Maintenance Log
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- As of 3-30-25
Of high relevance are the details from 3-30's maintenance...
3-30 (6:55PM EST)
Taking time to iteratively restructure the server backup scheme. Pruning outdated elements, creating new database checkpoints, preparing for end of migration to https://kenshi.wiki and conversion of https://kenshidb.wiki to its file storage form. Load testing and various updates have led to settling upon the following configuration, ideally:
- Ubuntu 24.04.02 LTS
- PHP 8.3.6
- MariaDB 11.4.5
- nginx (currently running 1.24, which is "fine" for operation).
Steps towards turning over the sitemap are underway.
- 8:00PM EST: Sandbox server has been converted to the above configuration (excluding MariaDB). Exploring upgrade path and finalizing server state.
- 8:25PM EST: Sandbox server live! Beat the Certbot catch-22. Eyeing MariaDB upgrade process.
- 8:55PM EST: Sandbox server running MariaDB 11.4.5 - confirmed canonical version support. Pruning done. Securing database & server backups.
- 9:10PM EST: The database for https://kenshidb.wiki has been stored locally with redundancy.
- 9:20PM EST: Checkpoints for pre-migration and pre-conversion have been established for https://kenshidb.wiki . Restoring service until 4-6-25 for wind down. As outlined earlier and elsewhere no further edits will be made to the wiki site at this domain. Setup for conversion to the file storage form is in progress.
- 9:30PM EST: The database for https://kenshi.wiki has been stored locally with redundancy.
- 9:45PM EST: A checkpoint for the https://kenshi.wiki server has been established. Proceeding with the MariaDB upgrade.
- 9:55PM EST: MariaDB successfully upgraded to 11.4.5, completing the core suite of software driving the site(s). The test & production environments are now aligned and future-proofed (avg. ~2028+). Testing of backups will follow. This completes the backend upgrade process for the sites.
- 10:20PM EST: Database integrity intact. Sandbox environment finer configuration alignment with live (and vice-versa tweaking) in progress. Investigating OPcache & DB_CACHE settings with respect to MediaWiki & current package versions. Monitoring...
- 10:25PM EST: Roadmap for 4-6-25 being created. Aiming for full sitemap transition, conversion of https://kenshidb.wiki & migration of https://map.kenshidb.wiki. This is entirely within reach and will be documented as it unfolds. Thank you for your patience with this process - it's nearly complete.
- 10:30PM EST: Monitoring continues. Sandbox testing has begun. Site maintenance will now conclude as no further downtime is expected.
In brief, the server is approaching an exceptionally stable production and test environment situation. Metrics, monitoring, logs and other aspects will be updated over the next week. Security measures are to follow. Finally the site's layout update is targeted for 4-6-25, ending the migration process and preparing for content minded development of the site to begin in earnest.
- 3-31 notes
- Designing database structure, download & API for storage site. Database design & management is a bit new to me. Fixing that with some exposure therapy.
- Assembling proposal for dedicated droplet to DigitalOcean. Eases process of migration & would provide ample resources to handle all three sites in a seamless manner. Makes future backend developments dramatically less complex (no finicky network activity behind the scenes to handle sessions and fetch data).
- Apologies for some unforeseen downtime. Updated composer & needed to update MediaWiki schema. Added AbuseFilter & ConfirmEdit due to recent abusive account creation. Touching up Fail2Ban for this server.
- Long night of ping pong with the server. Got exactly what we needed - removed some old plugins from MariaDB (had to remove the configuration calls thereafter...). Also brought PHP up to the end-of-March recent update. Monitoring resources...running well in spite of the (semi-planned) uptime hiccups.
- After much clawing I've marked what I finally consider to be a stable LEMP checkpoint. Over the coming days I'll be watching and logging specifically with respect to the end of 3-31. Updates may occur but no further upgrades are desired to the current stack. Maintain!
- 4-1 notes
- Quick backup and & some security updates. Monitoring continues.
- Busily working on the database schema & API. Combining concepts with map's API to ultimately link with the wiki site as the single source of truth - building towards a unified login for all three environments.
- To be blunt - sitting around writing SQL scripts, testing them out, reading further into documentation. Whole lotta learning going on.
- Focusing on smoothing out workflow in the database environment. It's not hard, it's particular.
- 4-2 notes
- AbuseFilter works - puts a stop to the automated account creation over the past week.
- Raw dogging SQL to satisfaction. Touch & go with Laravel, but ultimately only public testing will prove out what works.
- Google accepted indexing & sitemap - cleaned up robots.txt a bit.
- Light reading
- https://mariadb.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MariaDBServerKnowledgeBase.pdf
- http://repo.darmajaya.ac.id/4926/1/Learning%20MySQL%20and%20MariaDB_%20Heading%20in%20the%20Right%20Direction%20with%20MySQL%20and%20MariaDB%20%28%20PDFDrive%20%29.pdf (My new favorite)
- Slow week because I am completely engrossed in MariaDB. This is one of the most pleasant command line interactions I've had thus far. Lost interest in imposing a GUI between myself and the database.
- The API is the big "?" for me. While there are many roads to Rome I'm opting for the long and scenic one. Would rather build an API for the sake of understanding rather than offload such an important task to a (likely proprietary) service. Put plainly, I have to understand it to make executive calls about when external services can/would be needed.
- Oh, it works. It works so well! The UI sucks but it works!!! I'm toying around with a set of about 50 sample collections of various types. Most trouble boiled down to nuances of Javascript syntax (cursed be). Which means it's finally time for...
- Harvest season
- Fixing up the various interactions with the site, i.e...
- Filter menu to select for tags.
- Search (by name)
- Descriptive elements displaying where & when needed (small icon display, click to expand).
- Grid based easy-to-read navigation
- 4-3 notes
- Backups, updates, daily maintenance routines. Continued work on the file storage site.
- Tackling concepts of many to many relationships like author attribution and multiple images & instances of them.
- First version of the site should be ready by Sunday. Would obviously need to spend time going through the actual conversion away from the wiki.
- Second version with an updated schema is planned for 4-13. For better or worse I'm taking the time to read through the MariaDB documentation and really try to grasp it. It's not exactly mysterious material. Relational databases just be as they are and I'm cool with that.
- 4-4 notes
- In brief, the fundamental features of the file storage & archive site were proven out today.
- Downloads work, the content (grid) can be filtered and searched.
- Collections (can) provide descriptions & images for the content and related downloads.
- File downloads are quick & support the necessary types. Zips can bundle mods or any number of unique formats.
- Few, if any further advancements to the site's structure beyond UX (sorting and GUI) and increased data relationships are planned.
- Auth is not desirable at the moment. The site is exclusively intended to serve Kenshi-related files which I'll curate.
- The next couple days will be polishing the "0.1" version of the site and preparing for conversion. The actual process for migration, if sought, will begin at 8PM EST on 4-6-25. Until then I'll continue to monitor site metrics, traffic, updates & issues. There's a ton of server-sided busywork to tend to over the next few days.
- 4-5 notes
Busy, busy day! Not supposed to be a blog so I'll keep it short.
- Settled on a list of ~100 files to work with for the v1 iteration of the site.
- Since the recent suite of updates for noble backports went through the underlying server performance has been a on positive trend.
- The proper sitemap, indexing, filtering and permissions has led to pleasantly consistent log reviews.
- Over the next day I'll be doing more spring cleaning of the server. Checking automations, reviewing various configs and preparing for the migration process.
- In other news... I'm learning Go. (Plans within plans.)