Coin,
The last big part of the migration is coming soon. Fasten your belt and
pray god :-).
=== Mail ===
Friday evening, all your mailboxes are moving to the new server, and
during the we all mail functions will follow. This is to say: you won't
have any mail access during the we, starting from friday, in the middle
of the afternoon. Incoming mails would then be stored on secondary MX
servers. As soon as possible, mail delivery and IMAPS access are gonna
be restored ; webmails and MLs access would follow.
Then, send every important mail you need before Friday afternoon, stored
messages you need to read using the offline mode of your mail client,
and use an external email in case of emergency. Everything should be
restored at the end of the we, but we cannot plan when exactly.
For people using procmail rules, please help us convert your rules to
a sieve script.
=== Web ===
Seems Everything went fine for the remaining sites. FTP access for
modifying your site is work in progress and should be available
soon. Shell accesses will be reexamined and reopened _later_ for people
having real needs.
Webstats are disabled for now ; we plan to reopen it, but this is not a
first priority task.
=== Communication Services ===
Our new IRCd is behaving quite well. IRC Services should come soon, as a
package is nearly ready, thanks to Nohar.
The IRC Proxy, bip, is already working well since a few days, and logs
available through the private part of the FTP server.
Bitlbee is quite more of a problem to move, as a local access is
currently necessary. Either we would give you back a shell account,
either we would allow your IPs to connect to it. It should be moved
during the we or in the following week.
Our Jabber server is not moving yet, and perhaps not before Orfeo is
back for real. Whatever, at least we plan to link it with our new
database, so adding new account would be quite painless. This is gonna
happen soon, during a night. We should be able to send a server-wide
message to all users, or at least warn as many people as we can on IRC.
=== Homedirs and other data ===
For people having shell access, we are moving your homedirs in the same
shot as mails. All shell accesses will be closed at least until the end
of the we. Depending on your real needs, shell access may or may not be
reopened ; this is still an open discussion between admins on how we
should allow access to this service. Whatever, we won't leave you out
with your data locked, but just thin about copying things you might need
during the we.
Missing FTP data are moving with mails and homedirs, and will be
accessible quite quickly.
=== RCS ===
RCS data were moved, and we are working on giving you proper access to
it. Arch (tla/baz) archives are already viewable throught archzoom, but
this is all what is working at the moment. People whose shell access
will be restored would be able to use it in read/write mode. This
service may be interrupted while we need to make some tests, by making
files unreachable, so this is not yet a reliable service.
Ok, it should be enough for this time. Do not hesitate asking questions
on #DuckCorp channel on IRC. Next checkup sunday or monday, by mail if
everything went fine ;-).
--
Marc Dequènes (Duck)
Coin,
Sorry for not being talkative enough about the progress, but we were
quite busy solving severals issues, and quite tired too.
=== Centralized Accounts ===
As we are now splitting services among multiple machines (in fact Elwing
was also used to help Orfeo, but mostly for totaly separate services),
the needed for account centralization was critical. Then we won't have
to create accounts on all machines where each user needs services, and
have to synchronize information (like passwords), as everything is gonna
be spread automatically.
This task is not fully complete : all accounts where created in the LDAP
databse, but some information needs to be added for each reactivated
service. This is partly why things are taking a bit longer than
expected.
=== The Web ===
Webmail / Webdesk services were quickly put back only a few days ago, as
a priority. And slowly other sites were switched on.
As i said, many (lightweight) sites are now located on LeChat (RtpNet
machine), so a database multi-master replication was necessary and a bit
difficult to configure. Now this difficulty is over and we are switching
on the other sites one by one. Don't worry about sql hostname
modifications, either we are doing it for you, or we are contacting you
for help.
The web migration should be over in one or two days.
== Databases ==
As said previously, MySQL is available on both Tōshirō and LeChat,
meaning applications (not only websites) are easily relocatable to
balance load.
Recently a PostgreSQL database was installed on Tōshirō to provide
access to a more serious database software. So you may ask for an
account in a few days/weeks. No replication is planned yet, so
applications outside Tōshirō won't be able to access the database yet.
You may also ask for an LDAP database the same way. LDAP is being
replicated on all MilkyPond hosts involded in user services.
