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Beach reading
by DuckCorp Admin Team 29 Jul '14

29 Jul '14

Coin, === Team changes === Pilou is a new fallback admin in charge of hardware/breakage rescue. Arnau being in Japan and as i'm willing to fly away sometime in the future, it was necessary to get help to handle things that can only be done live. === Services Secuuuuuuuuuure Certificates === If you upgraded Firefox to version 31 you may have had difficulties reaching our websites. Firefox has upgraded his certificate validation methods[1] leading to our certificates being rejected. We did not change our certificates configuration during the last decade and a few things needed to be updated. We fixed and regenerated all certificated (for all services). By the way, our custom CA (master certificate) has been there for almost a decade and is gonna die soon. We will prepublish the new one soon to have some time before we break the world. [1] https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2014/04/24/exciting-updates-to-certificat… === Thorfinn OoO on 2014-07-13 === Probably due to scripts/bots the resources on this machine went down to a nasty point. Unfortunately we were on "admin vacation" and the Jabber notifications broke on our supervision software, so we had to reboot the machine because to was too late for a medic. You're welcome to have long-running scripts on this machine but please check it does not go mad or consume too much resources. If you know anything about TLS/SASL we'll welcome your help debugging this (Zabbix) bug. === Quick News === * new TT-RSS plugin (openinbgtab) to open articles in background tab (Chrome/Opera only) * new Tasks app in owncloud, see our users' wiki for more info * the PHP accelerator (Xcache) is still broken, it was disabled everywher; no hope of fixes at the moment * our Webdesk was painfully slow since the PHP accelerator problem but it's now ok * Nob (IRC bot) has been retired (Rbot is not working well with recent Ruby and is being removed from Debian) * the secondary IRC node will need an upgrade (first one was upgraded recently), so we'll announce the restart on IRC Have a pleasant summer. -- Marc Dequènes (Duck)

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Hey! We'll sleep when we're dead. C'mon!
by DuckCorp Admin Team 12 Mar '14

12 Mar '14

Coin, === Plans for the Futur\WPresent === Toushirou is a bit overloaded. After some care it is stable again, but it really needs some help. Besides, Thorfinn is a VDS gained/included in my ADSL offer, and I need to be free to move in the future. I wish we could have been able to rack a machine Finger kindly obtained for us, but we failed on this (we asked a lot of people for sponsoring but to no avail). Thus I've asked Hivane to provide us two VDS in order to handle this situation fast. One of them may still be transferred to a real machine one day. Hivane kindly accepted and created them lightning fast. Thus, several services will move to Jinta (revival), with almost no consequences: - our dico will still be accessible from http://dico.duckcorp.org/ but the DICT server will move to dict.dc.o - same for the streaming service https://radio.duckcorp.org/ and stream.dc.o Later, user shells and bots will move to Thorfinn (NG); we'll send further instructions and schedule soon. === Future Maintenance === Orfeo will be rebooted on 2014-04-05/06 on a new kernel (security…). === Blogs are not for Sissies === Seems several of you still like writing. We had an old blog engine used for HurdFr which was crumbling into pieces, so we resurrected this service with a maintained software and opened it to all DC users. It is not well tested yet but should work fine. Ask if you need an account. === XMPP is dead, long live XMPP! === We've had a hard time keeping the XMPP service working properly and we decided such workload was not acceptable anymore. We found another software to take the place and it seems to work nicely ever since. We lost the cluster functionality, which means there is only one single node and point of failure, but better than multiple failing nodes. Please note the obsolete MSN gateway was removed in the process. === Quick News === * News fetch frequency was too high (5min) and was changed to 30min (helping cooling down Toushirou) * Mail indexing has been much improved, and should be more accurate and faster than before * stuff.dc.o was improved: - new Firefox Sync application (please note it is incompatible with the bookmark application because FFS data are encrypted in your browser and then unusable for any app) - interface was adapted to better work on touchpads even though moving files is still not user-friendly on such devices - interface is now Japanese-friendly * web: - mod_fcgi has been removed, as previously announced - xcache (PHP accelerator) was disabled because it breaks badly (see Debian#739789), sorry if you're using its API; we hope to reenable it soon (and regain some speed in the process) * filesystem migration to ext4 is done now That's all for now. Have a pleasant time. -- Marc Dequènes (Duck)

