Search found 807 matches

by stuartcnz
Sun Sep 18, 2016 7:26 am
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

I received two backup copies of the database in my inbox this morning! It seems that the server that we were using a week ago has come back to life. Most odd, since I had powered it down. It is good news though, as it means that when this server plays tricks (becomes un-contact-able) Then it should ...
by stuartcnz
Fri Sep 16, 2016 4:01 pm
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

It certainly is an adventure :D At least I have learned enough from it, that I now have a database backup, that is never more than 24 hours old now. So recovering from a crash is no longer such a concern, just a hassle, as far as lost time for the forum, is concerned.
by stuartcnz
Fri Sep 16, 2016 5:56 am
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

DNS seems to be working again. ie I am able to get to the forum via nomadicista.org.
by stuartcnz
Thu Sep 15, 2016 1:39 pm
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

Well the server became disconnected from the internet again. Hopefully it will come back, like it did last time.

In the mean time, I have built a new server, and think I have the forum running again. The DNS should redirect to the new server in about 24 hours.
by stuartcnz
Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:27 pm
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

A bit of a side track, but part of the process: I wanted to be able to host my own photo's for posting on the forum, and possibly other places. I have just been sticking them in the back of other sites, but it was both a bit of a hassle to do, and a bit messy. So I have been hunting around for somet...
by stuartcnz
Thu Sep 08, 2016 8:13 pm
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

In order to figure out how to convert the MySQL database to PostgreSQL, I have set up a virtual machine on my desktop computer. I have installed the forum software and imported a recent snapshot of the forum database. The first tool that I tried to do the conversion, is called pgloader. So far I hav...
by stuartcnz
Tue Aug 30, 2016 8:22 pm
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

Among the many, one of the big challenges is going to be, to convert the existing database from MySQL, to PostgreSQL. The reason for that is that the server that I intend on putting the new forum on, already has a running PostgreSQL server. It doesn't make sense to try and also run a MySQL server on...
by stuartcnz
Sun Aug 28, 2016 4:41 pm
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

I have just setup and hardened a test server for developing the new forum on. It will be visible at forum.nomadicista.org, once the dns propagates, about this time tomorrow. I haven't opened the firewall yet, so it still won't be publicly reachable until I do that, probably sometime tomorrow. And th...
by stuartcnz
Sun Aug 28, 2016 6:57 am
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

Automatic backups are working! :) Latest backup was sent to my email inbox at 03:01 this morning.
by stuartcnz
Sat Aug 27, 2016 6:59 pm
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

Stealth Camper, I should probably mention at this point, that when you start the process of setting up a web page; it is a good idea to register your domain name with a different company, to the one that will be hosting your site. That way, when the time comes, that you wish to shift your site (will...
by stuartcnz
Sat Aug 27, 2016 6:51 pm
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

First thing that I do when setting up a public facing server, is to harden it for security. I use the following page as a guide, though do things a bit different in various parts. https://www.linode.com/docs/security/securing-your-server If I want to run anything that runs on PHP, such as this forum...
by stuartcnz
Sat Aug 27, 2016 4:20 pm
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

Cron job has been written. Will see if I got that part right, in the morning. I have scheduled the backup to run at one minute past three in the morning everyday. If it works, I should have a new backup in my inbox when I wake up. :) cron job is written as 1 3 * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/sqlbackup.p...
by stuartcnz
Sat Aug 27, 2016 2:31 pm
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

Database, backup and emailing script is working now. I just have to set up a cron job, to make it run automatically.

A copy of the script is here: https://kallithea.ethicallogistics.com/_admin/gists/2 and should work for any mysql databases.
by stuartcnz
Sat Aug 27, 2016 1:12 pm
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

The first step in the journey to a new forum infrastructure, is to make the existing forum as resilient as possible. To that end I am working towards automating database backups, that should also be able to automatically email them to me; so that if the server fails again, I will have an up to date ...
by stuartcnz
Sat Aug 27, 2016 9:56 am
Forum: Stuff Forum
Topic: Adventures in web community infrastructure
Replies: 30
Views: 30252

Re: Adventures in web community infrastructure

forum infrastructure history. (part two) For some other internet projects, I wanted to try some Python based software. Unfortunately many shared hosts don't allow you to do that, or make it difficult to do so. I discovered linode.com which offers their cheapest service at US$10 per month, for a VPS....