Please be aware that we will "shortly" be moving RPoL to a shiny new server in a different location (Silicon Valley, California).

RPoL has been running off it's current software for about nine years now.  The operating system is out of date and no longer supported.  The hardware was upgraded once, three years ago, but the hard drives are the original and one has failed.  It's time to move to a newer operating system and newer equipment.

Our current host (NetDepot) has been very good to us but pricing has unfortunately increased for a modern equivalent of what we currently have.  Additionally virtualisation allows for a dedicated-like experience at a fraction of the cost.  In this instance 19/52s of a fraction, or around 36.5% of our current cost (if you want to be all user-friendly about it).

We'll be going from 3 GB memory to 8, a faster CPU (though less cores), and storage will be nice and fast on SSD (rather than 9 year old spinning disks).  Initial testing is promising and the new server looks very fast (up to 4 times faster for a very complex page), though take that with a grain of salt as it's not under any load at the moment.

Due to the fact we have to move a lot of data between locations there will be some downtime while the new server is updated with the latest from the current.  I will do dry runs before the final migration to give you a better estimate of the time it will take.

I'm not sure when exactly.  NetDepot have informed us they need to move our server in the next few days so it'd be nice to get it done by then, but I don't think I'd have sufficient testing by then to be comfortable to pull the trigger.

(Also posted in RPoL Announcements.)
This message was last edited by the user at 10:03, Tue 30 Jan 2018.

As much as I get withdrawal symptoms every time the site is down, I think this is a positive change. :)

In reply to jase (msg # 1):

Thanks for the heads up, Jase. Let us know if there is any testing we can help with (such as load on the new server)

Yay!  New server smell.  :D

You folks are the experts, and  know the nuts and bolts of the place...i'll try to give my people a heads up.

Cool.

And Scary.

You guys rolling out that premium membership anytime soon?  I would love to help fun, even in some small way.

Thanks for heads up

The server is dead!  Long live the server!

Thank you for everything you do.

These are prety exciting times. :D

?.. beta first?

Not sure there's time for a beta, with the upcoming server move...



Hope a good backup plan is in place.  Server moves can spawn unanticipated consequences.

Was wondering if he would try a move with Beta.Rpol.net first to check for possible issues?
This message was last edited by the user at 09:04, Fri 02 Feb 2018.

Thanks for doing all this heavy lifting, as you always do <3 This will be great!

Ah.  I was misunderstanding. Thanks.

Was the downtime we just had the big move to the new place?

Thank you for the new server Jase! Appreciate!

 Ummm, Impressive. Agreeing with the others on the move, nice.

Yes it was.

Jase's other post: link to a message in another game

Thank you sir for taking such good care of us!!! :D

I don't think so.  The announcement said this downtime was "due to a requirement from our host", so I'm pretty sure that was just this piece:


...and the transfer to a new server with a new provider is still coming up.

Warn us when you can, please.

In reply to Utsukushi (msg # 19):

I believe Utsukushi may be right.  I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

Very happy to see the server move went well.  Here's hoping for a similar transition to the new hosting service.

To clarify/answer a few questions...

The move that has been completed was the physical relocation of the current server.  As it was a shutdown and power off there was no availability while the server was being moved.

We're still to do the other kind of move which is migrating RPoL to a new server.  Regarding that...

I've done some stress testing and it will eventually be available via http://new.rpol.net.  Currently that address goes to the "old" server (NetDepot) so I want to give people some time to stop using it (if you do, you'll see a warning on the front page).  Once that's done I can make new.rpol.net point to the real "new" server (Colossus Cloud) for people to check out.  Stress testing (what I can do from one machine) shows it can handle the load, though Perl seems to be slow(er) to run for some reason, which I'm currently investigating without much luck.

As we'll be moving from a functional machine to another functional machine the site (well, sites) will be available but will be locked for maintenance while the data is copied across and the domain name pointed at the new server.  Dry-runs give an approximate copy time for 15 minutes, so if I can get everything else sorted at the same time (and that's a pretty big if) then the maintenance will only be ~15 minutes).

As for "premium membership" (a.k.a. subscriptions) I didn't want to put anything in place until I'd gotten a solid perk system in place, but people do seem to want to be able to help out with or without perks... so maybe I should do it sooner rather than later!

Will let you know more with the new server as it progresses.

please forgive  my lack of  understanding  the nuts and bots of this...

 when the change is all said  and done... how will we  be able to access  the new   server?

 will this  old site be open for a while?...

 will we be able to contact players from our  games to get the 'new' link ?

