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FineTunedMac Downtime
#43936 03/11/17 06:17 AM
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tacit Offline OP
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I'm preparing to move FineTunedMac to a new server. This move will speed up the site considerably, and provide more bandwidth as we grow. In addition, the new server will have an SSL security certificate, so FineTunedMac will be accessible with https as well as http. This will increase security and prevent users from having their accounts hijacked if they log in from malicious unsecured WiFi hotspots. It will also improve FTM's Google search rankings.

I plan to do some long-overdue database maintenance during the move as well.

I plan to do the move on Wednesday, March 15. During the move, the site will be unavailable, probably for about two hours. During this time, you'll see a "site closed for maintenance" message if you try to log in or post new messages. I'll be moving the site late at night, to minimize disruption and downtime. Gods of fortune and databases willing, it should be finished by 3AM Pacific time Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

I'll keep everyone updated as the move gets closer.

Last edited by cyn; 03/11/17 10:47 AM. Reason: Topic moved from the Lounge to the FineTunedMac Feedback forum.

Photo gallery, all about me, and more: www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
tacit #43937 03/11/17 06:28 AM
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Thanks for the heads-up; I hope everything goes smoothly and according to plan.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
tacit #43939 03/11/17 08:39 AM
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Ditto artie's note…..it's in my calendar.


ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
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Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
tacit #43994 03/16/17 09:21 AM
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tacit Offline OP
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The downtime lasted a little bit longer than expected, owing to difficulties moving the database and correctly configuring the site to use SSL, but everything appears to be working properly.

Please let me know if:

- You encounter difficulty logging in
- You see any error messages in your browser about security certificate troubles or insecure content warnings
- You notice any missing posts

Also, moderators: the control panel and mod pages should *always* use SSL (that is, it should not be possible to see them over plain http:// even if you try).


Photo gallery, all about me, and more: www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
tacit #44000 03/16/17 04:04 PM
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When I first checked just before 0300 CST (0900 UTC) the switchover was already in progress. At 0530 CST (1130 UTC) 'twould appear that it is taking a tad longer than anticipated.

There seemed to be some niggling interim glitches (most of which disappeared as fast as they appeared), such as:
Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required '/home/fveaux/public_html/finetunedmac.com/forums/libs/functions_forums.inc.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php:/usr/local/php5/lib/pear') in /home/tstmmdx/finetunedmac.com/forums/scripts/cfrm.inc.php on line 24

At 1045 CST (1645 UTC), the home page came up only to be replaced by the warning:

YOUR CONNECTION IS NOT SECURE
The owner of www.finetunedmac.com has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website.
www.finetunedmac.com uses an invalid security certificate. The certificate is only valid for the following names: franklinveaux.com, www.franklinveaux.com
Error code: SSL_ERROR_BAD_CERT_DOMAIN

And when I elected to enter an "exception", HostGator came back with 404 - Page does not exist.

Access now (1100 CST / 1700 UTC) allowed, but ONLY under my allowing the exception to security - the connection is only partially encrypted according to Firefox.

ADDENDUM
Strange behavior: The home page (https://www.finetunedmac.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm) as well as the edit window (https://www.finetunedmac.com/forums/ubbt...p;what=showflat) show up as fully secured (and verified by Let's Encrypt). On the other hand, the latter's post (https://www.finetunedmac.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=44000#Post44000) shows up as Not Secure with the additional notation that "Parts of this page are not secure (such as images)" with no verification by Let's Encrypt.

Otherwise all seems well ... although I did have to reset my FTM clock from offset of 0 to +2 (so others may wish to check their offsets, given that the new server is 2 hours different from the previous one).

Last edited by grelber; 03/16/17 07:16 PM. Reason: Additional info
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
grelber #44002 03/16/17 08:29 PM
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tacit Offline OP
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Thanks! I didn't see that "not secure" message, but I've tracked down the cause--a bug in UBB threads caused it to try to continue showing user avatar pictures insecurely if they were uploaded insecurely. That's been fixed. You should now be seeing 'secure' everywhere. smile

[Edited to add] The funky stuff I was doing to randomly change my avatar was also sometimes breaking security. I didn't feel like modifying my random-avatar script so I'm just using a normal avatar now.

Last edited by tacit; 03/16/17 08:33 PM.

Photo gallery, all about me, and more: www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
tacit #44008 03/17/17 12:43 AM
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Originally Posted By: tacit
The funky stuff I was doing to randomly change my avatar was also sometimes breaking security. I didn't feel like modifying my random-avatar script so I'm just using a normal avatar now.

That's weird!

I used to be aware of your constantly changing avatar, but unless my mind is playing tricks on me it's been static for a considerable period of time. (Actually, I can't say with 100% certainty that it's been truly static as opposed to changing, but veeery infrequently, but I'm 100% certain that there are avatars that I used to see that I haven't seen in ages.)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
tacit #44011 03/17/17 01:20 AM
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Did you relocate FTM's server to a different time zone?

I just had to change my offset from plus 2 hours to plus 4. (Is 1 hour EDT related?)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
artie505 #44015 03/17/17 08:30 AM
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tacit Offline OP
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Yep, the new server is in LA.

Weird that the avatar wasn't changing for you. Maybe your browser was caching it? I don't know.


Photo gallery, all about me, and more: www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
artie505 #44016 03/17/17 08:45 AM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
Did you relocate FTM's server to a different time zone?
I just had to change my offset from plus 2 hours to plus 4. (Is 1 hour EDT related?)

I take it that you didn't read the addedum to my earlier post (#44000).

Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
tacit #44017 03/17/17 09:02 AM
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Originally Posted By: tacit
Yep, the new server is in LA.

