914world is showing its age Options

[SirAndy]

914world is showing its age (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

The recent outage was not due to some cyber attack or malicious plotting from the darkest depths of the interwebs.

It was simply due to the forum software being overwhelmed by the amount of data stored here combined with the amount of traffic we're receiving.

Fact is, the software we're running on is more than 20 years old, written at a time when the internet was a much different place.
It was never meant to run for this long or handle the amount of data we have accumulated.


So what are our options?

- Keep going until everything crashes and burns into a pile.

- Start over fresh with a new server with new forum software. We'd be losing everything we have.

- Try to fix some of the issues by re-writing parts of the software, reworking the database and changing the way uploaded images are stored. Maybe even update the server itself while we're in there.


While the last choice seems the obvious one, the problem is that i do have a day-job that needs my attention and my time is limited.
It would also mean i'd probably have to shut down the site for a longer period of time, maybe a week or two, and maybe more than once.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[rjames]

Also voting for not letting it 'burn to the ground'.
I'm envisioning a new hosted site with new software, but also a link to the the old site, also hosted.

Is it an option to migrate the current server and historical data is it currently operates to a cloud-based VM(s) to preserve the historical data, and allow it to be accessed as we're doing so now, but in a 'read only' mode so that it's locked down and doesn't grow further in size? A VM would allow an easy button to 'restore from backup' should the site crash. I expect that if it was in read-only mode, it would be less likely to go down.

The above would require a way to cover ongoing costs, but I can imagine lots of ways of funding that (dues, events, sponsors, etc.).

[GregAmy]

Is it an option to migrate the current server and historical data is it currently operates to a cloud-based VM(s) to preserve the historical data, and allow it to be accessed as we're doing so now...

Yes, hard stop. Invision Power Board (this forum) uses a MySQL back end which can be migrated to any current forum software (we use XENForo). No loss of data, and no need to create an "archive" location.

The forum will look and feel differently, but all the data will be there. You just keep using it as-is (after we stop waving our canes at the sky about how things are in a different place).

It all depends on what Andy wants/needs to do. - GA

[rick 918-S]

Is it an option to migrate the current server and historical data is it currently operates to a cloud-based VM(s) to preserve the historical data, and allow it to be accessed as we're doing so now...

Yes, hard stop. Invision Power Board (this forum) uses a MySQL back end which can be migrated to any current forum software (we use XENForo). No loss of data, and no need to create an "archive" location.

The forum will look and feel differently, but all the data will be there. You just keep using it as-is (after we stop waving our canes at the sky about how things are in a different place).

It all depends on what Andy wants/needs to do. - GA

Wow! That sounds like an option. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif) I have zero computer knowledge but I would be more than happy to contribute to the cost to keep our World live. It would be a sad day to loose everything in the depths of a asteroid belt.

[SirAndy]

Is it an option to migrate the current server and historical data is it currently operates to a cloud-based VM(s) to preserve the historical data, and allow it to be accessed as we're doing so now...

Yes, hard stop. Invision Power Board (this forum) uses a MySQL back end which can be migrated to any current forum software (we use XENForo). No loss of data, and no need to create an "archive" location.

The forum will look and feel differently, but all the data will be there. You just keep using it as-is (after we stop waving our canes at the sky about how things are in a different place).

It all depends on what Andy wants/needs to do. - GA

Wow! That sounds like an option. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

I'm afraid a migration won't be that simple. I've looked into this before.


There are several problems:

- The current forum software is the last version of IPB before they went to a subscription model. Which means it *literally* is from 2006(!). Any migration effort would need to support an IPB version that old.

- Any new forum software needs to have a way to store uploaded images on the hard-drive in a way that is scalable (Preferably a date based folder tree). Simply putting all images into one uploads folder is going to cause one of the issues we're having right now. We have over 1,300,000 images and counting in a single folder. They take up 360GB of space. I have yet to see an OS that won't balk at having that many images in a single folder.

- Any new forum software needs an option to suck down any linked images from 3rd party websites and store a copy of them locally. Otherwise you'll end up with older threads with broken and lost images.

- Any new forum software needs to be able to handle over 3 million posts in a single database table that is almost 3GB in size. I know MySql itself can handle that, but if the forum software wasn't made to handle numbers like that (like our software never was) we'll end up spending all the time to migrate just to have the same issues again (or worse).

- Any new forum software needs to be owned outright. No subscription service. We need to be able to run our own copy on our own server. Running this as a service in AWS is way too expensive.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

[Superhawk996]

- Any new forum software needs an option to suck down any linked images from 3rd party websites and store a copy of them locally. Otherwise you'll end up with older threads with broken and lost images.

- Any new forum software needs to be owned outright. No subscription service.

I have no IT expertise but SirAndy’s dedication to these principles is what makes this site so useful and unique.

Most sites and forums are so loaded with broken links it makes them useless and not worth revisiting.


I don’t know the answers to the problem at hand but trust SirAndy’s wisdom on these two points alone.

Here to help in anyway that a gearhead mechanical engineer can; even if that is only to chip in on costs to do what needs doing.