MSX.org back from the dead

After more than 36 hours of downtime, a lot of cursing, configuring and more cursing we're happy to announce that MSX Resource Center is back in action!

So what happened? Well... a month ago we had a brief outage because of a 'regular' RAID-1 failure . It was the second time our server needed a hard disk replacement, and during rebuilding the RAID array some more oddities popped up. The database was promptly moved to a new server, but due to lack of time the further migration was pushed back to the end of December. But our server was less patient than we were and decided it would be a fun idea to let 2 hard disks crash at the same time, leaving one without a partition table and garbled data and the other still accessible but incredibly slow.

It was clear that things were going to take a bit of time, especially because we all had other obligations. So configuration of the server had to be done in between those other activities. We set up an emergency website with a short Q&A and kept a timeline with status updates, as well as some messages to the outside world via our MSX Twitter and the MSX Resource Center Facebook page.

In the days that followed we slowly configured the new server whilst attempting to get the latest possible data from the borked server. With success, as by the end of December 30th we managed to complete a copy of the complete, most recent version of all our precious files - allowing us to replace a slightly less recent backup.

For the nerds among us (how could there possibly be on a site like this?) some info about our new server. We now run a Xeon E3-1245 processor with 16GB RAM and 2 Enterprise SATA harddisks of 3TB on hardware RAID. The pages are now hosted by Nginx and the database had already moved to MariaDB - a drop-in MySQL replacement. Thanks to tools like mozjpeg and PNGOUT we've managed to drastically reduce the size of the images on our server without affecting their visual quality too much. How drastic? Well, it all went from a total size of 6.1GB to 4.3GB -- not that we don't have enough storage space or bandwidth, but surely our mobile visitors will appreciate the lower data consumption. Last but not least, we're finally available via IPv6. In the new year we'll have a look at all things cloud/container, but for now we're happy to have things up and running again.

There might be a thing or two not running as it should, so please let us know if you find something strange and we'll look into it. We'd like to thank everybody for their kind messages, mental support and donations. And above all: your patience!

Now then, let's carry on. As you were!

Comments (72)

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6613)

31-12-2015, 04:43

Welcome back to the best MSX website of the universe

I think that all MRC visitors will appreciate the hard work you've made to save the site from this horrible crash. Not only for that, but also for that, the 'kern' of the MRC crew deserves all our support and applause !

By nanochess

Master (222)

31-12-2015, 04:44

Glad to see everything back online!

By Bioman

Expert (74)

31-12-2015, 06:14

Well done! I constantly followed the progress and happy you made it before the year ended Joke aside, this has been one most of the important websites for me during recent time and my revival of MSX medium. I want to say big thank for everything from good web-hosting to wonderful forum members and general knowleding of MSX.

Happy new year and welcome back to the world!!!

By SuchAGoonie

Expert (108)

31-12-2015, 07:38

Welcome back! Fun fact: I repaired the drive of my A1ST during the downtime. For the nerds among us: I now run an R800 processor with 256KB RAM and 1 diskdrive of 720KB.

Good to have you back, guys.

By edoz

Prophet (2509)

31-12-2015, 08:07

Good that you are back!! Especially that you guys took the time during the holiday season to fix it again!

As there was nothing to do for the last 36 hours on the internet because MSX.org was offline I decided to use my network in a different way! To have some backup, when msx.org gets offline again as good hardware never gets broken

See the results on YouTube

By JINsMac

Expert (77)

31-12-2015, 08:59

I'm glad to see you again.

By Bart

Paragon (1422)

31-12-2015, 09:03

Nice work Snout!

By Ivan

Ascended (9374)

31-12-2015, 09:36

Glad to see you all here again!

By turbor

Hero (533)

31-12-2015, 11:29

Good to see you all back on line!
Nice job, doing this during the holiday season.

By ray2day

Paladin (760)

31-12-2015, 11:30

Jippie!

By QBee

Rookie (18)

31-12-2015, 11:36

Well done! The main MSX website on the wave again!!!

By Daemos

Prophet (2248)

31-12-2015, 12:22

now this is a good way to wake up again The sun shining, warm weather and MSX.org back online!!

By sd_snatcher

Prophet (3684)

31-12-2015, 13:21

Welcome back, we missed you!

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6126)

31-12-2015, 13:27

Thank god... & MRC crew!

By Louthrax

Prophet (2503)

31-12-2015, 13:37

Rock'n Roll !

By Bas040

Master (223)

31-12-2015, 13:41

Yes!

