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A Quick Update on the Great Migration

Started by von Corax, May 21, 2022, 07:46:48 AM

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von Corax

On Saturday May 28 2022 I intend to perform the first of two major version upgrades on the Brass Goggles forum software. I will begin around 12:00 Eastern Daylight Time and, based on my practice run, I expect the process to take around two hours.

Brass Goggles first went online in February 2007 using version 1 of the Simple Machines Forum software. After 15 years that software is now well beyond end-of-life and almost completely unsupported, except for the occasional critical security patch. Certain features, such as embedded YouTube videos, no longer work correctly (or at all.) Further, it has become necessary to change hosts, and the PHP 5 runtime environment required by SMF 1 is simply no longer available. Before we can even think of moving, we must upgrade to SMF 2.0.

What does this mean for you? First of all, the forum will be unavailable during the upgrade process which, as I said, I expect to take around two hours. During that time we will still have Spare Goggles to fall back on, and I will be tweeting regular progress updates @vonCorax. Second, when the forum returns it will look very different. The elegant Steampunk theme which Tinkergirl & Co. so painstakingly crafted for us is incompatible with SMF 2.0. We will be forced to switch back to a generic default theme, although I will be able to preserve some few elements of the current theme, such as the gears and the top banner.

Once the upgrade is complete we will begin preparing to move to a new host; I hope to complete this in late June. Once that is over with, we will be upgrading the software again to the current version, SMF 2.1, and will be able to begin redecorating.

If you have any questions, then by all means this is the place to ask them.
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

MWBailey

others  besides me will  probably be wondering as well, so at risk of sounding like a total ignoramus and stingy fool (lol),  Will a fee be required for membership on the new site?

Walk softly and carry a big banjo...

""quid statis aspicientes in infernum"

"WHAT?! N0!!! NOT THAT Button!!!"

von Corax

Quote from: MWBailey on May 21, 2022, 05:33:41 PM
others  besides me will  probably be wondering as well, so at risk of sounding like a total ignoramus and stingy fool (lol),  Will a fee be required for membership on the new site?


No. Not at all.
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

SeVeNeVeS

#3
Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly, I've found updates can be a little fidgety sometimes.

An OS update once crashed my Mums Ipad forcing me to take it to a man to reset it to default.  ::)

von Corax

Quote from: SeVeNeVeS on May 22, 2022, 05:40:53 AM
Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly, I've found updates can be a little fidgety sometimes.

An OS update once crashed my Mums Ipad forcing me to take it to a man to reset it to default.  ::)

The most fidgety part of the practice run was getting PHP 5.5.9 to compile as an Apache plugin with all the requisite libraries linked in.
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

SeVeNeVeS

Quote from: von Corax on May 22, 2022, 06:26:34 AM
Quote from: SeVeNeVeS on May 22, 2022, 05:40:53 AM
Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly, I've found updates can be a little fidgety sometimes.

An OS update once crashed my Mums Ipad forcing me to take it to a man to reset it to default.  ::)

The most fidgety part of the practice run was getting PHP 5.5.9 to compile as an Apache plugin with all the requisite libraries linked in.

Aaaand the only word I understood was fidgety, I am so glad we are in the hands of someone in the know!  8)

Rockula

One question.
Hopefully not technical 'cause I don't do technical.

For about a year since the last 'outage' this Forum shows up to me as 'Not secure'.

I assume the upgrade will deal with that?
The legs have fallen off my Victorian Lady...

von Corax

Quote from: Rockula on May 23, 2022, 06:30:55 PM
One question.
Hopefully not technical 'cause I don't do technical.

For about a year since the last 'outage' this Forum shows up to me as 'Not secure'.

I assume the upgrade will deal with that?


No, but the move should do.
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

Rockula

Quote from: von Corax on May 23, 2022, 07:01:05 PM
Quote from: Rockula on May 23, 2022, 06:30:55 PM
One question.
Hopefully not technical 'cause I don't do technical.

For about a year since the last 'outage' this Forum shows up to me as 'Not secure'.

I assume the upgrade will deal with that?


