Forum server move.. in September.. Planned 11th September 2023. RESCHEDULED sometime this week.

[ChrisSilver]

A while ago I put up a topic or post about a possible server move and the reasons for this. In short we are moving away from self managed severs to cloud hosting, this is expected to be our last and final move, and will provide several benefits to the community including more forum features.

We hope to schedule this for sometime towards the beginning of September but will give at least 1 weeks notice when we know a move date. There will be some downtime during one day however this will be minimised as much as possible, and we will aim for the actual switch over to be as seamless as possible and to go LIVE as soon as possible with the bulk of the images and data being uploaded in the background whilst the new server is live. 

I will update in this topic as soon as have a switch date  

⚠️ Edit: Please see update in next post below

[ChrisSilver]

⚠️ 🚧 Planned Server Move 11th September 2023 🚧 ⚠️ 

Firstly, apologies with the relatively short notice of about  4-5 days, as my initial post above I was planning to give 7 or more days notice but I have been back and forth with multiple multiple emails over the last week with the new cloud host trying to get this sorted and a date booked in, as this needs to be sorted whilst I am currently in the UK the timeline for starting this was running out and this is the date that they have came back to me with within the time frame. 

There are a lot more details than we originally anticipated. 😅

After the move there will be some functionality and customisations that we will need to make adjustments on before they are up and running again, these include but are not limited to; the compare page, spot price bar, trading section of the forum, email notifications. 

As TSF will be offline on the 11th September 2023 (and hopefully only on this date) if we need to update the community to the progress any updates will be made on threads, please save this link for updates: https://threads.net/@thesilverforum 

Edited September 6, 2023 by ChrisSilver

[ChrisSilver]

The forum may need to go offline sometime on Sunday 10th September so that we can create a copy of the forum ready for the migration to take place on Monday 11th September.

So please be advised that TSF may also be inaccessible on the Sunday. I will try to update when/if I have further information as still waiting for some answers to questions.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused by this migration. It will be a beneficial move and is the last move we should ever need, so it’s just temporary downtime which should not need to happen again in the future. Thank you for your patience.

Updates: https://www.threads.net/@thesilverforum

 

 

[ChrisSilver]

At midnight tonight TSF will go into offline mode.

We hope to be back up and running sometime on the 11th after the migration if all goes smoothly, if there are delays we will update on threads.

https://www.threads.net/@thesilverforum

[ChrisSilver]

Ran into a few issues. 

So as to not keep the forum down for longer than is needed, I will keep it in online mode for the moment rather than going offline at midnight.  

I will update sometime tomorrow once I have heard back and have more of an understanding how to address the current issues we have bumped into.

[ChrisSilver]

Long story short, major issues in getting the files to the new cloud host. Mainly because they are extremely large. Zipping the original files also took over 24 hours, these then need to be split into several smaller zipped packets and sent, which also takes 12+ hours. This is after taking days and days to download the original files from the server in the first place 😅 there have been some issues trying to get this bit done even though we started work originally on Thursday. 

The forum is just really massive, and not easy to migrate as the cloud host is only able to take zipped files and not direct FTP access to download the files themselves. Thank you to Premium Members who choose to support TSF with Premium Membership as this does help greatly to our hosting and running costs. 

In order to minimise disruption and keep the forum online for as much as possible, we will only put the forum into offline mode and start migrating the database after we have managed to successful zipped/split/sent/extracted and migrated the majority of current files in the background. We want to make sure we can do this part first before putting the forum offline. 

The forum may therefore go offline sometime this week (possibly still very late tonight or more likely tomorrow) but we are unable to give an exact time frame as we are unsure and planning for a specific date/time is not so easy due to the variables. 

We do hope that we can complete the migration this week.  

Edited September 11, 2023 by ChrisSilver

[ChrisSilver]

So after more than 24 hours of trying to split the latest zipped folder and looking like it was about to complete with no issues, for some unknown reason it then failed. 😅

So back to the drawing board. Currently dividing the folders up in smaller portions and then zipping each of those, rather than trying to split the already created zipped folder. 

Probably realistically a day or two before ready to put the forum into offline mode. Apologies for the delays, glad though that we have managed to keep everything online and have not had any unnecessary downtime  

[ChrisSilver]

This migration will likely be sometime next week. Just uploading the files to the host still, via a method that is currently working. 😄

So once that is done should be pretty much good to go depending on the host. They don’t work over weekends so will likely be sometime early next week 🤞 

[ChrisSilver]

An update on this, the last several days have been a right nightmare and has taken much longer than expected to get the files over to the new host. That first part has finally done but they still need to download and convert the files to work with their cloud host and then upload to there, so that may take several more days.