By marcos.m.carvajal.1

Expert (85)

31-12-2015, 13:55

Oh yeses! Thanks for all the hard work! Love to see the page back as normal

By Konamito

Paragon (1041)

31-12-2015, 14:44

Glad to see you back online, guys.

Keep up the good work on MSX world.

By Jipe

Paragon (1631)

31-12-2015, 15:39

a very good new for the end of the year and good luck for the next

By Grauw

Ascended (10860)

31-12-2015, 15:41

Hurray!

Thanks for your efforts in the middle of the holidays guys!

And happy new year .

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10156)

31-12-2015, 16:52

define irony: the url of this newspost

By Wild_Penguin

Hero (644)

31-12-2015, 17:00

Welcome back into 2016, MRC!

And a happy new year to everyone!

By Daemos

Prophet (2248)

31-12-2015, 17:45

Quote:

define irony: the url of this newspost Hannibal

That is how difficult it is to kill MRC. It dies and returns dead because no one can rise from the dead. A new way of cheating against the forces of nature.

By supmsx

Master (158)

31-12-2015, 20:51

Keep going,the MSX force is with you

By DanySoft

Champion (452)

31-12-2015, 22:36

Fortunately, you're alive again.

Happy New Year 2016.
DanySoft

By KdL

Paragon (1488)

01-01-2016, 03:09

Hurray! Clap Clap Clap!!

Happy New Year!!!

By libero

Resident (45)

01-01-2016, 11:16

welcome back.
Happy New Year!!!!!!

By gdx

Enlighted (6622)

01-01-2016, 11:59

Welcome online again and Happy New Year!

By karloch

Prophet (2159)

01-01-2016, 14:29

Glad to have you back! Happy new year!

By Imanok

Paragon (1201)

01-01-2016, 14:33

Great you are back in track! Happy New Year!

By raymond

Hero (656)

01-01-2016, 19:45

Good to see everything is in working order again! Happy new year!

By ren

Paragon (2031)

02-01-2016, 00:22

(back here as well... ;))
(good job btw ;))
(+ happy new year ;))

By gdx

Enlighted (6622)

03-01-2016, 09:45

There is still a problem. The wiki can not be updated.

By snout

Ascended (15187)

03-01-2016, 10:38

on the fix in a few moments. Hang on!!

By syn

Prophet (2146)

04-01-2016, 01:07

By gdx

Enlighted (6622)

04-01-2016, 01:38

That still does not work for me. I can not update this wiki:

http://www.msx.org/wiki/Victor-HC95

By gdx

Enlighted (6622)

04-01-2016, 09:08

I always get "server error 500". After a million clicks, a part the update has been accepted only.

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6613)

04-01-2016, 10:52

Actually, the changes are accepted, but this error screen lets you think the contrary. If you go back to the page (2 steps behind) and refresh the page, then you see that the changes have been accepted.

So, the problem is: why this error screen is displayed instead of the updated page ?

By snout

Ascended (15187)

04-01-2016, 11:25

Didn't get around to the actual fix yet - hope to tackle the issue this evening. Will drop a line here when things should be a-ok again.

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6613)

04-01-2016, 11:46

Another problem with the wiki : uploading pictures does not work. I get this kind of message :

"Could not rename file "/tmp/phpFaTMdA" to "public/e/eb/Yrm506i.png".

By snout

Ascended (15187)

04-01-2016, 11:55

Thx for the report, I'll took into that one this evening as well!

By snout

Ascended (15187)

04-01-2016, 12:03

images might have been fixed already, looks like a simple directory permissions thing. No time to test it now, though, gotta run for some appointments...

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6613)

04-01-2016, 12:11

It still does not work ... Now error 500 and no any file saved.

EDIT : finally the picture has been accepted !

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6613)

04-01-2016, 17:39

Actually, the problem seems to be the same for uploading a new or updated picture : error 500. I need to go to the page where the picture must be and to refresh the page !

By snout

Ascended (15187)

04-01-2016, 18:07

So the file permissions issue was solved, the content submission -> 500 error is remaining. I'll get started late in the evening, but this is info I can work with. Thx!

By Grauw

Ascended (10860)

04-01-2016, 19:10

I also noticed that when I first made a (red) link to a new wiki page, and then clicked the link to create the new page, when I went back to the page with the link the link was still red, until I made another modification. Maybe some overzealous caching? Not sure if this is an old or a new issue… not a big deal, but I’m mentioning it anyway in case it may give you a clue about some possible configuration problem.

