jump to the conclusion that IE has shit the bed again (I really need to try another browser some day. I've always been comfortable with IE, and never had a problem with it until the last year or two. Sorry for the digression. I'll turn in my Internet Card now. Carry on.).
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by Giles Habibula »

Moat_Man wrote:I quite like the Black and Gold theme and dislike the white themes. I hope some compromise can be found between trying to minimize the work required by FP to maintain the board (thank you, your work for the benefit of the community is really appreciated) and the apparent extra themes and us die hard Black Pearler's kinda need/want.

Ultimately I will live with whatever choice you make because it's not like this is a paid service.
I find that the Black/Gold has always been much easier on my eyes. Not so flipping bright. I've always appreciated the option. Have we ever run a poll here to see what people are using? Or maybe FP has that statistic handy? I'm just curious, since I've run Black/Gold ever since the GG days. I don't remember...Did GG default to Black/Gold, or was there no other option back then?
"I've been fighting with reality for over thirty-five years, and I'm happy to say that I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by FishPants »

Giles Habibula wrote:
Moat_Man wrote:I quite like the Black and Gold theme and dislike the white themes. I hope some compromise can be found between trying to minimize the work required by FP to maintain the board (thank you, your work for the benefit of the community is really appreciated) and the apparent extra themes and us die hard Black Pearler's kinda need/want.

Ultimately I will live with whatever choice you make because it's not like this is a paid service.
I find that the Black/Gold has always been much easier on my eyes. Not so flipping bright. I've always appreciated the option. Have we ever run a poll here to see what people are using? Or maybe FP has that statistic handy? I'm just curious, since I've run Black/Gold ever since the GG days. I don't remember...Did GG default to Black/Gold, or was there no other option back then?
Black Pearl - 127 Users
Subsilver2 - 107
ProSilver (default) - 2616

I'm going to get cracking on my school work due, and if I have the time I'll take the board down, get some backups done and start the upgrade.
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend (Maybe!)

Post by Lassr »

I've always used subsilver 2. Because it utilizes my whole monitor. Black Pearl was always a narrow strip right in the center.
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend (Maybe!)

Post by LordMortis »

Does this mean you be installing the

:poop: -ie head emoticon?

Image

Can't make is smaller

...

Hey look, it's part of unicode!


Oh, and thanx FP!!!!
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by Kraken »

FishPants wrote:
Black Pearl - 127 Users
Subsilver2 - 107
ProSilver (default) - 2616
How many of those are active accounts? As in, somebody posted more than once within the last year. I suspect a lot of abandoned accounts with the default theme.
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by Blackhawk »

Giles Habibula wrote: I find that the Black/Gold has always been much easier on my eyes. Not so flipping bright. I've always appreciated the option. Have we ever run a poll here to see what people are using? Or maybe FP has that statistic handy? I'm just curious, since I've run Black/Gold ever since the GG days. I don't remember...Did GG default to Black/Gold, or was there no other option back then?
There was no other option. I know I have better shots somewhere, but this is the only one that is easy to find:

Image
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Re: Board maintenance this weekend

Post by FishPants »

Kraken wrote:
FishPants wrote:
Black Pearl - 127 Users
Subsilver2 - 107
ProSilver (default) - 2616
How many of those are active accounts? As in, somebody posted more than once within the last year. I suspect a lot of abandoned accounts with the default theme.
Zero post accounts are automatically pruned, but I don't kill accounts that had posted and have been dormant for a long time. There's not a lot of us to be honest, I'd figure a couple hundred active people at most.
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Re: Board Maintenance - Postponed to closer to Christmas

Post by Jeff V »

I used the default because the color scheme fits in perfectly with work-related apps. The black-and-gold would just scream "not working!" at passers-by.
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Re: Board Maintenance - Postponed to closer to Christmas

Post by TheMix »

Jeff V wrote:I used the default because the color scheme fits in perfectly with work-related apps. The black-and-gold would just scream "not working!" at passers-by.
That's my reasoning as well. I actually took a look at the black color scheme as I think it's less of a concern now. But now my issue is that the functionality is very different (or at least, the design is very different). It would take some getting used to. I was hoping for a black version of the default. :D

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