Over the next few weeks HobbyTalk will be doing some server and software upgrades. During these upgrades HobbyTalk will be offline. While we do try to minimize the downtime, with updates as major as we are doing, things can happen.



It will be a multistage rollout with the approx. below steps.



Server OS upgrade: The OS we are using is a couple of years old. The latest version fixes a few issues and should perform better. This is the most “dangerous” upgrade as it is possible, though unlikely, that this OS upgrade will “break” the applications we are running. My investigation has shown that this shouldn’t happen, but anything is possible. This step is also required to do the next step.



Server Upgrade: We will be switching server hardware. We will be moving to a new dual core CPU server. While our current server has been able to handle the current increase in traffic, there is not much room for further growth. We would like to offer a few more features and this upgrade will give us the extra power needed to do so.



Photo Album Upgrade: We will then upgrade the Photo Album software. The newest version has a few new features and should be a bit “nicer” on the server. This is required for the next step.



Forum Upgrade: We will be upgrading the forum software to the latest version. This will have the biggest effect on our members as it adds new features and changes the way things work a bit. The changes aren’t huge in the way it works, just a bit different. With this upgrade we will also have to upgrade our add-ons such as the Trader Ratings, banner ad rotation, chat integration, etc.



Please bear with us during this part of the upgrade as this will be the part that will take the longest. Once the main forum software is upgraded we want to get the forum back up and running ASAP. Once up and running we will have to tweak the style (top and side borders) so it all works properly, then upgrade the add-ons one at a time to make sure each works properly before moving on to the next. So some parts may be “broken” until we can get each add-on upgraded and debugged.



At this point we plan on starting the upgrades the week of Feb 3. We will be doing each step only after we know the previous step has been successful. The steps may change order, as an example, we find out the OS upgrade breaks the forum software so we would upgrade the forum software next, but hopefully that will not happen.



So if you come to HobbyTalk and you find the site is down, just relax a bit and come back later to try again. During this time hitting the “refresh” button does nothing more then slow down the server and the speed of upgrade.



You can discuss the upgrades here.

Good luck with everything, hankster. I'm looking forward to the improvements.

Thanks for the "heads up" on this, Hank. Hope it all goes smoothly.

I shall prepare a sacrifice to the computer gods.

Darn. Why didn't ya use RAID0? That would've saved lots of losses n' stuff. Run one HDD while you're working on the other...

You can't since the database is dynamic. The forum has to be shut down to convert it over else posts made during the converstion would be lost. The extra cost of having RAID0 doesn't justify the small amount of downtime every couple of years.

Test Mesage

The first two parts of the HobbyTalk upgrade has been completed. We will let it run for a few days to make sure everything is OK and give everyone a break from trying to access the site while we did the upgrade.

These steps included upgrading the O.S. on the old server. Once that was complete and operating a database accelerating program was installed that basically caches the most popular database requests in memory. This means that the database has to be accessed less frequently as those requests are pulled from memory instead of the hard drive.

Once both of these were happily working together a larger replacement hard drive was installed and was synced with the “live” hard drive. Once fully synced the HD was pulled and installed into the new server hardware.

As some may have noticed we did have a bit of downtime on Sunday. This was my fat fingered fault as I was doing some tests on database backup and managed to crash myQSL.

So this first part went pretty much as planned with just one small configuration problem that was quickly solved. Next on the list is to upgrade the photo album software and then the forum software. We will do most likely next week.

UPDATE - It appears that the O.S. upgrade has broken the chat script. I will attempt to find a solution for that. With the forum software upgrade I was planning on changing to new chat software so chat may not get back on-line if I can't find a current solution and until we upgrade the forum software.

from my viewpoint performance has improved. but that's totally anecdotal. g'luck with your next steps.

It appears that there is some database errors happening once in a while but it has not happened to me nor can I find where it is happening.

If you happen to get a database error message while on HobbyTalk could you please let me know exactly what the error said (cut and paste) by emailing me a hobbytalk@gmail.com

Thank you.

One error found: When using the My Settings link, you will get an error. As a work around for now use the "Private Message" link below your name at the upper right of the page.

I may have to do the forum software upgrade sooner as there is no fix for this.

Hank sometimes when i use my direct link to the diecast swap and sell i get a "database error". thx
will this effect me as i use my cellphone to view HT?hope not!

Thanks for the info. It appears that there are a few issues with the old software and the new O.S. The only fix is that I upgrade the forum software. I plan on doing that tomorrow as I have to do some other changes tonight before I can upgrade the forum software.

First test post after upgrade.

Test post #2 - testing Ajax

Evening Hank, Not sure if this is something that came with the new upgrades or not so I thought I would ask. I just recently cleared my cache, temp files. After I did this I came to HT. I was in the Slotcar forum reading a thread titled "New AW" when I had a pop-up warning about a unknown site certificate. I did a screen print for your review. Is this from the new upgrades? I will keep answering no until I hear from you. Thanks.

It is not from HobbyTalk. I would guess it is maybe from a picture that was inserted into a picture that was posted? I haven't seen it.... what thread was it from?

Not really a big deal,just a curious question Hankster.

While leaving feedback for trader ratings I noticed now we have the option of leaving a message that can only be seen by the seller,buyer and administration,
how is this beneficial to the feedback system?

thanks

:)

Maybe you want to give a personal comment to the buyer/seller? Or leave a note on this buyer/seller for your own future reference? It's just another option that has no effect the public comments that are left. It can be used or not used.

Thanks Hank

:thumbsup:

It is not from HobbyTalk. I would guess it is maybe from a picture that was inserted into a picture that was posted? I haven't seen it.... what thread was it from?


This thread (http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=209323). I was pretty sure it wasn't from HT, just wasn't sure why I never saw it before in this thread.

Jeff

Hey Hank, Not sure if you did anything but the warning is gone now. If you did thanks, if you didn't I guess I need to run my spybot/adaware programs again just to be sure I didn't have a brainfart and allow the unknown certificate.

Jeff

Thanks again for taking the time. :-)

Just testing photo uploads

jack0fall, I didn't do anything so it may have been something on your end.