The migration may not be able to happen until sometime next week. I was supposed to be on a flight tomorrow but have cancelled everything to try to get this all done smoothly.
 

As soon as I have an update from them and a rough idea as to when TSF will go offline I will update here, there may be very short notice at the time, it depends on the host. The actual time TSF will be offline for should be very minimal and less than a day. As most of the files are able to be moved across in the background, after the move there may also be some missing recent images etc that have been added since my initial upload, but those will be added to the new server behind the scenes without affecting downtime.

I will try to update as soon as I know when we are likely to go offline. My guess is sometime next week (as they don’t work on weekends) 

Thank you once again for your patience  

[ChrisSilver]

Waiting to hear back from cloud host when the files have been uploaded, they estimate possible Wednesday. So there is a chance this will happen this week, but I presume may be next. I will update when I have any further info. 

[ChrisSilver]

There is a chance this may happen this afternoon. Just waiting for confirmation back. 

[ChrisSilver]

Currently we expect the forum to go offline sometime this afternoon. 

[ChrisSilver]

We are back (well sort of)

In my post here: https://www.threads.net/@thesilverforum/post/CxtWOQlrInD I said:

Quote

Forum online, but only for some: The forum has been put online but the new instance is not showing for all servers and there may be instances where the old site is showing (if you see the offline page it’s the old instance) This is because it can take up to 48-72 hours for all worldwide servers to propagate with the new instance. This is due to the DNS cache, your ISP cache and other reasons. I myself am also finding it hard to access the forum. Now it’s just a case of waiting. 🙏

There will be a bit of time before everyone is able to get back onto the forum and there may be occasional loading of the old site that may affect you / log you out of the new instance. Once all servers are propagated worldwide this will fix itself. I have found it very hard to be able to login to the forum to even post this, as the majority of my devices are loading the old site. I am currently writing this from a USA VPN where it seems to have propagated already.

There is also media that is missing from recent topics, e.g. the last 3 weeks of listings in the trade section, this is normal, there is no need to try to re-upload photos. This is simply because there are additional files needed to be uploaded to the new server in addition to the ones previously supplied over the last 3 weeks and today. The host will be able to complete this tomorrow. I will also update here when done  

In addition to this there will be a list of applications and plugins that are no longer working due to the move (as mentioned above in previous notification posts in this topic), these we need to go through a developer with one by one, some may need to be updated in their entirety to work. But they will all be back again eventually. There may also be some other features that are not currently working as expected. Over the coming weeks we will be hiring developers to fix all of these.

Email notifications should be unaffected as we pay for a separate server for those and should be no adjustments needed to that currently. 
 

[ChrisSilver]

The missing media should now all be added, about an hour and a half ago.  

I will go try to see if I can get a developer to help start tackling some of the other issues today, one by one. Once the majority of what I can see is either fixed or in the process I will likely put up another post asking if I have missed anything, in the meantime please be assured that we are likely working on them. Currently there are a lot of things that somehow broke even though from my perspective technically they shouldn't have done so as there was only a minor software upgrade and not major software version upgrade, so a bit confused as to why that happened and will need to consult a developer to investigate. 

Thank you for your patience whilst we work on getting everything fixed. I will likely start with the trade section. 

[ChrisSilver]

Trade section tag system should be working now. Also other work within the trade section I have asked a developer to look at first. 

Just so everyone is aware, the new instance of the forum hasn't propagated to everyone yet. So there may still be some people who can't get on, so just incase you have any trades with members and waiting for someone to get back to you, please be patient as even though you may have access to the forum they may not have it yet. 

There is also a big queue of notifications. Current task queue of email notifications etc, should be cleared automatically by the server as we get traffic. I will also keep an eye out to check later to see if it is working and if anything needs to be done. 

Currently I am unable to send and receive emails to my TSF work email, in the meantime if you do need to contact me urgently please private message me directly on the forum. 

[ChrisSilver]

In regards to the applications and plugins and customisations: Excluding the spot price bar, reactions, compare page (haven't checked that yet), my own email accounts and some banners on the homepage, and the forum footer which needs to be redone as previous not compatible, I think everything should mostly be working again right now 😅🤯

[ChrisSilver]

On 28/09/2023 at 19:09, ChrisSilver said:

In regards to the applications and plugins and customisations: Excluding the spot price bar, reactions, compare page (haven't checked that yet), my own email accounts and some banners on the homepage, and the forum footer which needs to be redone as previous not compatible, I think everything should mostly be working again right now 😅🤯

Trading Feedback Tab on a member's profile also currently has an error, have asked a developer to look into this.

