nntp upgrade

Tonight we rolled out the upgrade of our nntp server (nntp.perl.org) to colobus 2.1. Previously we were running a very old, somewhat hacked up version. Now we're running a new, only slightly hacked up version. (We had to make some changes for performance and quantity -- all sent back to the author of course.) You shouldn't notice any difference -- the speed seems about the same. The new version is backed by MySQL, which conveniently gives us easy access to the overview database (which contains threading information.) This will let us do cool things in the new web interface (which has been "Coming soon" for way too long.)

Full Duplex

Tonight I went to the datacenter and changed our incoming internet pipe to full duplex mode. This will give us a few more usable megabits of bandwidth, making it much less likely that we'll max out our bandwidth. It also cuts off a few milleseconds of latency.

As always, I need to thank the wonderful support staff at InterNAP for making everything so easy! I called, and within 10 minutes we had the link forced to full duplex with no interruption of service.

Why were we in half duplex mode in the first place? Good question. Their side was set to autonegotiate as was ours. Maybe it's the media converter? Maybe its our switch? Setting our switch to full duplex (and leaving theirs on auto) only made things worse. But now both sides of the link are happy, I'm happy, and our users should be happy too!

Help us at Perl.org!

If you are reading this weblog wondering how you can help, here's your chance. :-)

RT / perlbug down today

So the issue from yesterday didn't get sorted out last night. I've been working on it today and the database is happy again. Just waiting for Robert to startup RT again. :-)

RT / perlbug issues

MySQL on our main database server (we were running an old-ish 4.1.x version) crashed and corrupted some (unrelated to the crash, I think) InnoDB tables.   We did run it with some vaguely aggressive settings, but it shouldn't lead to corruption (only losing a few updates).   Grrh!

Speaking of the database server, AMD are giving us at least one of their servers; we don't really know too much about it except that a package is supposed to arrive at my house.  One of our planned uses is a new database server which should speed up RT and several other services.

From:   Robert Spier
Subject: Perlbug Email Down, Web Interface Unstable
Date: December 6, 2005 9:52:20 PM PST

Dear p5p, p6i,

We're having some database issues.

In order to make my life easier when I try and recover from them, I've disabled incoming email to the RT instance.  (It will be queued up and
delivered later.)  You may also find the web interface to be unstable
as the database decides to disappear mid-stream.

I will be working on this tomorrow, and hope to have everything back

to normal within 24 hours.

(Details: it appears that somehow, we've made innodb unhappy.

Tomorrow, I will be doing a lot of dumps and restores to try and

straighten it out.)

-R

update 1am PST: All seems well again. Unless it goes bonkers again during the night Robert is going to turn processing of the RT emails back on in the morning. - ask

Perl Foundation Weblog

Apologies if you already saw this on use.perl, my personal weblog or one of the soon bazillion other places it's been posted.

Yesterday we announced the Perl Foundation Weblog. Robert and I will post there occasionally too. I'm not sure yet if we'll just take some posts from here or if we'll split it up and leave this weblog more for just operational stuff and have news and status reports there.