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Happy New Year Ducklings!
by DuckCorp Admin Team 18 Jan '14

18 Jan '14

Coin, After the big bunch of upgrades during feast time, we plan a bit of cleanup and a few other improvements ; fasten your seat belt :-). === Recent IRC problems === Our primary IRC server needed a restart in order to load the new SSL certificates, unfortunately it was hit by a bug (Debian#714219) and is OoS until then. Our IRC services got problems too, probably for the same reason. Keep in mind that irc.milkypond.org is the IRC entry point. It contains several hosts in order to have a backup when one fail. You should not use another address unless you know what you are doing (seems several users did not). Unfortunately, SSL access on our secondary server was unusable due to a misconfiguration, sorry, we found it out the hard way when the first one went down === Upcoming Server's FS Layout Changes and Consequences === In order to cleanup and follow the FHS a bit more, we're planning to move a few data in better places. This will mostly affect shell and VCS users. Mostly users data outside your own home directory will be relocated in /srv, so you need not look around weird top directories anymore. For web users: /www will be relocated into /srv/www /sites will be kept as a symlink ~1 month before being removed For VCS users: /rcs will be relocated into /src/vcs => all rcs-* websites will be renamed accordingly, with a redirection until it seems unnecessary For FTP Users with shell access: /ftp will be relocated into /srv/ftp For project members having data in /private on Toushirou: /private/{projects,duckcorp,hurdfr} will be relocated into /srv/projects. We're also trying to finish the ext3->ext4 migration, which is not fully possible yet, but at least we'd like all data partitions to switch. So we're gonna disconnect /home on Toushirou one day for just a few minutes, which means no SSH access and user scripts (bots?) will have to be shutdown as well. We will announce it on IRC, but if you have such scripts, do not hesitate to contact us so we can coordinate so you can restart them very fast. Other changes should not have any consequences. We plan to do this really soon. === Recent Web Hosting Upgrades === As previously said, and with a lot a delay, mod_ruby was removed. By the way, mod_wsgi was removed too. We are now using Passenger to provide a cleaner and less resource intensive way of hosting webapps. The following languages are now handled: - Ruby - Python (WSGI apps are very easy to adapt) - NodeJS (new!) You can still use CGI for very simple scripts, but beware FCGI (with spawning processes) support will be removed soon. As previously not announced, sorry, Ruby 1.8 support was removed and Passenger now spawn Ruby apps using version 1.9 of the interpreter now. Also, Apache moved to 2.4, which should not be a big deal for you except for ACLs. There is a compatibility module to ensure everything continues to work as before but we add surprises so… be sure to learn the new way and adapt your .htaccess files using the following documentation: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/howto/auth.html The compatibility module is to stay at least a few month but do not wait until we announce the end of support. ACLs also are tighter now, which means almost no global access to files by default. === Recent SSH Security Upgrades === We recently enabled EDCSA host keys on all SSH servers, with updates in the SSHFP DNS records. === Supervision is back === Daneel has been rebuilt, not fully yet, but it is able to monitor our machines again. The configuration is quite not finished but the basics are working. It was really difficult to run blindly so we're eager to have again a good view of our service availability. As the software is by the way upgraded, we should be able to monitor in deeper details. Well, that is all for now. Assimilate these news well :-). Have a pleasant year! -- Marc Dequènes (Duck)

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Happy New Year Ducklings!
by DuckCorp Admin Team 18 Jan '14