The phpMyAdmin tool is available again, with phpPgAdmin and
phpLDAPadmin, on the following URL :
https://db.duckcorp.org/
Beware experienced users ! The MilkyPond LDAP database is not yet ready
for user access, as we are regenerating the content frequently. So any
modification would be lost forever.
Notice the sql.duckcorp.org DNS entry, and the corresponding website,
are gonna disappear soon. More on new DNS hostnames later, they are
still under discussion.
== FTP storage ==
Both private and public data where moved from Orfeo, except for the
HurdFr public data (which will be moved in the next data move). FTP
profiles where activated, as it was on Orfeo.
=== Chat ===
A new IRCd software (with its services) are gonna be tested soon. Even
without services ready, we would probably switch is everything is ok, so
check your notices and reconnect if you find yourself alone in the
channels.
The (bip) IRC bouncer was moved to Tōshirō yesterday. Logs are available
in the FTP storage.
=== Network ===
IPv6 is back online, with broker services. Our old broker IP range is
now routed to Tōshirō, so you won't have to change your addresses and
DNS entries, only the endpoint IPv4 address (using tb.duckcorp.org).
Filtering rules have been strengthen a bit by the way.
=== Mail and homedirs ===
Another BIG move left, is moving mail to the new architecture. Fact is
we were already working on improving the routing and processing
capabilities, as well as anti-spamming methods, but we are now running
short of time to have all this work together well.
I won't talk about new features yet. But just give a word about the
major change : the anti-spam system is being switched to the DSPAM
software, which mean we would have to deal with plenty of spam until it
is trained. The good news is : it should be much easier for users to
manage and allow quite a lot of customizable features. It was also time
to split our training database, to allow "per user" spam filtering, as
we don't always agree on what is a spam or not.
As soon as it is ready, we are planning a quick move, meaning you won't
be able to access your mailbox during a short period of time. Incoming
mails won't be lost, as they would be taken care of be our secondary
MX. I just can advise you to watch your mails at least daily, or popup
on IRC, to be informed when it is happening. We will surely target late
night and/or we.
Homedirs will be affected too, as we plan to move data at the same
time. But this is not the only reason : Homedirs contains maildirs and
sometimes mail routing configurations. We plan to :
- replace procmail rules with sieve scripts
- move fetchmail rules into the private section of the FTP storage and
update the current script to use them, until a better solution is
found
If other changes/difficulties occur, we will inform you as soon as
possible.
For users having procmail rules, we would be very greatful if you could
help us convert your rules to sieve. We don't want to deal with your
personnal mailing stuff, and this could save us a lot of precious time.
Sieve is a scripting langage for mail processing, with extended features
compared to procmail capabilities. It is described here :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sieve_%28mail_filtering_language%29
The mail software we plan to use does not yet implement all the Sieve
language ; it is able to understand the following features:
- fileinto
- reject
- envelope
- vacation
- imapflags
- notify
- regex
- subaddress
- relational
Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any problem.
It is late and i may have dropped things through my strainer-memory, so
i would complete this checkup in a futur post.
Oyasumi nasai !
--
Marc Dequènes (Duck)
Coin,
=== News ===
Tōshirō was prepared and successfully installed in its definitive
location today, thanks to Yok, Nefou, and people from Hivane and Sivit.
Moving critical services has started. Our NS and NTP have moved a few
minutes ago. While this is transparent for NTP, you may have to do some
changes in you zone settings (see the following chapter if you have such
service).
Mail and Web migrations are being prepared. Mails won't move until a few
days, because a few architecture changes and improvements will take
place, and because much testing is needed. You'll be warned when this is
gonna happen. Web pages should be more easily configured on the new box,
but because of the big amount of data, a solution needs to be found to
avoid taking years with the ADSL upload limitations. So, please be
patient.
=== NS Update ===
Tōshirō NS is available on two IPs:
- ns1.duckcorp.org (replacing Orfeo)
- ns2.duckcorp.org
It then ensure a "piece of redundancy", for network failures only.
You can ask for another NS (provided by Hivane) if you need full
redundancy.
When Orfeo is back in a datacenter, another NS would then be available.
A) If you have a master zone hosted:
A.1) for the master zone:
/!\ It is no more possible to edit your zone via shell access. A new
method would be available in the future, but this will have to wait
after the situation is all back to normal. if you need any change, then
ask us via mail or IRC.
