Upcoming Maintenence
 

In preparation for upcoming script upgrades AnimeOTK.com (and all sister sites and hosted sites) will be closing for a long period of maintenence during which:

• All sites will be redirected to a placeholder page informing everybody of ongoing maintenence.
• Full fresh backups will be taken once all sites are turned off
• These new fresh backups will be moved off of the server
• The server will be wiped clean and given a fresh install of CentOS 7 or Ubuntu 16 LTS (not yet decided)
• Hosting control panel will be set up again
• PHP 5.4 will be installed alongside a hosting template so we can continue to run these old sites without issue.
• PHP 5.6 will be installed alongside a hosting tempate so when we are ready to upgrade our scripts we can move straight to the newer, more secure and faster PHP
• PHP 7.1 will be installed alongside a hosting template so it can be tested on the new scripts as well.
• All data from the fresh backups will be restored to the server
• All sites will be redirected back to this server and reopened as soon as their data is restored.

This is likely to take in excess of 48 hours to perform but will hopefully be much shorter. The exact time of this maintenence period is currently unknown but will likely be within the next month as my time allows. There will be only a brief period of notice (1 hour at most) prior to the sites going offline - apoogies for this inconvinience. It is a necessary evil in the quest to upgrade us to new scripts!

Thanks for the update Ai, Good to see we got something going. Could you give us notice (maybe in a mass PM) a few days before you start? I backup my roleplays but in worst case scenario I'd like to do a last check before you take the site offline :3

48 hours isn't so long...
Good luck, Ai! We have to save our site!

Thank you for all your hard work, keeping the site going and up to date, it is truly appreciated.


Though I do have a few questions.


I'm not very tech savvy, so please forgive me for asking and worrying over a possibly dumb few questions.


With the data back ups, are our works saved to them ? Rp threads, art and so on.


And are they restored when the Maintenance is complete ? Or would they be gone ?


I have my two Rp threads saved in printable electronic copies, though the copies, automatically update when new posts are added to the threads.


So to me that suggests an ongoing connection to Anime otk, should they be wiped from the site, would my back up printable copies, get wiped too ?


Again I'm sorry for the possibly very dumb questions, but my anxiety won't let me stop worrying about it, without a specific confirmation. And I don't understand enough about the electronic PDF files to know if that would be the case...


Thank you for taking the time to read this, I appreciate it. And I hope you can put my mind at ease on this matter...

Hi Karui! I'm not the mod but I hope that I can answer some of your questions based on AI's post.

Fresh back ups will mean everything. This is all posts, art, stories, user data, everything from the site. Now when this happens, whatever program you use to make PDF backups of your roleplays may be seperate to AOTK. Without more information about how you have set this up there is no guarantee that they will back up as it may be potential that it may see that pays are not there and effectively remove your back up.

Assuming that all goes well with the server upgrade all the data will be restored back onto the site again. There may be a few differences in the web address and how the data is coded which may mean your back needs to be tweaked to collect the new data but it is a bridge to cross when it comes to that.

I would recommend making a manual back up of your current roleplays for peace of mind. But as said without more details in your methods I cannot give.move advise on that.

Hope this helps in someway!

Thank you for taking the time to read and reply to me.


I used the "thread tools" option at the start of my rp's . And selected "show printable version", it showed me a white background copy of the full RP.



I right clicked the mouse and scrolled to print. When I brought up the print option I selected "Save as PDF" on my Windows Computer.


And the files were created. That's all I know. A Mod told me to do that some time ago, when an RP partner of mine wanted our thread deleted from the site, and I wanted to save a copy of it.



That thread I no longer have access to and can't find on the site anymore, the shortcut I had made only says "I don't have permission to view this page" so I don't know if it's deleted or just hidden from everyone.


The PDF I have of it, still opens and shows the rp thread though. But you can kinda see why I'm unsure if it'll save the current RP's from a site wipe... Since the page doesn't say "deleted" but "I don't have permission to view it".


One of the Rp's is very large, do you know where I can save the whole thing and back it up in a more reassuring way ?

Thanks for that additional information.

Sorry if at any point I have confused you or give advice on what you already know. I am only going on the information I see. :)

I would question that the copies are automatically updated. When you click "Save as PDF", you are saving the file as is. Meaning if you have posted 50 posts to that thread, it will save 50 posts. If you then go to post another 10 posts, but do not do a new Save As request, your PDF will only have same 50 posts, not the additional 10 you made (to make the toal 60). You need to periodically manually do this yourself (unless you have another program that does all this for you).

These things are not automatic and the process you describe is independent. When you Save As, you make an exact copy of what you see at the time. Regardless if the site dies, the thread gets deleted or hidden, moved or whatever, you will still have that copy on your computer.

Again I hope this helps :D

Sounds good.

Good luck with the updates!