IT'S ALIVE! Extended Downtime Easter Weekend
Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 8:35 pm
Short Update (Sunday 21:35UK):
You'll have noticed the extended downtime over the Easter weekend. This was due to
1) An apparent compromise of the site's hosting (malware);
2) The need to change hosting provider to someone who supported the system software necessary to update phpBB to the most recent version (which helps prevent repeats).
That's now done & we're on the air. I'll give a longer update, and catch up on moderation issues, later tonight. For now, BEER.
Long Update (Sunday 22:15UK):
On Friday AM, I received notification from our web host that their security scans had detected apparent malware in the site's pages. Quick & dirty way to deal with this is to delete the forums & reinstall - done it before, if all goes well uploading the forum software again takes about 10mins and more often that not, users don't even notice.
It did not go well. It did not go well at the worst possible time, as thanks to a combination of a parent in hospital and Easter commitments to the kids, any work required to fix the site had to be done in what little spare time I had left.
1) As part of the reinstall, I wanted to update phpBB to the most recent stable version - this is good security practice, to make sure you've got all current security patches.
2) Our web host did not support the current version of phpBB on our hosting package. This appears to be a subtle way of forcing users to upgrade to a more expensive hosting package, to which my response is ::extended middle finger::
3) Consequently, hosting has been moved to another provider that a) supports the necessary software on their hosting package, and b) has the useful side effect of costing me less money. Result.
This required:
1) An export of the ZCF database;
2) An import of the database to the new web host (not straightforward, due to size of the database, which currently runs to just over 5.4 million lines - it took 2 runs to work, at around 2hrs per import);
3) Install of the most recent version of phpBB; and
4) Updating the database to run with the new forum software.
All done, as noted, in limited free time.
But eventually successful. There may be issues - I'm not familiar with the current phpBB version (we've gone from 3.0 to 3.2), but in general things seem to work. If you spot any problems, let me know.
You'll have noticed the extended downtime over the Easter weekend. This was due to
1) An apparent compromise of the site's hosting (malware);
2) The need to change hosting provider to someone who supported the system software necessary to update phpBB to the most recent version (which helps prevent repeats).
That's now done & we're on the air. I'll give a longer update, and catch up on moderation issues, later tonight. For now, BEER.
Long Update (Sunday 22:15UK):
On Friday AM, I received notification from our web host that their security scans had detected apparent malware in the site's pages. Quick & dirty way to deal with this is to delete the forums & reinstall - done it before, if all goes well uploading the forum software again takes about 10mins and more often that not, users don't even notice.
It did not go well. It did not go well at the worst possible time, as thanks to a combination of a parent in hospital and Easter commitments to the kids, any work required to fix the site had to be done in what little spare time I had left.
1) As part of the reinstall, I wanted to update phpBB to the most recent stable version - this is good security practice, to make sure you've got all current security patches.
2) Our web host did not support the current version of phpBB on our hosting package. This appears to be a subtle way of forcing users to upgrade to a more expensive hosting package, to which my response is ::extended middle finger::
3) Consequently, hosting has been moved to another provider that a) supports the necessary software on their hosting package, and b) has the useful side effect of costing me less money. Result.
This required:
1) An export of the ZCF database;
2) An import of the database to the new web host (not straightforward, due to size of the database, which currently runs to just over 5.4 million lines - it took 2 runs to work, at around 2hrs per import);
3) Install of the most recent version of phpBB; and
4) Updating the database to run with the new forum software.
All done, as noted, in limited free time.
But eventually successful. There may be issues - I'm not familiar with the current phpBB version (we've gone from 3.0 to 3.2), but in general things seem to work. If you spot any problems, let me know.
