Server / Network Updates

[Tweak]

Apologies again for the downtime on the 22nd - 23rd June, this was caused by a database corruption which I couldn't handle until I got back home (was at the airport again!) The problem was easily fixed and only affected the forums.

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In the next few weeks the IRC server will be undergoing some changes:

• Daemon and Services upgrade - Compiled and configured, just needs to go live
• New statistics software
• Channel registration will be made universally available
• Chanserv will become invisible in channel
• The storage for users, channels, etc will be moved into a database
• Encryption will be changed

The new statistics package will provide real-time statistics on the server including the online users, channel information and more. Channel registration was always restricted but it has been decided to be lifted for all to use as wanted.

The storage and password encryption changes are occurring to support simpler backups and to provide a base for more features later on.

Any questions, ask as always.

[Tweak]

The statistics software has been operating for a few days and will be made live once it is definitely working correctly.

We did suffer an attempted DoS attack on the IRC service today, DEFCON modes were activated and the attack was brought under control, anyone trying to connect during this time may have been banned for protection to the server, please let me know if you cannot access the IRC.

[Tweak]

Apologies for the downtime experienced early this evening.

The network was subjected to another DDoS attack but due to the improvements mentioned previously it had no direct affect on the network and as a result no alarms were triggered. However an upstream link was almost saturated and connectivity to some areas was lost.

Work is ongoing with this provider to ensure future attacks are mitigated.

[Tweak]

Just to reassure and quash any rumours that have been circulating.

The forums were in no way attacked or hacked. The ban message was an error caused by the server IP being added into a ban made on a troll. We are investigating how the issue occurred and any actions we can take to remove this risk.

[White Wolf Guardian]

That's a relief, I was stressed about that last night.

[Tweak]

I don't see why, the forums are using up-to-date software with no known security issues. The easiest way in would be through a weak password at which point access is given to more areas than just the ban system. Personally banning everyone (something I wasn't even aware would be the affect of that) would be a pretty crap hack, deleting everything would be far more of an attack.

[Goblin Cat 😸]

I think it was more or less a scare because not only was everyone banned, but being banned prevented us from seeing if anything was deleted or not and it's not something that's the norm. I'll admit I was a little worried last night as well.

[Tweak]

I have installed a new proxy server over the current webserver to try reduce some load, this forwards all requests through to the normal server but due to its improve handling of requests the main webserver can do less work overall

Some of you may remember the above change being made. I completely forgot that I made a few changes to this recently.

Although the majority of changes will not affect you directly the proxy server is now set up to serve all requests for static content (HTML, CSS, Javascript, images, etc) all dynamic things such as PHP are sent through to the main server and processed. This reduces the overall web-server load by about 85%. We are investigating if a cache server may also aid in performance, this is ongoing.

[Tweak]

We are aware of the current avatar display issue and are working to resolve it. All avatars are still stored, it's the act of getting them linked properly is the current issue.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

[Tweak]

In the next few weeks the IRC server will be undergoing some changes:

• Daemon and Services upgrade - Compiled and configured, just needs to go live
• New statistics software
• Channel registration will be made universally available
• Chanserv will become invisible in channel
• The storage for users, channels, etc will be moved into a database
• Encryption will be changed

This is currently on hold pending investigation into the potential introduction of a different daemon.

The forums were in no way attacked or hacked. The ban message was an error caused by the server IP being added into a ban made on a troll. We are investigating how the issue occurred and any actions we can take to remove this risk.

This was found to be an error with the proxy server forwarding requests. It is fixed and such an event is no longer a possibility.

[Tweak]

Some of you may have encountered an error when attempting to access the forum today. Although restricted to those trying to view the front page of the forums this was a server-wide issue caused by an issue with the /tmp directory failing to purge our proxy server sessions.

This has been fixed and measures put in place to prevent the same from happening again.

It was also discovered recent high loads may have also been caused by this and our load average has dropped significantly as shown in the graph attached.

The gap in the reading was due to this issue.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Tweak]

ANNOUNCEMENT :: SERVER MAINTENANCE
24th April 2010 :: 8am GMT+1

To ensure all kernel patches are applied correctly, the server will be rebooted at 8am GMT+1 on 24th April 2010.

There should only be a few minutes of interrupted service and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

[Tweak]

ANNOUNCEMENT :: NETWORK MAINTENANCE
10th May 2010 :: 00:00 - 06:30 GMT+1

I have just received the following notice from the data centre.

We will be performing essential maintenance on a cabinet which houses at least one of your dedicated servers.

The maintenance slot starts at 2011-05-10 00:10:00 and ends at 2011-05-10 06:30:00. The total downtime for your server(s) is estimated to be no more than three hours but services should be considered 'at risk' for the entire period.

We will be cutting power to this cabinet so if you wish to perform a graceful shutdown this should be performed between 00:00 and 00:10.

As a result the forums and IRC will be offline during this period. Unfortunately the maintenance is critical and there is no way to avoid it. I am investigating the possibility of fast-tracking our backup plans which may enable us to provide a temporary IRC.

My apologies for the inconvenience this may cause.

[White Wolf Guardian]

Oh well, I'll be at work anyways

[Tweak]

As mentioned in the above post, I have expedited the plans for our backup system and started to get it online.

The backup system will always be available through the following link: http://backup.abanix.com.

At present this system is still being set up and only displays a holding page. More information will be released once it is completed.

During tomorrow's maintenance this backup will be online providing a chatroom for everybody to use, it will be online for the entire maintenance cycle.

Please make a note of the link above as this post will be inaccessible.