18 Jan '14

Coin, After the big bunch of upgrades during feast time, we plan a bit of cleanup and a few other improvements ; fasten your seat belt :-). === Recent IRC problems === Our primary IRC server needed a restart in order to load the new SSL certificates, unfortunately it was hit by a bug (Debian#714219) and is OoS until then. Our IRC services got problems too, probably for the same reason. Keep in mind that irc.milkypond.org is the IRC entry point. It contains several hosts in order to have a backup when one fail. You should not use another address unless you know what you are doing (seems several users did not). Unfortunately, SSL access on our secondary server was unusable due to a misconfiguration, sorry, we found it out the hard way when the first one went down === Upcoming Server's FS Layout Changes and Consequences === In order to cleanup and follow the FHS a bit more, we're planning to move a few data in better places. This will mostly affect shell and VCS users. Mostly users data outside your own home directory will be relocated in /srv, so you need not look around weird top directories anymore. For web users: /www will be relocated into /srv/www /sites will be kept as a symlink ~1 month before being removed For VCS users: /rcs will be relocated into /src/vcs => all rcs-* websites will be renamed accordingly, with a redirection until it seems unnecessary For FTP Users with shell access: /ftp will be relocated into /srv/ftp For project members having data in /private on Toushirou: /private/{projects,duckcorp,hurdfr} will be relocated into /srv/projects. Other changes should not have any consequences. We plan to do this really soon. === Recent Web Hosting Upgrades === As previously said, and with a lot a delay, mod_ruby was removed. By the way, mod_wsgi was removed too. We are now using Passenger to provide a cleaner and less resource intensive way of hosting webapps. The following languages are now handled: - Ruby - Python (WSGI apps are very easy to adapt) - NodeJS (new!) You can still use CGI for very simple scripts, but beware FCGI (with spawning processes) support will be removed soon. As previously not announced, sorry, Ruby 1.8 support was removed and Passenger now spawn Ruby apps using version 1.9 of the interpreter now. Also, Apache moved to 2.4, which should not be a big deal for you except for ACLs. There is a compatibility module to ensure everything continues to work as before but we add surprises so… be sure to learn the new way and adapt your .htaccess files using the following documentation: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/howto/auth.html The compatibility module is to stay at least a few month but do not wait until we announce the end of support. ACLs also are tighter now, which means almost no global access to files by default. === Recent SSH Security Upgrades === We recently enabled EDCSA host keys on all SSH servers, with updates in the SSHFP DNS records. === Supervision is back === Daneel has been rebuilt, not fully yet, but it is able to monitor our machines again. The configuration is quite not finished but the basics are working. It was really difficult to run blindly so we're eager to have again a good view of our service availability. As the software is by the way upgraded, we should be able to monitor in deeper details. Well, that is all for now. Assimilate these news well :-). Have a pleasant year! -- Marc Dequènes (Duck)

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Yec'h mat minna !
by DuckCorp Admin Team 24 Dec '13

24 Dec '13

Coin, Sorry for the disturbance in the force last saturday, a database migration took far longer than expected affecting incoming mails and 2/3 webmails mostly. The end of the year being hot, it was totally unplanned and, except for this part, should have been unnoticed from a user point of view. The final bunch of major maintenance is coming soon (probably between both feast times) and should not be too noisy (a short disturbance in the web hosting is to be expected though). If you have wishes to express for X-mas (landing to be planned sometime next year), tell us. If you feel you have some energy to spare, tell us too. Merry X-mas folks. So say we all! -- Marc Dequènes (Duck)

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Input coordinates
by DuckCorp Admin Team 02 Oct '13

02 Oct '13

Coin, === Thorfinn's Migration === Thorfinn is a Nerim VDS which is formerly used to provide western SSH access. Unfortunately Nerim is changing its infrastructure and we have to move to another virtualization system very quickly. On 2013-10-07 22:00 we will attempt a switch to the new system. It may fail and we may decide to rollback. Nevertheless we ask you to stop important tasks and not to alter your user data from this point, so we can sync all user data to the new system (we will not kick you out of the old system before it is all settled). We will then reopen SSH access as fast as possible and do the final checks. A few services may be disturbed but nothing critical or not redundant. As usual fine grained announcements and support will happen on IRC. === Quick News === * Toushirou's collocation is OK, we have taken over the contract and our new partner is a serious one * [20130626] Orfeo is now using Gbps (Toushirou a bit earlier), thanks Hivane * mod_ruby is being removed soon (a tad overdue) Have a Lot of FUN! -- Marc Dequènes (Duck)