Is that LA as in Los Angeles (PDT) or LA as in Louisiana (CDT)?

Either way that's weird, given that my time zone is always CST (which is now equivalent to MDT) and therefore ostensibly only a 1-hour offset (+ or –) from the server. And yet, as noted earlier, I now require a +2-hour offset to make it jibe with local time.

Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
artie505 #44018 03/17/17 10:49 AM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
Did you relocate FTM's server to a different time zone?

I just had to change my offset from plus 2 hours to plus 4. (Is 1 hour EDT related?)
I just did the same.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
tacit #44022 03/17/17 04:54 PM
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Judging from the length of FTM's downtime, that must have been quite an ordeal for you.

Hope you made it through OK! smile


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
tacit #44030 03/18/17 02:03 AM
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This, too, is curious, tacit... For at least a month I was seeing one of three screens when I refreshed my FTM Forums page either by navigating to it from elsewhere or with command-R:
  1. Most times my screen showed no anomalies.
  2. Sometimes it showed a horizontal bar more or less the same color as the darkest color I see on the page (which is in the corners of its very bottom) and about 1" wide across the top, overlaying, but not obscuring, the widget blurb, and the only way I could get rid of it was by refreshing the page.
  3. Sometimes the color was restricted to one or the other of the entire "Threads" boxes for the iTunes... and Mac OS X... Forums, but the color faded away in less than 5 seconds.
And since you did whatever you did... I haven't seen a single screen anomaly (and they occurred with more than enough frequency for me to have seen many by now).

Was anybody else seeing what I saw?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
tacit #44037 03/18/17 02:49 PM
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Originally Posted By: tacit
Please let me know if:

- You encounter difficulty logging in
- You see any error messages in your browser about security certificate troubles or insecure content warnings
- You notice any missing posts

While I don't have any difficulty logging in, there has been a change in the process.

Before, I would click on [Log in] and get a dialogue box asking if the process wanted me to retrieve a password. I would confirm, an autofill would occur, and I'd log in.

Now, clicking on [Log in} autofills the Username and Password without any confirmation. It's not a show-stopper (and I'd say even easier than before), however it is a change which may or may not be meaningful.

Edit: This only occurs with my iMac (OSX 10.8.5), not with my iPad (iOS 10.2.1).

Last edited by ryck; 03/18/17 03:12 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
ryck #44040 03/18/17 07:43 PM
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tacit Offline OP
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The move shouldn't have affected the way autofill works, so I've got nothing on that.

The move involved transferring a 300MB database file, and as it turns out, normal database tools max out at 200MB--above that, you have to jump through a lot of hoops to move a database. I picked up a few new skills, and here we are!


Photo gallery, all about me, and more: www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
tacit #44042 03/18/17 11:49 PM
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You said that the move "will speed up the site considerably", but my Forums page now takes noticeably longer to load when I refresh it.

Other than that, though, the site does react faster than it did before.

Are you seeing the same thing? Anybody?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
artie505 #44043 03/19/17 12:41 AM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
You said that the move "will speed up the site considerably", but my Forums page now takes noticeably longer to load when I refresh it.

Other than that, though, the site does react faster than it did before.

Are you seeing the same thing? Anybody?
I'm not seeing that. Just a thought here: Spectrum (my ISP, aka Time Warner) has some spotty service in my area. They exchanged modems four times for me before determining that faulty modems were not the issue. So far, it has not been resolved.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
jchuzi #44045 03/19/17 12:51 AM
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What I'm seeing is limited to FTM and began concurrently with the server change.

Also, the persistent screen anomaly I mentioned earlier reappeared, but only once, while the temporary anomalies are still MIA, and their changed behavior also began concurrently with the server change.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
artie505 #44056 03/20/17 12:08 AM
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The persistent screen anomaly has reappeared for the second time since the server move, but the temporary ones are still MIA. (Both reared their ugly heads numerous times every day prior to the move.)

I can't imagine why this would have anything to do with the move, but...


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
artie505 #44059 03/20/17 12:59 PM
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I don't see your persistently screen anomaly in your screen shot and neither have I seen it on my screen.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
joemikeb #44061 03/20/17 02:19 PM
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You don't see a blue bar at the top of my screen overlaying the FTM widget blurb?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
artie505 #44071 03/20/17 10:48 PM
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Just to clarify, "persistent" means it doesn't fade away on its own, rather I've got to refresh the page to get rid of it; the blue in the "Threads" boxes fades away, but I haven't seen it since the server move.

And quantifying the slowdown I see, when I hit command-R with the bottom half of the Forums page visible, the top always refreshes first and then snaps down to the bottom, but the time lag before it snaps down has gotten annoyingly longer since the move.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
grelber #44079 03/21/17 08:54 AM
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I'm finding that (apparently) the new server is a tad rickety, ie taking unusually long to load and all too often crapping out in the process, with Firefox providing its standard error message:

Secure Connection Failed
The connection to www.finetunedmac.com was interrupted while the page was loading.
• The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
• Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

Plus sometimes extended delay times between keying in and appearance on screen (which has been happening repeated during this session; eg, I was just able to type "during" completely before it showed up on screen).

Re: FineTunedMac Downtime
grelber #44087 03/21/17 11:19 PM
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Originally Posted By: grelber
Originally Posted By: tacit
Yep, the new server is in LA.

Is that LA as in Los Angeles (PDT) or LA as in Louisiana (CDT)?

Either way that's weird, given that my time zone is always CST (which is now equivalent to MDT) and therefore ostensibly only a 1-hour offset (+ or –) from the server. And yet, as noted earlier, I now require a +2-hour offset to make it jibe with local time.


And still no answer to this query and observation. confused

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