The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls

Main => News Board => Topic started by: saint on August 22, 2016, 07:35:32 am

Title: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: saint on August 22, 2016, 07:35:32 am
I *think* we're up! I'm going to leave the server in maintenance mode for a while, possibly all day, while I make sure we're reliably up and stable and that everything's working. I'm positive there are things that aren't working yet, for instance the wiki. However, the main site and forum appear to be online. Thanks for bearing with me folks while we worked through our outage.

What happened?

The hard drives in the RAID configuration on the old server died, one at a time. We replaced them, but somewhere in the replacing we lost the boot partition, and despite the fact that it should be relatively easy to restore, we could-not-get-it-to-boot again.

Since the server was 4 years old at least, we had already been contemplating upgrading to a new box, so took the time to do so. We still had access to the old server's drives via a rescue boot environment, so migrating was doable.

It took a bit to get the new server online and configured, primarily because I used the transition as an exercise to improve my server administration skills with Linux. 

The final snag was the version of the Ubuntu we're running on the new box doesn't support the version of php SMF requires, and SMF isn't upgraded for the new version of PHP yet.

Got that resolved this morning, and now it's hopefully just a matter of troubleshooting various quirks and settings until we get everything resolved.

BIG THANKS to sirwoogie for holding my hand through this process and helping teach me to fish! :)

Several of you have offered your time or financial donations to help. Thank you, thank you, I very much appreciate it. In the future I won't be shy about accepting offers of expertise.

As for financial donations, thank you for the offers, but please consider donating to charitable organizations or those in need such as relief for the Louisiana flooding victims.

BYOAC/arcadecontrols.com is my way of giving something back to the community. There's such a wealth of knowledge and resources out on the Internet, and BYOAC is my way of being a small part of that. Maintaining the server is within my means, and as long as there's any interest in what BYOAC hosts, I'll continue to keep the server online.

Thank you for your support!

--- saint
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: saint on August 22, 2016, 08:11:20 am
OK, things seem to be relatively stable?  I'm turning off maintenance mode.

CAUTION: Though I don't think it's likely, we may have to restore from backup if everything goes kaput. If you post anything critically important and un-recreatable in the new few days, please make sure you have a copy stored until we know we're stable.

Tapatalk users - please test and let me know if it works?
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: MacGyver on August 22, 2016, 08:16:15 am
Way to go saint!   Glad you're back up.

 :applaud:
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: menace on August 22, 2016, 08:19:57 am
**phew** glad to see it came back!  Congrats on the migration--it was like walking to the library of alexandria only to find it burned down when you got there! (ok maybe not that dramatic--but you get the idea..)
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Ginsu Victim on August 22, 2016, 08:27:11 am
Glad to see the site back up. :)
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Malenko on August 22, 2016, 09:24:04 am
you dont know whatcha got till its gone.



r/cade sucks.
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: pbj on August 22, 2016, 09:40:42 am
I've got a hard drive laying around that works but lost its boot partition. 

What's the best way to yank the data off that?

Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: BigCurtis on August 22, 2016, 09:45:07 am
I agree with Malenko, been jonesing for the site :)

Glad you're back.

Only thing I still see missing is http://spystyle.arcadecontrols.com/2000/index00.htm (http://spystyle.arcadecontrols.com/2000/index00.htm)

Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: adder on August 22, 2016, 09:47:27 am
omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg

(http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140201165227/ididntdoit/images/1/14/96781-Anna-excited-gif-Imgur-Frozen-j9Hv.gif)
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Malenko on August 22, 2016, 09:55:09 am
Only thing I still see missing is http://spystyle.arcadecontrols.com/2000/index00.htm (http://spystyle.arcadecontrols.com/2000/index00.htm)

Well that and I cant upload an attachment , specifically to the project picture thread.
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: n3wt0n on August 22, 2016, 11:03:25 am
Glad to see things are back up and running. I do really appreciate this site and every time it goes down I realize that more and more.

If there is a silver lining to all of this, it forced me to take a look a bit more local for my internet arcade fill and I found a local arcade group on Facebook that seems to be a good bunch of people.

My hat is off to everyone who makes this thing tick!   :applaud: :applaud: :applaud:
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: saint on August 22, 2016, 11:14:26 am
Only thing I still see missing is http://spystyle.arcadecontrols.com/2000/index00.htm (http://spystyle.arcadecontrols.com/2000/index00.htm)

Well that and I cant upload an attachment , specifically to the project picture thread.