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All crews reporting
by DuckCorp Admin Team 04 Jun '13

04 Jun '13

Coin, === Sponsoring (sequel) === Hivane almost finished its migration to use the new equipments. They also made good progress to replace Nerim's late sponsorship but everything is not settle yet. What is affecting DC directly : - [2013-05-15 to 2013-05-28] we had to change IPv6 addresses for all our machines ; it was done in the most smooth way possible - [2013-05-28 evening] LDAP problem on Thorfinn due to an IPv6 problem on Toushirou (and IPv4 fallback not working), sorry - unfortunately we cannot continue the IPv6 broker service and mobile IPv6 experiments until we acquire a new block ; we hope to find a solution soon Another bad news, our collocation at Equinix where Toushirou is located was at stake, but fortunately we found a new partner to share the rack space and cost ; details should be settled soon. If you have contacts which may help us find sponsorship, please tell us. === Webmail/Webdesk Migration === Our webdesk uses the Horde software version 3. It is old and do not work with recent PHP version. So we had to keep and old and security-impaired PHP to continue support it, as it was removed in the recent Debian release. Thus, we plan a migration to a new version very soon to get rid of this situation. Currently a test migration was done which is available at: https://webdesk-ng.duckcorp.org/ (beware the certificate does not match) On 2013-06-09 we will migrate the production data again and switch the new site to production. Until this date you can play with the test site and report problem. Unless there is a major problem the migration will go on as planned. Currently the only known remaining problem is with image uploads, but we probably need to upgrade PHP in order to fix it, or at least to debug/report the problem. The PHP migration will perhaps also affect other softwares like our other webmails, some needing an upgrade as well in order to support the recent and silly changes introduced in PHP. Do not hesitate to send a mail or message if you can still spot problems at the end of the day. === Web Hosting === mod_python was removed : it is obsolete, was not used anymore, and you can use mod_wsgi instead. mod_ruby is obsolete and broken, so we plan to remove it on 2013-07-06, you can use mod_passenger instead. === Quick News === * still web (Apache) problems on Toushirou from time to time, but no solution yet * still XMPP problems from time to time (due to EJAB-1565, if you want to get a hand) * [2013-04-23] ttrss upgrade: some feature are now plugins each user can enable on by-need basis * [gaming] we've got a Minetest (http://www.minetest.net/) server running now at minetest.duckcorp.org on UDP port 30000; you can create a user using password "sevenofnine" Well, it was a chatty one this time. Don't forget we still need workforce and sponsoring hints, and maybe YOU can help. Have FUN! -- Marc Dequènes (Duck)

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I fear not death
by DuckCorp Admin Team 19 Apr '13

19 Apr '13

Coin, === Sponsoring === Recently i told you about some difficulties our main sponsor, Hivane, had to get its network equipement updated in order to fix several problems getting more and more annoying. The good news is the new equipements have been bought and should be installed in a near future. Just let's say Hivane folks had to spend a few thousand euros from their own pockets to get to the huge required amount needed, so if you feel like helping a little bit, it would be much appreciated. Seems good news cannot come alone, so i'm quite sad to tell you Nerim is stopping all sponsoring very soon. Hivane is much concerned and is trying hard to cope with such a loss. Thanks Nerim for the past help and thanks Hivane guys for all their efforts. DuckCorp itself may l00se a few things in the process, depending on how things goes well for Hivane and how deep Nerim is cleaning things up. We'll of course keep you in touch when we have more information. === Personal data Storing / Syncing / Sharing === A new major version of our contacts/calendar/file sharing software was recently installed. This brings a few needed bug fixes and improvements as well as security fixes. Unfortunately, this also bring new problems: - the contact application in the web interface does not work well under Iceweasel/Firefox 10 which is in the upcoming Debian stable, but works well in version 15 (versions beetween 10 and 15 were not tested) - the contact application in the web interface has a major regression[1] when using multiple addressbooks: you cannot see or change in which addressbook a contact is in; you will have to handle this on one of your devices (phone) instead of the web interface. Major improvements since the begining of the year: * sharing was much improved and fixed * you can now create your own private groups to easily share with multiple contacts * the shorty's plugin was repaired * a new Notes plugin was added (test it and give us some feedback) [1] https://github.com/owncloud/apps/issues/577 https://github.com/owncloud/apps/issues/705 https://github.com/owncloud/apps/issues/704 === Quick News === * gallery spaces (quotas) have been increased \o/ * chitchat.milkypond.org is mostly working since the end of january, but don't setup your location or Still reading that crap? Get a life! -- Marc Dequènes (Duck)

