Host migration support

Handruin

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If you're reading this post, that means your DNS has updated and you're on the new server. If you're encountering any problems, please post them here so I can keep track of any issues you might be finding.
 

Handruin

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One item...mail server is not yet sending forum post notifications. I'm working on fixing this.
 

Handruin

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Let me know if you see email notifications (assuming you have them configured). I had to install sendmail (oops) which didn't come with the setup originally. I was able to send test notifications but I haven't seen any notification from your reply here.
 

Handruin

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That's not good. Does it do the same thing if you open an incognito tab? I'm wondering if it's a caching issue.
 

timwhit

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There also seems to be an issue with how cache control is being returned. I posted a reply to this thread and then clicked Forum at the top and DDs post still showed as the last post and the thread was unread. When I refreshed the page it showed the right info.
 

Handruin

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I'm seeing the same thing with the cache. Maybe something to do with the php xcache. I'll Play around with it to figure out what's causing the problem.
 

timwhit

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Doug, I sent you an email with the response headers. It's much easier than uploading an image here.
 

Handruin

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ok, thanks for the help. I disabled the apache mod Expires which should hopefully clear this up. Anyone having issues might want to clear their browser's cache.
 

timwhit

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I think it's working better for me now. The "New Posts" page also seems to work better after clearing all the cookies for this domain.

The site feels much faster. Nice job on the move.
 

Chewy509

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Thanks for the work, working really well...

The only problem I had was when accessing the new site, attempting to login would show the "thank you of logging in" message, but then get an immediate logout.

Fixed it by deleting all cookies for this site in the browser, after doing that, login working as per normal. (just in case others have the same issue)
 

Handruin

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Thanks Chewy. I had to do the same with deleting cookies. For those who may use a mobile device or tablet, you'll likely have to do the same on those devices also. I was having strange behavior on on my phone until I deleted the cookies.
 

LunarMist

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Thanks Chewy. I had to do the same with deleting cookies. For those who may use a mobile device or tablet, you'll likely have to do the same on those devices also. I was having strange behavior on on my phone until I deleted the cookies.

I'll try that with the tablets and phones. The Samsung was acting funky. My desktops delete all the cookies frequently so I don't notice it.
The speed is great. :)
 

Clocker

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For some reason, I cannot access the site from work. Issue seems to have started with the migration to the new host but I can't be 100% sure of it. Attached is the error I get. I get the same thing whether I am at work or connected to work via VPN from home. Works from my work phone, even when connected to the work wifi, though, so not sure what to think. Seems to be limited to my work laptop.
 

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Handruin

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That's an interesting one. Is this under Windows? Makes me think that the DNS hasn't updated while you're on VPN or needs to be flushed and rebuilt. If you were to ping the domain name, does it respond with the IP of "45.33.67.65"? As a temporary workaround, you could always add that IP and domain name to your hosts file.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Even if he's running through a VPN, Windows (since Vista) has been smart enough to direct traffic not destined for the VPN end point through your normal internet connection. It's probably a poorly configured proxy server, though I have no idea what kind of blecherous configuration would have a DNS cache of entries for two weeks or more.
 

Handruin

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Is there anything I can check on the server side of things in this kind of situation? Maybe something I misconfigured in the DNS setup?
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Do you still have control of the old server? You could probably throw a host redirect (HTTP error 301) and force it to the new IP.
Otherwise you don't have any control over what his client is doing.
 

Clocker

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I'm doing this on my phone, with mobile data turned off and connected to work WiFi. But if I try to access the site on my Windows 7 laptop (wired) with either IE or Chrome no worky. My laptop is totally locked down so I can't install anything. I did /flushdnsand cleared all browser history but no change. ... not sure what else I can tweak. I am using a proxy server, turning that stting of in the control panel seems to make no difference.

I cannot ping the ip address provided. Times out.
 

Handruin

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Then whatever is going on is more than just a DNS issue. Are you able to ping any addresses from your system? I'm ruling out that they've disable icmp traffic/response. If you're able to ping other websites, then somehow you're being blocked on the IP range used for SF.
 

Clocker

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Now that you mention it. ..I time out when I try to ping www.google.com or www.gm.com, too. Actually for gm.com the ip address does not resolve correctly so I used a website to find the ip address and pinged it that way.
 

Handruin

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If you open your web browser to an address of http://45.33.67.65 do you get an empty directory listing (that's what should show)? That would at least validate you can make it to the server.

Is your Windows system locked down so much that you cannot edit the hosts file located here "C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts"? If you can edit it (open as admin) then add in an entry at the bottom for:
45.33.67.65 storageforum.net
 

Clocker

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Same error when I type the ip in the browser. Unfortunately I don't have access to edit the hosts file.


Weird how my phone is fine but not the pc.
 

Clocker

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Both the phone and laptop can use the same WiFi. I tried both. The phone accesses SF no problem. The laptop no worky. Neither appears to be using the vpn. Must be something jacked with my laptop or the proxy server my laptop is configured to use. I don't believe the phone has any setting for a proxy serve so that seems like the likely culprit.
 

Howell

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Try turning off the proxy on the laptop. At least you should be able to deconfigure it in the browser. When you are on the wireless can you ping the proxy server you are configured to use.
 
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Handruin

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Sounds like some type of network outage. Do you know roughly how long it was?

I'll look into setting up a monitoring tool on my home environment and have it check periodically. I know this isn't the most desirable method but the services I've seen online charge as much as it costs to host the damn site.
 

Handruin

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How about https://uptimerobot.com/ or https://www.siteuptime.com/ -- they both support free tiers.

Thanks for the suggestions. I setup an account with uptimerobot.com to give them a try. That will give me some indication if things aren't working here. I have another server located outside of this environment that I can use as a status page. Whenever someone is experiencing downtime at sf, you can check the site health page and see if the server is unreachable.
 

Handruin

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General FYI, if you've seen some downtime around 1:00AM EDT, I'm experimenting with adjusting parameters so that the server consumes less memory. Sorry for the intermittent downtime.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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One of my customers pays for me to have Uptimerobot. I frequently know about outages before they do but holy crap can it be annoying if someone is having a bad ISP day.
 

Handruin

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I can imagine you get a bunch of notifications. If you're monitoring a bunch of sites, it's likely a useful subscription. Uptimerobot was pretty quick to email me when there was an outage. I've only had two notifications which occurred over the weekend but they were expected due to me playing around with services. Otherwise there has been no other downtime identified. The 5-minute window is pretty long though so it's possible there are small outages that can happen inside those windows of time.
 
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