2009-11-14: Moving host and forum license expiry

Right, couple of things;

I'm moving the site to the new host and I've copied all the files over to the new server. However, what I need to get is the database back-up of the forum and it turns out that the host we've been with is a bit lacking in flexibility in this regard.

I cannot create a back-up manually or schedule one for a specific time. I have to wait until they perform a back-up. Which sucks a lot, as I'll now have to shut the site down for longer than I normally would while I wait for them to do the back-up.

So I'll probably disable the forum later tonight in the hope that Saturday's back-up happens in the next few hours. Don't be too surprised if the forum is unavailable until late Sunday or even Monday, though - it's about as out of my control as it could be.

Hey, I'll take the blame - I thought the host was a good one. They're not. :|

Next thing... oh yeah, the forum license expires today and it's $190 to renew it because vBulletin 3 is at the end of the line and they want folk to upgrade to vBulletin 4. I can't afford to buy that right now, so I'm going to let the license lapse and then buy the new license later in the month. Probably.

As we have an "owned" license this should not affect the every day running of the forum. An "owned license" means I paid more up-front when we first moved to vBulletin so that WipEoutZone owns a copy of version 3 and just because they stop supporting it doesn't mean we lose ownership. We'll just carry on for free but without support that I never really used anyway.

Of course, I'm working on the assumption that nothing will go wrong over the whole owned license thing - it might be that when it gets to midnight they pull a switch that stops the forum working anyway because the license has expired and I'll need to get down and dirty with them.

Like I said, shouldn't come to that, but just in case you see an alarming message when the site is down, that's what might have happened. It's not like WipEoutZone has defaulted on the bills or anything, it's just that the bill for the forum license has come at a time when I've had to pay out for a new host on top of the other new host.

Can't make the scene if you don't have the green. ;)

Right - I'll go drink some beer and give it a few hours, then disable the forum to preserve the timeline for the back-up/move. Hopefully I'll see you all on the other side.

Okay, we're back up again.

Man, that was a tough migration.

I'm aware the photo album images are broken - I'll get that fixed.

Oh yeah, I also got the license for the new version of the forum software - turned out there was a discount in it for us if I got it now instead of waiting, so I took the plunge.

Got to focus on my real job now - I'll update more later.

:+ Good to see that place up again. Damn, was down only for a short time, but I missed the zone lol. Big thanks for your job Rob.

It certainly is an advantage to own something instead of just renting it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by infoxicated

I'm aware the photo album images are broken - I'll get that fixed.

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Hi Rob :)
Seems the record section is also failing to respond.

Thanks Rob for keeping this place up and running! Good thing with the discount!
Greetz Mad-Ice

I also want to thank you for all your work on this, Rob, and combining it with your proper job and family. I also feel that Arnaud is itching to enter some more crazy Goteki Pure times :twisted

Can you give me a bit more detail about what you're experiencing, Arnaud, because it seems like it's working for me. :|

Not sure if it's the same thing as I'm getting, but:

Content Encoding Error

The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.

* Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

Hope this helps.:)

That's weird. Not seen that one before. Trying to remember if I'm forcing compression on the pages - I might well be.

I don't have time to look into it now, so I'll try to have it fixed tomorrow.

Oh yeah, the albums and stuff. Oops. I forgot they were stored off of the site root on the old server so I might have forgotten to copy all those down. By "might" I mean "did".

So I'm downloading all of those now. Well, not me, personally, but my laptop and my broadband connection have a long night ahead of them Let's hope they don't just get to midnight and switch to downloading porn like usual! ;)

I'll need to re-upload all of the album assets tomorrow, so thanks for your patience with that and the main site. Like I said - tough migration this one. :coffee

Nice to see were back online :) Cheers to rob for all the effort you put in to keeping this place running, :+ and indeed the expense incurred.

awesome Rob, thank you for this! :rock

Yes Rob this is exactly the same message I got MrSmadSmartAlex described above. For info i am using Firefox 3.5.5 ( i tested with IE same occurs).
Congratulations again for what you are doing for us through this forum :)

And yes Stephen, I have few not too bad scores waiting to be updated :p, not many but playing regularly 30 min almost every day, to relax after job, keep them coming naturally.

I can see the records index fine, but clicking on the link to a specific game version's records brought up only a blank page. This was on the latest public release of Opera. I've not checked it on the test builds, but the result will almost certainly be the same since the sections being tested are related only to Opera Unite functions.

Can you clear out your browser cache and tell me if it's still happening?

I'm not compressing the pages - used to years ago, but it caused more problems than it was worth. Nothing has changed the past two months other than we've moved to two different servers. The site code is the same.

Edit: Actually, scratch that - I've managed to replicate it now, but I have no idea what's causing it.

Yeah, just tried clearing the cache, but same message still. Not sure if it makes a difference, but I'm on Firefox 3.0.8 running from an Ubuntu Live CD, because my HDD died so I can't boot Vista to use my usual browser/settings. I can try it on Firefox 3.5.5 and IE on a desktop PC shortly, to see if it works there.

edit: tried both Firefox 3.5.5 and IE 8, and neither would display the record tables. Other pages work fine, like the page where you choose which game/version you want to view records for, only the pages with tables won't display.:?

another edit: on the positive side, the forum seems to be running a lot faster.:)

Fixed, like I said in the other thread in The Evolution Engine...

//off to barf at the cheesy name. I really should rename that forum.