Topic: Hosting Woes Update

[Ed Wenn]

Hi all. Just a quick note to explain why the site has been bouncing around and giving varying levels of service since around December 22nd and to apologise for the outages.

It looks like we have a problem with the software we use for the Collaborations and Guest Galleries part of Filmwasters. The Guest Galleries implementation of the software (which is called "Gallery" FWIW), hasn't been impacted, but the Collabs implementation was generating loads of errors and starting tons of additional processes. This was potentially what was causing our issues before Christmas. I have no idea at all how come Filmwasters recovered for a few days between the 23rd-ish and the 28th, but it definitely did, right? Anyway, for the last few days it's been playing up again and finally Bluehost took the site offline this morning because the Collabs section was generating too many processes.

In order to get the rest of the site back online, I have disabled the Collabs section, but I'll have to tackle it at some point. It might just be a case of getting it back online and running some maintenance on it (clearing out temp files and fixing indexes etc.), but it might be more fundamental, espcially given that the software we're running is around 10 years old...although if that were the case, I'd expect the Guest Galleries section to be causing issues too.

I'm an IT geek, but I'm all about the Microsoft way of doing stuff and am totally out of my depth when it comes to Apache & PHP etc. I'm pretty sure some of you regulars will have some insights to offer & I'd appreciate any help on that score. It would be great if I could run a few things past you before deciding on the next steps.

(SIDE NOTE: I do not want this thread to degenerate into a Microsoft vs. Apache/PHP/Linux/Open Source or whatever debate, so let's keep a lid on all of that, please  ).

For now at least, I hope that we're back online & that normal service has been resumed. Thanks for your patience and for your feedback when the site's been misbehaving.

[Nigel]

Excellent work good Sir! What about those Apaches, eh! 

[Francois]

Thanks Ed for at least bringing the forum back. While the galleries were nice, I won't mind if they have to go.

Strange thing is I thought the galleries were possibly hand generated HTML... so that explains a lot of stuff.
I always wonder if simple HTML wouldn't be easiest, safest, fastest way of doing the future collabs?

[Urban Hafner]

Great to have the forum back! Unfortunately that's the problem with software. You always need to keep updating otherwise it will be impossible to fix at some point.

I'm not a PHP expert but I'm writing web apps since 2007 so I may be able to help. Just let me know!

[Jack Johnson]

Ditto, on all fronts.

I'd be happy to sift through the logs if you want to spam them my direction.

[Ed Wenn]

Thanks Jack & Urban. I'll fire off some logs in the next few days. Getting back to work tomorrow after 2+ weeks off, so will no doubt have to clear a ton of issues on that front before I can focus on FW again. Grr!

[Ed Wenn]

Francois, static HTML is definitely a safe way forward, but a PITA to manage time-wise and tricky for multiple people to use. Mind you, it's not like the galleries have been super active recently anyway so we could have gotten away with static pages for the last year or so at least, but I do love the Collabs, so am keen to get them back online ASAP.

[AJShepherd]

Good to have the forum back, probably too busy to help out, but is there any chance you could copy the whole shebang to a test system and run an update there to see if updating the forum software is a possibility? Although my gut feeling is that after ten years any software update is liable to be a recipe for disaster!

[Adam Doe]

Ed, Thanks for getting the forums back in shape. It's appreciated!

[Aksel]

My habitual behaviour needs a certain dose of filmwasters every day so many thanks for getting it back up and running Ed! 
Unfortunately I have no further knowledge of Microsoft/Apache/PHP/Linux/Open Source than that I need people in my life that knows how to handle it  When I hear Apache I think of offshore racing and twin Lamborghinis at full throttle!

[imagesfrugales]

Thumbs up, and many thanks to all helping filmwasters.

[Francois]

Francois, static HTML is definitely a safe way forward, but a PITA to manage time-wise and tricky for multiple people to use. Mind you, it's not like the galleries have been super active recently anyway so we could have gotten away with static pages for the last year or so at least, but I do love the Collabs, so am keen to get them back online ASAP.

I know static pages are a pain... I wonder if the old jAlbum program has a theme that would work? That thing does produce static pages rapidly....

[Mike (happyforest)]

I have no idea at all how come Filmwasters recovered for a few days between the 23rd-ish and the 28th, but it definitely did, right?

Yes it definitely did improve, could the hosting co have done anything? (Rhetorical question, I don't expect an answer)

Really appreciate the work you have done so far.

Regards

Mike

[Indofunk]

I was a LAMP engineer in a very recent past life First thing I'd check for is updates to the gallery plugin we use (which one is it?), or barring that, ditch it and install a new one. As long as the photos are stored locally in some sort of understandable directory structure, it may even be straightforward to remap them to the new plugin (the captions, being databased, may be more problematic). Do you use a cPanel? Plugin installation is so easy that I often install a few, test them out in parallel, and go with the one I like best. Takes time though, of course, which I don't want to make you spend, so whatever is fastest and most convenient for you.

[Ken B: eyes, I just do eyes.]

Thanks Ed and everyone else for getting the forum back up, may your favourite drop of film rain from the heavens for you.

[jharr]

I was a LAMP engineer in a very recent past life

How many LAMP engineers does it take to screw in a light bulb??

Sorry, that's a hardware problem. Call support.

[Indofunk]