I probably have permissions screwed up. Added to my list. Thanks!

spystyle, HowardC's site, and any other "hosted" site hasn't been restored yet. I'll tackle those shortly as well.
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: saint on August 22, 2016, 11:27:04 am
Test
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: saint on August 22, 2016, 11:27:26 am
Try attachments again please?
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Malenko on August 22, 2016, 11:27:34 am
I was just about to post that you fixed it.  :applaud:
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Howard_Casto on August 22, 2016, 11:58:42 am
Great work as always gentlemen.  Saint I think you are the only person I know that has worse luck than me when it comes to this sort of thing.... then again, if it were me the building holding the server would have caught fire and I would have somehow gotten blamed for it.  ;)
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: yo1dog on August 22, 2016, 12:47:25 pm
Did you end up having to restore from backup? Many posts are missing from some of my threads:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,151424.0.html (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,151424.0.html)
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,151383.0.html (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,151383.0.html)
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Ginsu Victim on August 22, 2016, 01:54:09 pm
Did you end up having to restore from backup? Many posts are missing from some of my threads:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,151424.0.html (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,151424.0.html)
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,151383.0.html (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,151383.0.html)

As stated above, yes, he restored from a backup and posts from the last day or so were lost.
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Ginsu Victim on August 22, 2016, 01:54:53 pm
The ability to modify our existing posts seems to be missing.
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Ginsu Victim on August 22, 2016, 01:56:33 pm
Oh....just in this thread. I can't modify here, but can in other threads. Odd...
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: PL1 on August 22, 2016, 02:01:06 pm
Oh....just in this thread. I can't modify here, but can in other threads. Odd...
It's because this thread is in the "News Board" sub-forum.   ;D


Scott
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: jmike on August 22, 2016, 04:44:27 pm
 :applaud:

Glad you got things back up guys.

 :cheers:
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Le Chuck on August 22, 2016, 05:00:09 pm
We seem to have lost the ability to "like" posts or give +karma/fu/whathaveyous

wait...

We never had it...

Can we now?
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Ginsu Victim on August 22, 2016, 05:05:58 pm
We seem to have lost the ability to "like" posts or give +karma/fu/whathaveyous

wait...

We never had it...

Can we now?

(http://www.diresta.com/wp-content/uploads/Facebook-Like-Button-Small.png)
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: emphatic on August 22, 2016, 06:00:43 pm
Well done!  :cheers:
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Generic Eric on August 23, 2016, 12:17:46 am
And we're back!

 :applaud:
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Titchgamer on August 23, 2016, 02:57:03 am
Great work Saint, Glad we are back in business!

Rather missed this place the last week!
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: CaptainTweed on August 23, 2016, 06:36:06 am
Great work getting this back up. One observation: my username and posts are gone. Not really a big deal. I've created a new account. My old one was "onevox"  ... I'm sort of hoping this is more widespread than just me, so I'll stop thinking that I was purged from the site because you found out I didn't buy most of my stuff from Bob Roberts and used an LCD screen in my Galaga repro.
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: saint on August 23, 2016, 06:59:24 am
Ack. When did you join up originally?
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Malenko on August 23, 2016, 07:37:38 am
Ack. When did you join up originally?

between the 7th and the 12th I reckon
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: CaptainTweed on August 23, 2016, 10:53:17 am
You are correct, sir.

Registration time stamped dated: Aug 7 at 6:04 PM
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: saint on August 23, 2016, 11:44:51 am
Yeah, unfortunately you and your posts were just after the last good backup we had and just shortly before the crash :( Sorry about that.
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: jbl77 on August 23, 2016, 03:46:50 pm
well i will say this:  the site is a much more responsive.  :applaud:
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: DaredevilDave on August 24, 2016, 04:34:59 am
I'm new here and I already missed the forum! I just want to say thanks for the great site!
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: ed12 on September 03, 2016, 02:50:25 pm
err nice job on the getting it up :)
now u want to pull the file size cap ?
it just reported larger then 520k...huh ? wtf

ed
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Howard_Casto on September 03, 2016, 09:01:40 pm
Any progress on my site and controls.dat?

I'm not in any particular hurry, but people keep asking for files. 
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: DeLuSioNal29 on September 07, 2016, 11:13:57 am
Nice work everyone!  (Sorry I'm late to the party - I had a heck of a summer dealing with what came close to a family tragedy).

Saint, my offer still stands if you need fundraising for the next upgrade.  I'm sure we can whip up something if needed.

Jason
DeL
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: Raitsa on September 26, 2016, 11:43:13 am
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Vendors (http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Vendors) has disappeared too.
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: PL1 on September 26, 2016, 01:30:42 pm
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Vendors (http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Vendors) has disappeared too.
You know that link is to the old wiki, right?

The new wiki has several updates to the Vendors page.

Here is a link to a fairly recent Internet Wayback Machine backup of the new wiki Vendors page (https://web.archive.org/web/20150919100445/http://newwiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?title=Vendors).   ;D


Scott
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: clhug on October 10, 2016, 11:15:17 pm
Shoot, I'd been a way for a while and didn't know the site went down.  Thanks for all the time and effort getting things running again!  But it looks like the wiki is still down?  Any estimate as to when that'll be back up and running?  Not trying to pressure or anything, just curious.  Thanks!
Title: Re: Holy cow! Are we up? We look up! Are we really up?
Post by: PL1 on October 11, 2016, 10:29:16 am
But it looks like the wiki is still down?  Any estimate as to when that'll be back up and running?  Not trying to pressure or anything, just curious.  Thanks!
The files are restored, but there appears to be some sort of conflict between MediaWiki and the newer version of php.   :dunno

No idea when Saint will figure out the problem and fix it.

Until he does, the Internet Wayback Machine (https://web.archive.org/web/20150912154826/http://newwiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?title=Main_Page) has most of the wiki pages and info still available.


Scott