 This site is the ebst site i have played on in all my years of  gamign... EZ boards were nice  until they were hacked and that ended them.. a Friend  suggested this site  and I have been here  ever since.. I  hope   that I..or my players won't get lost in the  shuffle?

If I understand Jase aright - and it would be standard for server migration - the intention is to 'lock' the current system and transfer it lock, stock and barrel (smoking or otherwise) to the new server which would then be opened for business once a) the data has moved and b) the domain is set up correctly so that when you type in rpol.net you are directed to the new server not the old beastie.

Does that make a bit more sense, Don?

yep yep... thanks.  i guess i'm worried  about losing years of work here!

As mexal kindly confirmed you won't really notice any difference, but in the background it'll be a newer server so hopefully it'll be faster for you.  Think of it like getting a new PC/tablet/phone and doing a backup and restore to the new device.

I'll be transferring all 14 GB of data, which most of (12 GB) is text.  That's a lot of text!  The average English word length is 5.1 characters... so that's approximately 2,526,451,351 words.  (c;

wow..you guys are great... to use a D&D term, I am like a gully Dwarf , when it comes to this stuff!..

 thanks to you all for not only the work you put in, but putting up with inane questions!

*** I vote for sooner.

if premium comes out, wasn't there going to be a small 1 time charge just for adult access. I may not play on here much anymore, but I wouldn't wanna miss out because I didn't check in during the offering, perhaps an email to accounts would be warranted?

Sooner.  I won't use Paypal, and a subscription means contributing to a steady stream of support for RPoL.

This was originally the plan, but it was scrapped in favor of adding other perks, such as more storage space.

Not quite.  The other perks were always part of the plan.

If adult access has been dropped as a perk, it is because of difficulty finding an acceptable way of setting it up.

See, for example, the post by horus, who would find PayPal unacceptable as a payment method.

Subscriptions granting adult access was kinda hammered in as a (admittedly flawed but close enough) method of doing age checks.  Subscriptions were a plan, adult was a real issue at the time, so the former was used as a method of controlling the latter.

Years later after nothing much happening I came up with an alternate way which is what we've now got.  Well, I came up with a way that was mostly like what we've currently got, and then it matured into what we've got after user feedback.  I think it works pretty well and is a more refined solution than restricting it to only those who can afford to subscribe.

Anyhoo, subscriptions are probably going to use PayPal as the primary (and possibly initially only) payment method, unless someone's got a better and cheaper alternative?

It may be worth exploring Stripe?

Will check it out, thanks.

http://new.rpol.net points to the new server now.  I think I've checked it's all working.  (c;  Be aware that it'll look very similar to here, it's a direct clone of a few days ago.  Don't get sucked in into forgetting you're on the test site!  If you post there it will not post here (and will eventually be lost).
This message was last edited by the user at 10:05, Tue 06 Feb 2018.

I don't know from cheaper, but the Linux distribution I use runs a forum.  The server that hosts this is funded by a Gumroad subscription, and when the development team needs to fund a special need to support the distribution, they go to GoFundMe to set up donations.

I've never known them to have problems with either of those services.

https://beta.rpol.net is also on the new server.  This has a shiny new SSL certificate as well (new.rpol.net doesn't, and won't until we fully migrate).

I can see people have visited the new site, feedback would be appreciated!

Well, most of the things work correctly and take similar time to generate.

It feel like there is at least 2 databases that are feeding new.rpol.net because of all those things:

• When I created a new game, the game was already populated, including private messages, but not characters. My 3rd created game was empty as usual.
• The number of posts isn't the same as between the main page and game.cgi page. The cast page show the same number of post as main. For example, for the forum General RPoL, the main page is showing 44157 post while the last post is the one from horus just before yours (so the count should be 44198 like it was on rpol.net)
• Sometime, reading a thread did not update the game status in the main page.
• I couldn't add a specific game (another one worked correctly) in "Games You Play In & Peruse" by reading a thread, I had needed to use the "Mark all as Read" before it showed up.

Logging out do not work. And the thread in which I added a post now show up with the unread icon.

I can't test receiving a rmail by myself, but sending one was correct.

Portraits not in cache do not work (I know that this isn't link to the new server just the url being different).
This message was last edited by the user at 06:19, Fri 09 Feb 2018.