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6613)

04-01-2016, 23:44

Another little problem in the Wiki. I've created a new page

http://www.msx.org/wiki/Yamaha_YRM-302

for the Category Yamaha, but it does not appear in the list on the category page

http://www.msx.org/wiki/Category:Yamaha

By snout

Ascended (15187)

05-01-2016, 02:48

't was a caching issue indeed. Fixing a few images missing in action and then everything should be back to normal. Yay!

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6613)

05-01-2016, 10:03

Thanks, Snout ! All now seems to be OK !

By Samor

Prophet (2231)

06-01-2016, 11:59

a belated HNY and WB from me

By RetroTechie

Paragon (1563)

08-01-2016, 22:51

A very late best wishes for 2016 to you all! Spent a full week @ my parents place where little surfing was done... but better late than never.

And kudoz for getting the site up & running on the new server!

By gdx

Enlighted (6622)

10-01-2016, 01:31

A others bug! The following recent MSX2 wikis are not shown in list of all MSX2 models.

http://www.msx.org/wiki/Sakhr_AX-350
http://www.msx.org/wiki/Yamaha_YIS-503IIIR
http://www.msx.org/wiki/Victor_HC-90

and maybe others?

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6613)

10-01-2016, 01:38

Refresh the page !!!

By gdx

Enlighted (6622)

10-01-2016, 01:58

Thank you, now it appears.

By gdx

Enlighted (6622)

22-01-2016, 01:14

The problem continues. I cannot see the newer entries in MSX lists. For exemple, I cannot see the MSX Paxon. I tried using different browsers, the refresh and also cleared buffer.

By snout

Ascended (15187)

22-01-2016, 10:17

Like Grauw said, overzealous caching indeed. I'll try and fix it soon, but it'll have to wait a bit.

By snout

Ascended (15187)

22-01-2016, 11:18

Perhaps this is also a good moment to send some big thumbs up to Mars2000you who has been adding an amazing amount of information to the wiki recently. Really valuable stuff & very impressive!

By Grauw

Ascended (10860)

22-01-2016, 13:21

Yeah it is! Props!

By ren

Paragon (2031)

02-02-2016, 18:36

snout wrote:

Perhaps this is also a good moment to send some big thumbs up to Mars2000you who has been adding an amazing amount of information to the wiki recently. Really valuable stuff & very impressive!

Still going strong btw..

By gdx

Enlighted (6622)

11-02-2016, 10:07

The problem persists. For exemple, I cannot see the MSX1 HB-75AS in the list. I try on many systems.
I think you have a problem of autorisations. Mars2000 can see it (probably because he has created the wiki itself.)

By snout

Ascended (15187)

11-02-2016, 10:44

It's a caching issue (there's a per-user cache in place) and I haven't gotten around to working on the code yet. I'll announce it when an update is issued.

By snout

Ascended (15187)

15-02-2016, 01:04

@gdx - I've disabled a cache setting in the Wiki that I suspect might be the culprit. It makes the wiki a tad slower, but I'm curious if it solves the issue for you. It seems ok for me now.

By gdx

Enlighted (6622)

15-02-2016, 01:50

Now the Casio MX-101 is displayed but not the Casio MX-10.

By gdx

Enlighted (6622)

12-03-2016, 08:59

Good luck to fix this problem!
The list of MSX1 seems to be remain stuck at 156 pages for several days ago. Many MSX1 are not listed like National CF-1200, CF-2000, FS-1300, FS-4000, etc.

https://www.msx.org/wiki/Category:MSX1

But missing MSX1 are listed on the following list.

https://www.msx.org/wiki/Category:National

The Philips VG-8230 is also missing from the list of MSX2 and perhaps others.

This problem also occurs for updated images.

By gdx

Enlighted (6622)

23-04-2016, 07:58

snout wrote:

It's a caching issue (there's a per-user cache in place) and I haven't gotten around to working on the code yet. I'll announce it when an update is issued.

Are you sure? The issue occurs when we are not logged.

When I am logged I can see 78 pages into MSX2 list but when I'm not logged I can see only 59 pages. The MSX1 list is 173 pages when logged, 156 pages only when logged out.

By Grauw

Ascended (10860)

26-04-2016, 20:58

Something’s indeed still off with the caching; I see mars2000you’s 20:55 post here, but on the frontpage I still see my own 20:44 post preceding it.

[Edit: and now it’s showing correctly.]

By raymond

Hero (656)

01-06-2016, 20:56

Since approx. 29-5 I do not get mail anymore when somebody posts a reaction on a thread I reacted on earlier. Has this been switched off?

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6613)

01-06-2016, 20:59