If your registrar is Gandi and you gave us technical rights on your
zone, then everything was already made for you. Skip to B.2.
If not, then you should add ns2.duckcorp.org to your NS list for better
redundancy (in the registrar database only, the zone was already updated
by DC admins).
A.2) for the external slave zone(s):
Please update the masters which are now :
- 193.200.42.177
- 80.248.213.245
B) If you have a slave zone hosted:
B.1) for the slave zone:
There is nothing to do.
B.2) for the external master zone:
Please update the IP allowed for transfers with :
- 193.200.42.177
- 80.248.213.245
Moreover, you should add ns2.duckcorp.org to your NS list for better
redundancy (in the zone and in the registrar database).
Beware ! For those who had the unwise idea to use this kind of
configuration for their master zone:
---
@ NS ns1.mydomain.tld.
@ NS ns2.mydomain.tld.
ns1.mydomain.tld. A 1.2.3.4
ns2.mydomain.tld. A 195.5.254.194
---
First, ns2.mydomain.tld. does not exists, then you'll have to change the
server IP each time ns1.duckcorp.org moves. I agree this is a better
name for your domain, but people reading this kind of technical
information would soon understand you've got no real NS behind this
name. Moreover, either you've added the corresponding glue record, and
you are poluting important NS servers, either you didn't and you would
surely experience strange behaviors or even your whole domain be
unavailable. In either case, this is *WRONG*, correct it ! The right
configuration is:
---
@ NS ns1.mydomain.tld.
@ NS ns1.duckcorp.org.
@ NS ns2.duckcorp.org.
ns1.mydomain.tld. A 1.2.3.4
---
=== ... ===
If anything in this mail is unclear or if you need assitance for using
our services while maintenance is in progress, ask us via mail or IRC.
Stay tuned...
--
Marc Dequènes (Duck)
_______________________________________________
DC-Admins mailing list
DC-Admins(a)lists.duckcorp.org
https://lists.duckcorp.org/mailman/listinfo/dc-admins
Coin,
We are on the move.
== The Plan ==
A new machine (Tōshirō), recently acquired, which was on the way to be
installed for production, is going to be moved this very sunday into a
datacenter. This was not the original plan, but we decided to haste
things a bit, and happily found a hosting for it.
Critical services are going to be "displaced" as fast as possible. A few
others will be handled one by one during the following days, because a
lot more configuration needs to be checked, and also lot's of data
moved.
== The First Step ==
As soon as general configuration and critical services are done, we are
going to push the web online again. Then, for those still having access
to their web content: please DO NOT modify or add anything starting from
sunday, or it will probably be lost while we are copying data to the new
server.
== General Recommandations ==
Services may have unvolontary downtimes, please be patient. We are doing
our best, but unexpected problems sometimes happen.
Do not rely anymore on orfeo.duckcorp.org hostname, DO USE the proper
service alias (smtp.duckcorp.org, imap.duckcorp.org, ...) or you will
not be able to access services if they are moved to another machine. It
should already be ok, as we advertised aliases quite a lot ; be warned
we won't advertise any service relocation in the future if the admin
team deem it necessary. If you don't know the proper alias to use, just
ask us, via mail or IRC.
Drink beer ! It helps forget problems, forgive bad people, and is a good
social catalyst ;-).
Stay tuned...
--
Marc Dequènes (Duck)
Coin,
= Where we are =
This afternoon (2007-08-08T15:29:07), without any warning or delay,
Nerim's boss decided to shutdown our main server, Orfeo. Thanks to
Nerim's friends and Hivane[1], the box was recovered in the evening and our
IPs routed to our HQ ADSL. Due to bandwidth limitations, it is no more
possible to provide full services.
Services unavailable :
- Web (including chrooted SSH, Yoshi IRC Stats, and Wotomae)
- FTP
- Radio
= Where we go =
We are investigating possible relocation solutions. We currently believe
it is a matter of days before a hosting solution is found.
Moreover, a new machine was acquired recently. It is not yet ready for
production, and the hosting infrastructure is still being worked on by
our network sponsor Hivane[1], but it should be possible to improve
services availability. More on this topic soon.
= And what now ? =
Now is time to go to bed, we are tired...
[1] http://www.hivane.net/
--
Marc Dequènes (Duck)
