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Official Announcements / Re: Preparing for a new master DonationCoder server

« on: November 19, 2010, 08:03 PM »

So, post more graphs like this: ;)

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Official Announcements / Re: Preparing for a new master DonationCoder server

« on: November 19, 2010, 07:24 PM »

So, there's a few ways we can go about this....

One suggestion:

* main dc server http on a vm (minus mail)
* dcwing member server on a vm (minus mail)
* vm for main dc email
* vm for member server email
* vm for newsletter sending
* (optional - vm for sql )
* vm for commercial project hosting

The main reasoning behind putting the newsletter on it's own vm (and more importantly IP) is so that should we ever unjustly be considered spammers due to the high volume mail of the newsletter and end up on some blacklist, the mail forum registration mails won't stop working (ie end up in people's junk mailboxes). This vm wouldn't have to run all the time, only during newsletter sending time.

The reasoning for seperating SQL on a separate server is security and scalability. A compromised sql server won't touch the main server's files. (Same reason why email would be separate), it also allows us to tune the OS setup towards the specific task. (eg, mail would have a larger /var partition for the mail queue, and perhaps a filesystem that performs better with lots of smaller files)

Currently we already have MySQL and Apache isolated on the member server using BSD jails. It works but I feel there is some performance hit due to the need for NAT in pf. Having separate vm's would be a much cleaner solution.

There's many other ways we could go at this...
The mail vm's could all be diskless OS'es with a master server so that 1 OS upgrade migrates to all the vm's automatically for example. (It would also save a lot of drive space). But then the problem of course is that if the master server goes down, all the nodes will too. (We could put them on a NAS if we can afford it, though that's up in the air right now)

If any one has good ideas on what services to separate in which vm's lets hear them. It's more fun if we can involve everyone in building our new home :)

General Software Discussion / Re: SMF or phpBB... that is the question?

« on: November 17, 2010, 12:12 PM »

SMF is pretty great right out of the box and has proved very stable, and has a wonderful feature set and organization that just makes sense.

However the one thing I will say, and i think i've said this in another thread, is that SMF is part of the past-generation of web applications, where "add-ons and extensions" are not handled through hooks and signals, but are instead handled by actually *modifying* the code.

What this means is that addons and mods are not easy to maintain, and can be a bit hairy to deal with when applying updates to the core forum.

So SMF is a great forum system for someone who wants a powerful and easy to maintain forum system, but who isn't planning on installing lots of addons. Although there are some great addons for SMF, if you are the kind of person who will want to install lots of addons and modifications for your forum, you should look elsewhere, in my humble opinion, because of the difficulty in maintaining and upgrading in the presence of addons.
-mouser (November 07, 2010, 09:28 AM)

That's an important point, and I'd like to add to it from a ServerAdmin point of view.
Keeping up to date is one of the single most important things you can do to keep a server secure.
With the design of smf making this HARDER when you have modifications, you REALLY have to stay on top of things.
This means, watching all the regular sites for posted smf exploits (fulldisclosure etc) and patching & testing them MANUALLY when they occur. (thus you must be skilled in php to even consider running smf with custom mods if you're planning to maintain the site a long time)
In the past Mouser and I have had to do this a few times, but luckly not too much, which brings me to the second point:
I see a lot more vulnerabilities posted for phpbb than smf.
Now that doesn't mean that it's more secure, it could just be that it's more popular/targeted
Honestly I think we (especially mouser ;) ) dread the day we have to finally go for a major version upgrade of smf :D

Mircryption / Re: mircryption-compatible script for irssi

« on: November 05, 2010, 11:01 PM »

Hi Mayti,

I just tested blowssi with mouser in both cbc and ecb, using +OK prefix AND mcps prefix and we could not duplicate the problem no matter what we did.
Perhaps you have some script that messes with the format of messages? That's the only thing I can think of right now...

Developer's Corner / Re: The Inversion of the Open Source - Big Corporation Divide?

« on: November 05, 2010, 07:54 PM »

<quote>
Richard Stallman: All software should be Open Source, where it can be modified and distributed as users see fit.
</quote>

Wtf?
He advocates Free Software, not "Open Source"
I suggest you read: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
I'd rather you copy/paste what he sais instead of writing down an interpretation open to huge misunderstandings.

<quote>
if programmers can no longer make a living from creating software that is ok -- they can always get consulting jobs if they need money.
</quote>

Wtf?
Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html

In fact, I suggest you read everything under http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html ...

Messages - Gothi[c] [ switch to compact view ]

Official Announcements / Re: Preparing for a new master DonationCoder server

Official Announcements / Re: Preparing for a new master DonationCoder server

General Software Discussion / Re: SMF or phpBB... that is the question?

Mircryption / Re: mircryption-compatible script for irssi

Developer's Corner / Re: The Inversion of the Open Source - Big Corporation Divide?