No, but the move should do.


Thank you.
The legs have fallen off my Victorian Lady...

von Corax

Due to an issue with MySQL version compatibility, I have had to back out the upgrade. I will try again in a week.
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

MWBailey

Quote from: von Corax on May 28, 2022, 08:03:29 PM
Due to an issue with MySQL version compatibility, I have had to back out the upgrade. I will try again in a week.




I was wondering. Hopefully not a catastrophic issue...?
Walk softly and carry a big banjo...

""quid statis aspicientes in infernum"

"WHAT?! N0!!! NOT THAT Button!!!"

von Corax

Quote from: MWBailey on May 30, 2022, 12:56:47 AM
Quote from: von Corax on May 28, 2022, 08:03:29 PM
Due to an issue with MySQL version compatibility, I have had to back out the upgrade. I will try again in a week.




I was wondering. Hopefully not a catastrophic issue...?

Not really, no, although it didn't come up in the rehearsal. I posted the question to the SMF forums and got an answer in short order; apparently I'm not the first to hit this issue.

Depending on how my week shakes out, I may make my next attempt before the weekend. Or not. It depends...
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

von Corax

#12
In the interest of getting things done sooner rather than later, I have decided to make my next upgrade attempt on Wednesday, June 1, 2002 at 12:00 pm (noon) Eastern Daylight Time. I expect it to take approximately three hours.
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

von Corax

Upgrade failed again.  >:( I'll have to turn on debugging and run it again to try to see what happened. I shall make another attempt tomorrow, Thursday June 2, 2022 at 12:00 pm EDT.
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

Sorontar

Hope it works, or at least gets you closer to working out why it doesn't. Even a failure can still be a success.

Sorontar
Sorontar, Captain of 'The Aethereal Dancer'
Advisor to HM Engineers on matters aethereal, aeronautic and cosmographic
http://eyrie.sorontar.com

von Corax

Quote from: Sorontar on June 02, 2022, 10:41:05 AM
Hope it works, or at least gets you closer to working out why it doesn't. Even a failure can still be a success.

Sorontar


I'm getting very good at restoring the forum from backup...  ::)
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

von Corax

I ran out of disk space halfway through the upgrade. the-wizard was able to expand our disk allocation (thank you!), but I couldn't get the upgrader to pick up where it left off. I'm going to try again tomorrow.
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

von Corax

If anyone wants real-time updates, please follow me @vonCorax on Twitter. I've been tweeting step-by-step as I go.
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

J. Wilhelm

Quote from: von Corax on June 02, 2022, 01:03:08 PM
Quote from: Sorontar on June 02, 2022, 10:41:05 AM
Hope it works, or at least gets you closer to working out why it doesn't. Even a failure can still be a success.

Sorontar


I'm getting very good at restoring the forum from backup...  ::)

That's an important skill  ;)

von Corax

This is really getting frustrating, although it's a different error message each time, so I guess that's some form of progress. I'll try again tomorrow.
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

von Corax

That didn't work either. My next attempt will depend on when the guys at SMF (who I think are helping me on their own time) get back to me.
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

von Corax

#21
I haven't heard back from the guys at SMF on my last attempt yet, but I did have an idea I'd like to try today at 12:00 p.m. EDT.

EDIT: Didn't work. At least I haven't destroyed the forum...  ::)
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

von Corax

#22
I haven't gotten a solution yet, but I have been given a couple ideas. I'm going to try them out tomorrow, Wednesday June 8 2022 at 12:00 p.m. EDT.
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

von Corax

The forum is now upgraded and running. The old theme is broken, though, so I apologize for the present ugliness. I shall begin addressing that issue as soon as I have recovered my equilibrium and composure.
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
By the Beans of Life do my thoughts acquire speed
My hands acquire a shaking
The shaking becomes a warning
By the power of caffeine do I set my mind in motion
The Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics is 5842 km from Reading

yereverluvinunclebert

Not too ugly at all.

Well done by the way. Hard work and a lot of brain power involved.
Steampunk Widgets and Icons of Some Worldwide Repute