Planned downtime weekend of 12-13 October 2013

Updates on forum status, bug fixes, etc. If there's something new in here its probably a good idea that you read it.
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Quiff Boy
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Good people of Heartland 8)

This is a heads-up that the site will be unavailable over the coming weekend.

As I'm sure you are all aware of there have been several ongoing issues with the current hosting company and the reliability of their web servers. I've been paying a premium for a service which is not up to scratch. In order to remedy this I have found a lovely shiny new hosting company and will be moving the website over to their infrastructure this coming weekend.

It is my intention to take the site off-line at approximately 11.30am on Saturday morning (12th October 2013) (UK time).

The move will take a couple of hours, but will also involved updating some real nuts-and-bolts stuff such as IPS tags, DNS records. The net effect is that the site will probably become available for some of you by Saturday afternoon, whereas for others it wont be available until Sunday or possibly Monday.

This is down to the way your own individual Internet Service Providers handle DNS refreshes, and is out of my hands I'm afraid. The site will be living on the new server and the myheartland.co.uk address will be pointing to the new site, but for soma of you your ISPs wont have updated their records. All I can suggest in this instance is to sit tight and wait. It will happen eventually, probably by Sunday or Monday morning at the very latest.

You'll know when it's finished because you'll be able to see the site again, and it will be on-line.

As part of the move I will also be moving email addresses over. This may result in some loss of emails sent to or from any @myheartland.co.uk email address. Again, please bear with us and all should be back to normal by Monday (14th October 2013).

If you notice any quirks after the move, please post them in the Feedback section of the forum.

After the server move all the sites I run (this one, MarchViolets.co.uk, SalvationHQ.co.uk plus my own personal sites) will now live on separate servers, meaning that if one of them should develop an problem it should not effect the others. With the current hosts a problem with one site could bring all of them down. This should not happen anymore.

One further point to note: the existing server is located in Germany, meaning it is optimised for access from Europe. However, the new server will be initially located in New York, but once things have bedded down I will be relocating it to hardware based in Amsterdam. This second move will require an additional couple of hours downtime, but I wont be doing this for a few weeks and will let you all know when I plan to do that.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused, and thank you all for sticking with us over the last few months (years?!?) of patchy service. Fingers crossed the new server will be much more reliable.

Ta

QB & the mod squad :von:



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Note: This move does not effect the Sisters Wiki. That will be moved shortly in a separate move (one thing at once!). Until then it will remain on the existing hardware with hopefully uninterrupted service.
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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markfiend
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I'm moving the Wiki now. Copying it as it is now to my hosting.

ANY CHANGES MADE TO THE WIKI FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS MAY NOT STICK
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
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markfiend
goriller of form 3b
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Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 10:55
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markfiend wrote:ANY CHANGES MADE TO THE WIKI FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS MAY NOT STICK
Actually, scrap that, I've run into a couple of snags. I'll take another dump of the database when I've got the files working...
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
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Quiff Boy
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Joined: 25 Jan 2002, 00:00
Location: Lurking and fixing
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The wiki might not be moving just yet but the Forum will be...

Expect the forum to disappear for a day or two starting 11.30am tomorrow (Saturday 12th October 2013) (UK time)
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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Quiff Boy
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Posts: 16757
Joined: 25 Jan 2002, 00:00
Location: Lurking and fixing
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Going down in 10 mins....
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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Quiff Boy
Herr Administrator
Posts: 16757
Joined: 25 Jan 2002, 00:00
Location: Lurking and fixing
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In theory we're back, but depending on your ISP you might not be able to see this yet.

Suffice to say, if you are still seeing the OFFLINE message, you;re still on the old server. All you can do is wait I'm afraid.

However, if you can see the ONLINE version of the forum (ie: you're treading this!), welcome to our new home. Come in, wipe your feet, and enjoy 8)
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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markfiend
goriller of form 3b
Posts: 21181
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 10:55
Location: st custards
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Right.

http://wiki.markfiend.com (it will move back to http://sisterswiki.org once I've finished...)

I downloaded and installed the latest version of mediawiki. I've cloned the database across from the existing wiki. I've not copied the images across yet but I think that's all I've got left to do.
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
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