Thanks MalaeDezeld.  Those game/thread oddities will be because the files and database from here were copied over separately so aren't in sync (to be in sync I'd have to pause everything here for 30 minutes, which I obviously don't want to do).  Logout issue would have been cos you were still logged in here and it would inherit that cookie.

Besides the expected weirdness it sounds all ok, though I was hoping it'd be faster!  (c;

Oh! So everything is working as expected :D I retest the logout without being login in here and it worked :)

I got a case where the new server is/seems slower (hand-testing multiple time, and using the generated time to compare). When showing all the messages in a big thread, like the "NOTHING but VENTS" one (822 messages), the old server estimate average would be about 2 seconds, with the fastest I saw was 1.7 seconds while the new server average would be closer to 3 seconds, and the fastest never under 2 seconds.

Old server: link to a message in another game

New server: link to a message in another game

And the more I try, the more it feel like the new server is slightly slower than the new. The main page clock at about .008 (with minimum of .006) on the old versus .010 (with minimum of .007) on the new server.

  with my knowledge  very..very limited in this aspect, i can  still speak as a User.

  The bottom line, is we'll have a  brand new server. a bit 'slower' doesn't mean much. even a fullsecond?.. you can't  type your  name in a second?

 As long  was everything migrates over, and we don't lose  anyone?  I'm  happy!

I was speaking with my testing hat on :)

::chuckles:: at elast you know what your  doing.. My testing  hat is  tinfoil with a propeller on top!

Yeah... the new server is down.  Have been looking into the performance issues and I noticed it was booting an old kernel.  Rebooted and it hasn't come back.  Will update this message when it's back.

Server is back up, was about 12 hours ago but was asleep (and then looking after my real baby).
This message was last edited by the user at 04:52, Sun 11 Feb 2018.

The propeller helps scatter the Orbital Mind Control Laser's rays...

I'm slightly (pleasantly) surprised the site is currently running on only 3gb of RAM, and that the database is only 14gb!

Howdy all.  A quick update to let you know that the proposed move has not gone ahead due to poor and unreliable performance of the new host.  I've tried to work with them to get it resolved for over a month now but I've decided enough is enough as they don't seem to be able to help (or really acknowledge there's a problem).  I've asked the account closed and I'm looking at an alternate vendor now.  You will find that the beta site will stop working once they cancel the server (until I get the new one going).

In reply to jase (msg # 48):

Sorry to hear of these setbacks. Is there any pressing need that would help move things forward if it were met?  (In short, is there anything RPoL members can do to help?)

Our second go at a new server is operational, located at http://new.rpol.net.  Much better server at roughly the same price as the one we didn't go to, which is obviously nice.  I'm also finding it's faster than this server.

As before be aware that it'll look very similar to here, it's a direct clone from this site including all your games and recent posts.  Don't get sucked in into forgetting you're on the test site!  If you post there it will not post here and will eventually be lost.  The front page will constantly warn you.

For those who want to know what we're moving it, it's the "Slice 8192" from https://buyvm.net/kvm-dedicated-server-slices.  The benefit of virtualisation is that if we ever want more resources we can just move up to the next slice.

P.S.  Belatedly, no thanks horus.  (c;  Was just a case of finding a better provider and then waiting (quite a while) for stock to be available.

I'm currently getting a timeout in Firefox and 'can't reach this server' in Edge, trying to access the new server.  :<

Same, and various website status checkers can't reach it either.

Probably just needs guest permissions updating.  :>

Ha, whoops, must have left the firewall too restrictive.  Will fix shortly.  Thanks for trying so quickly!

Ok, try again now.  Was so secure only I had access!  (c;  Thanks again for checking it out!

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Excellent - working now and about 50/66% faster  based on the "generated in" times I'm getting. :>

I type over a hundred words a minute on desktop. And my name is short. I can definitely type it in under a minute.

yeah..i'm not even close...

Got the same result over here :)

*crosses fingers*

Hmm it seems to be faster but currently the profile for the cast isn't showing up. As in the description or anything entered into it. I am not sure if this is where I should post about it but so far that's the only issue I have seen.

In reply to silverelf (msg # 62):

Yep, same with all of my games.

Thanks.  Currently investigating, it's a major change in PHP version which is causing the issue.  Fix soon..ish!  (c;

Thank you!

I never really thought of RPoL as slow, but DANG it's fast now! It's almost creeping me out how fast it is.