To do:
Trading Feedback profile tab,
the spot price bar
Reactions
compare page (haven't checked that yet)
my own email accounts and some banners on the homepage

[ChrisSilver]

On 30/09/2023 at 10:17, ChrisSilver said:

Trading Feedback Tab on a member's profile also currently has an error, have asked a developer to look into this.

To do:
Trading Feedback profile tab,
the spot price bar
Reactions
compare page (haven't checked that yet)
my own email accounts and some banners on the homepage

BUMP. Please be advised that I am working on these. Thank you for your patience in the meantime.  

[ChrisSilver]

To do:

✅ Trading Feedback profile tab
the spot price bar
Reactions (thought there was an issue but not sure currently as no new error records relating to that) 
compare page (haven't checked that yet)
my own email accounts and some banners on the homepage


Trading feedback should be fixed. I will get around to replying to private messages at some point but for the moment I am working through the list of these first. 

[ChrisSilver]

Apologies for the brief downtime earlier:

So many problems. Over the next few weeks there may be some issues and things not working as expected as need to try to locate what is causing some issues. There are logs, which are of some use (sometimes) but It’s pretty much going to be manually checking one thing at a time and trying to see if that particular applicators or plugin is causing any errors. Today was a lot of stress 🤯

[ChrisSilver]

2 hours ago, ChrisSilver said:

Apologies for the brief downtime earlier:

So many problems. Over the next few weeks there may be some issues and things not working as expected as need to try to locate what is causing some issues. There are logs, which are of some use (sometimes) but It’s pretty much going to be manually checking one thing at a time and trying to see if that particular applicators or plugin is causing any errors. Today was a lot of stress 🤯

I will try to continue to tackle this issue tomorrow. In the meantime I have disabled a lot of custom things, so that the forum should not go down in the night. 

Finding it difficult to locate the cause of the issue, forum was stable before migration. Have tested some applications and plugins on a separate test forum that the developer has and they have been unable to reproduce the error. 

Should all be temporary, and just a lot of back end work. 

Many messages from members to inform me of things not working, or to ask why, please be assured that we are aware and working on it. Please see this topic for regular updates  

This is the problem with having so many custom applications and plugins, and why I want to try to limit such modifications of new ones if possible. That being said there are still some improvements to the trade section which I would like to implement after this has all been resolved which should improve the experience. All of the features that were present before the migration will all be fixed, in the meantime there may be some that are disabled whilst we are working on things. 

Apologies for the inconvenience whilst we work on this. 

[ChrisSilver]

Trying to find the application/plugin causing the issue, website may go down briefly some point today but will be back up after a reset. 

[ChrisSilver]

26 minutes ago, ChrisSilver said:

Trying to find the application/plugin causing the issue, website may go down briefly some point today but will be back up after a reset. 

OK, I think I may have found the cause, or at least the application/plugin which it may be, now hopefully a developer can find the actual issue. Though tested before on a separate test site and couldn't find it. Fingers crossed this time 🤞

[ChrisSilver]

Sorry for the system bumping of trade topics there. 😅

Still going through slowly each plugin/application to see which if any are causing system error logs. Just enabled the plugin that autoposts in trade topics that are older than 30 days and closes them, there is another plugin somewhere that should stop the bumping when that happens, but unsure which plugin exactly that feature is included in.

[ChrisSilver]

Have updated developer with current list including:

1. Spot Price Bar, still waiting for API company to get back to us as to why the call is empty. May need to find new company. 
✅ 2. Reactions (previously causing TSF side to crash If enabled, previous tests unable to replicate on test server)
✅ 3. Compare page, needs to have some improvements to the application so that we can easily update photos of coins/products with missing images. (development work done, just need to manually update missing photos from admin side)
4. Guest spam posts conflict somewhere (not seen by members side but from admin/moderator side a lot of spam)
✅ 5. Contact button layer (easy fix)
☑️ 6. An improvement to the trading section mentioned in the Premium Members lounge, which needs some work to one of our applications first. Work in progress, also asked about some custom work. (was trialled and then converted back to original from, still other planned improvements for the trade section)
✅ 7. videos application, was causing some errors and currently disabled, needs to be fixed so can be re-enabled. 

8. Prize draws (for another developer) join date 
9. Favicon / forum logo 

And some other back end work.

For the moment that is the current list. If there are any issues that do not relate to any of the above please do private message me and let me know. 

Edited November 26, 2023 by ChrisSilver
Updated with completed ✅