Major forum upgrade -- post problems here!

[BeefMaster]

Seems to work so far.

[Gantry]

GOOD

[Gantry]

As for this forum's upgrade, the operating system it runs on (CentOS Linux 6, the free version of Red Hat Enterprise) is now out of support.  The problem is that I planned to go to the latest version CentOS 8, but IBM (who now owns Redhat) in their infinite wisdom just announced that they are shortening the lifecycle for CentOS from the normal 10 years to 2 fkn years.  Well after the product was released.  This kind of fucks me so I'm in a holding pattern waiting to see the fallout.  So I'm likely just going to limp along on this server hoping there are no major Apache or kernel security issues in the next few months. 

Also SMF version 2.1 which has been in beta forever in on its third release candidate.   What makes sense is to upgrade to a new server when both 2.1 are out and there is some clarity to the CentOS 8 shitshow.  Stay tuned...

[nightwulf]

As for this forum's upgrade, the operating system it runs on (CentOS Linux 6, the free version of Red Hat Enterprise) is now out of support.  The problem is that I planned to go to the latest version CentOS 8, but IBM (who now owns Redhat) in their infinite wisdom just announced that they are shortening the lifecycle for CentOS from the normal 10 years to 2 fkn years.  Well after the product was released.  This kind of fucks me so I'm in a holding pattern waiting to see the fallout.  So I'm likely just going to limp along on this server hoping there are no major Apache or kernel security issues in the next few months. 

Saw all the news on that and wondered what path you'd take. Personally I'm using Debian on my server and love it. Rock solid. Run several services in Docker containers, truly a "set it and forget it" OS. Downside is everything is way behind current versions because they promote stability over all, which fits my use case for that machine. I run Arch on my desktop and Mint on my laptop where updated software is more important.

But I'm guessing you're a RH fanboy (much like myself and every other nerd is a fanboy of one distro or another). Rocky Linux may be your best answer, if they get off the ground.

[fightonusc]

Is Rocky Linux the operating system for Paulie's robot?

[Gantry]

Debian or Ubuntu LTS are definitely the current leaders, Rocky Linux would of course be perfect but I don't see that being out and stable anytime soon.  I don't have the Linux knowledge I used to and would much prefer a RH based system for familiarity's sake.  If I can get one of those Docker containers with SMF and Mediawiki that would certainly save me a ton of hassle. 

[nightwulf]

Debian or Ubuntu LTS are definitely the current leaders, Rocky Linux would of course be perfect but I don't see that being out and stable anytime soon.  I don't have the Linux knowledge I used to and would much prefer a RH based system for familiarity's sake.  If I can get one of those Docker containers with SMF and Mediawiki that would certainly save me a ton of hassle.

Probably all kinds of containers for MediaWiki. Looks like an official one here.

Only noticed one SMF container packaged / maintained by some random person.

Probably not difficult to take an official Apache container (or your favorite server) and install SMF, probably a better approach.

Understood and agreed on familiarity, but the Debian ecosystem is pretty fkn simple. Really I think all of them with mature package managers are. I'd lean Debian over Ubuntu just for the focus on stability and no worries about any further stupid direction changes from Canonical. Some are hesitant on Deb due to the focus on free software, but I've had no issues finding and adding the packages I needed, lots of things packaged in .deb.

[nightwulf]

Oh and nothing against SMF, updates are slow but it's definitely not abandoned. That said, you could get really fucked of Old Blacksmith and look for something more modern which has a more active developer community.

[Gantry]

SMF is definitely getting up there and the updates are definitely SLOW (we've been at 2.1 RCs for nearly two years) but I simply don't have the desire to go through the hassle of migrating to something else.  But then again since it'll be a whole new server I can do trial runs until I get it right.  Probably won't but should consider...

So having never used Docker, would recommend I install separate docker images for each thing the current server does - specifically the wikis and forums?  They'll each need mysql as well, so I don't how much I should separate things.  Not sure how much you typically specialize...

[nightwulf]

SMF is definitely getting up there and the updates are definitely SLOW (we've been at 2.1 RCs for nearly two years) but I simply don't have the desire to go through the hassle of migrating to something else.  But then again since it'll be a whole new server I can do trial runs until I get it right.  Probably won't but should consider...

So having never used Docker, would recommend I install separate docker images for each thing the current server does - specifically the wikis and forums?  They'll each need mysql as well, so I don't how much I should separate things.  Not sure how much you typically specialize...

MariaDB (not mysql) in one container to serve as the db for everything. Probably one container for MediaWiki, another for the forums. No special reason other than it's easier imo to just spin up two containers than try to have a working http config for both in one container. Also means if you install a new version of MW and it goes nuts, it doesn't take the forums down with it. I like using a macvlan network to give each its own IP rather than putting each on a different port. Needs some internal routing config but that's minor. Can give each service its own static internal IP that way. Also like Portainer for managing containers. Probably losing nerd cred for not doing it with text files or huge command lines, but ain't nobody got time for that.

Change your SSL cert to a wildcard, covering dee-nee.com and *.dee-nee.com. DNS for dee-nee.com proper, CNAME records for forums, wiki, whatever else pointing to the proper hostname. Reverse proxy answers that IP, hands off to the appropriate internal IP based on hostname. I like Nginx Proxy Manager for this. HTTPS connection to NPM, NPM holds the SSL cert and passes decrypted traffic downstream, no need to configure SSL on the downstream services.

[Gantry]

OK thanks for all that - it's a lot of new shit to learn but I'm likely not going to have a choice given that it's just a matter of time before this site and forums will become easily hackable.

I think I'll start with the wikis because they should be easier, should let me build the infrastructure before moving along to the hardest part - which will likely be the forums. 

Now the big question is when...

[fightonusc]

3/14/2028

[fathedX]

Dee Nee 2.0 is right around the corner

[Gantry]

Any fkn day now

[nightwulf]

Rocky Linux would of course be perfect but I don't see that being out and stable anytime soon.

Community Update - December 2020

Still too early to tell, but they're looking kind of impressive.

[Gantry]

Saw that, definitely waiting - should time nicely for when I get back from Mexico.