Like just now, I got the "someone has posted in this thread since you've been typing" error, and it came up so fast I thought I missed clicking the Post button!

very smooth....I tried to get a coupe, guys  to move thier games here.. One guy did,  one gut went to another site.

 the other  site is painful..sure?..its only seconds for the screens to change.. but its  minor  league compared to RPOL...

 Great  Job Jase and   Mods!

Thanks all.  The new server is running of SSD drives which I think is making a huge difference.

Character descriptions should be working again, finally found the teensy rogue issue.

Indeed they are :)  Thank you.

In reply to jase (msg # 68):

Yes they are THANK YOU JASE

Dunno if it was asked before (did a search for SSL and didn't find much). Should the certificate be working for the main site now or is that something that will come at a later date? Asking because I'm getting the 'not secure' warning from chrome :P.

On responsive the Mark All As Read is now missing from the drop down menu, jase

FYI

I have a friend who is trying to sign up, but reporting that they did not get the confirmation email.  I know this was an issue recently, and I wonder if it could be related to the migration.

Any suggestions for them?

UPDATE: Issue has been resolved by an email refresh.  Carry on, adventurers!
This message was last edited by the user at 22:17, Fri 31 Aug 2018.

Another bug is that removing a game from your list takes you to a blank version of the main menu with no links.

Since the migration I am not receiving e-mail updates. The last mail I got was on the 30th at 12 GMT+2. I did not change anything about my e-mail schedule and, yes, there were several game updates since then. :)

In reply to Balerion (msg # 75):

Is anyone else missing their game wiki?  I'm getting a 404 error.
This message was last edited by the user at 17:31, Fri 31 Aug 2018.

I don't know if its related, or if this will post... but I keep my window open al the time as I check my games   a few times a day...anyway.. I was gettign 404 error, and kept having to  type in links?... i'll know if this goes through or not?

I added someone to a game and as soon as I did I could no longer access my games on chrome. Though I am typing this on Firefox . I get the 404 error for all my boards I can only click to rpol but not into threads.

so far , since I  posted the last  post above, it seems ok... i'll see what happens.. I haven't seen the action in my , most active, game..I am hoping my palkyers  aren't having issues., some post from phones  at lunch ect.

In reply to belovedshadows (msg # 78):

I was having a similar issue a few minutes ago, but logging out and logging back in fixed it right up.

Similar issue but just waiting a few minutes did the trick here.

I was  just short of shutting  down hot  and cleaning out stuff, since I took a few surveys  while I was  waiting..seems ok  now.

 I am a bit spoiled  by my players though, the 'main game' is always active.. and I have a couple folks from England/Scotland that normally post in the  early morning( for me)

 again?  we'll see, I  copy and pasted the notice  for the Migration, I am certain  all my players in all my games  will find  another path that will 'settle in'  once the dust settles.

In reply to donsr (msg # 82):

My game wiki is still missing after several refreshes as well as logout/login.  Still getting a 404 error since the server change.

SSL/HTTPS should work for rpol.net, www.rpol.net, m.rpol.net plus the temporary new.rpol.net.  If you're using anything else for the address then it will give you a certificate error as it won't match  IE6 will also have issues, but that's too old to worry about.  The certificate gets an A grade on SSL Labs.

Emails should work again (signup and notifications).  There were a few email setup steps I'd neglected to do..

Removing games from the main menu should now work.

Wiki should also now work.  Forgot the old website had some rewrite trickery to make simple URLs load a more complicated one.

Let me know if there are any other issues, not sure what to make of those other odd game issues, that was the middle of the night here.  Just let me know if it continues to happen.

Just switched my link from http://rpol.net/ to https://rpol.net/ and Firefox is no longer warning me that the site might be unsecure, so that's a win.  :>

Tested removing game from main menu and that worked too.

*** BUT *** my link to my own game wiki is taking me to the main RPoL wiki page instead ... and when I look at the List of Game Wikis it's not listed.

In reply to Skald (msg # 85):

I too am getting the main wiki page instead of the 404 error now.  Still no sign of what I posted on my wiki when I click the Game Wiki link.

Try the wiki now, ta!

Works for my game :)

In reply to JohnB (msg # 88):

Looks great, thank you!

And that's an affirmative - my game wiki is back, thank ye kindly.  :>

Was the long 404 error set yesterday due to the new host or some other cause? Is there anything we can do to help prevent that again? More donations?