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I don't have time for games!
by DuckCorp Admin Team 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

Coin, === Migrations === - [2012-12-15] for fixes and security we'll try to reboot all servers ; as usual, follow announces on IRC - [2012-12-15] PHP 5.3->5.4 was postponed because of bugs, but we'll try again to switch on Toushirou ; on Orfeo horde is keeping us locked with 5.3 at the moment (Horde 4 is not completely available in Debian yet) === Quick News === - [a few days ago] Daneel, one of the backup machines, is dead. It is not a big deal for DC, since Korutopi is working fine, but it was a wanted redundancy. It was also running the supervision services, which was quite useful to the admin team. A solution is being worked around. - [recently] the WevDAV access to the Gallery folders has been fixed, rendering access to local files useless, which is to be removed on 2012-12-29 (so check if you still have unsaved files there before it is purged) - [between 2012-11-21 and 2012-11-23 ] XMPP/jabber was ill and behaved badly, it has been fix^Wsolv^Wgoodified - [recently] for shell users: MOSH support has been added, see https://users.duckcorp.org/index.php/Services/Shell - [during the recent months] stuff.mp.o, the contact/calendar/stuff/ webapp has been upgraded and should provide a more reliable service, with further sharing options === Call for Help === As always, some help would be much appreciated. Money is of course welcome, but we're still looking for another admin team member if you think you can fill in the gap. Another way to help us is to help our main sponsor Hivane. Hivane is giving us connectivity between our servers with lot's of bandwidth and a high level of customization. This year, they had a few technical problems. It was not a big deal because they made themselves available very quickly and fixed problems efficiently, thanks for that. Nevertheless, they also need help to maintain their infrastructure, and DC depends on them. If you want more details, just read this page (in French) : http://www.hivane.net/help.html Merry X-mas folks. -- Marc Dequènes (Duck)

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Wanna turn up the heat?
by DuckCorp Admin Team 19 Aug '12

19 Aug '12

Coin, === Quick News === * [a while ago] we went quickly back to PHP 5.3 bacause it was causing such a mess,, sorry for the inconvenience. migration to 5.4 is then postponed until further notice. * [2012-08-08] MySQL 5.1 -> 5.5 migration done, no problem * [2012-08-08] Smarty 2 -> 3 done, no problem * [2012-08-09] Orfeo restarted due to a short electrical outage * [recently] the 'screen' utility was upgraded, but the new version cannot handle the previous sessions ; use /tmp/screen-4.0.3 to reattach your old sessions * [WIP] the ChitChat experimental service use software we believe goes in a bad direction. It is being replace by a similar service using the Movim software but it is not working properly yet === Personal data Storing / Syncing / Sharing === The Stuff experimental service was seldom used, so it was shutdown and replaced by a software with a broader goal and almost capable of the same sharing features (except time-limited sharing, yet). This software is to be used to manage files, contacts, calendars, bookmarks, and more. You can use this platform to store data, share it with other persons (with people outside DC too), and sync it on your devices (mobile phones…). See https://users.duckcorp.org/index.php/Services/OwnCloud for more information. Have a Lot of Cold Showers! -- Marc Dequènes (Duck)

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