Greetings to all the faithful,
We already had a few questions about what was going on and I apologize for my silence, but we didn’t sit on our asses, we just had a few crisis discussions and it was necessary to solve them as we want to develop it further, plus I was abroad for work, etc. Now I will try to outline the situation regarding the future of our server. The server debugging is finished after a few weeks and will be deployed soon. Since this is a really large number of changes mainly to DB, the deployment will be gradual and gradual these days.
We met several times with people who helped me significantly with the latest changes, and we put together heads as we develop further. Since we have free time on similar days and hours (we also have common interests), we decided to stop live chat on the site, because we would not be able to cover it or usually all at once but we are dealing with repairs, we agreed that we will not spend this common time answering questions, because it is ineffective in such a small number of people. Therefore, we will deal with support only through the forum and e-mails as it was in previous years. While we would like to provide more support to players, no one has the time to do so on such a regular basis. If someone has time, they will reply to the forum or in emails. I am thinking of some “mass” account that could be used not only by my friends, but also by very experienced players who have an overview and could answer some questions. I would really like to focus purely on repairs and the server as such rather than answering and solving problems with the community. The players themselves could vote for such a “community representative” and he would pass on to me the most important problems to solve without the need for my involvement in the discussions and he would use this account and the players would know that someone who is in direct contact with me answers.
The next item is system and Linux updates. I still need a new kernel for a few things and the web, and for that we need to update the Linux system, which is currently in progress, until it finishes version 17.04. After the system update, the following things are on the long-term plan:
1) Linux upgrade to 17.04
2) Setting up security techniques as in the past
3) Gradual deployment of tuning repairs that we have been working on for over 2 months
4) Deployment of the old known forum (will be finished with item 5)
5) New website with preparation for new add-ons (this security and other features are not enough for future plans)
6) A gradual transition to expansion packs (after long discussions, what is best, we will switch gradually to Cataclysm at least, if everything goes well, we will switch to more expansion packs in the horizon of years, or we will always jump on the latest with a gradual opening of the repaired parts of the game mechanics, depends on the success of the deployment and gameplay of Cata after deployment and our repairs)
7) Of course there are general corrections at each stage in the form of regular corrections and your report to the forum (or other system for reporting errors in the future)
8) I will always inform you about other minor activities and changes in the form of news on the site, as you have been accustomed to so far
Updating the operating system on our server
Like any system, Linux is constantly evolving and much faster, faster and more stable than other operating systems. Our server ran on the Ubuntu server version 16.04 with the working name Xenial Xeruswhich can be translated as "The hospitable squirrel.‘. Xerus is a genus of African ground squirrels. Therefore, it is necessary to switch to the latest version, namely 16.10 server editions with working name Yakkety YakWhich is such a pun. The whole yakety-yak means chatty, the yak itself is, as always, an animal, specifically “like wild”, a tur living in the Asian mountains. This version is not the most current stable version of this operating system for servers and I will update it to version 17.04. In the years of Linux on this server, it has never happened to me that the server would sometimes crash due to the failure of the operating system or perhaps hinder the operation of the entire system even after a few weeks (!) without restarting the entire system and so Linux will always be the right choice for our server. The update is important for getting the latest technology and system security, speeding up some of the system components we use on a daily basis, and getting the latest technology that today offers. It is mainly about updating the kernel (kernel), the latest MySQL (the system on which our server's database is running), Apache + PHP (our server's website), etc. However, it is a lengthy process and can last for several hours, but I believe that we will succeed sooner. I backed up everything in case of failure and there should be no problem when switching to the latest version of this operating system. During the entire process, the game server, TeamSpeak server and other offline services including this website will be available. Thank you for understanding. Approximate time to complete this action indicates, among other things, the deployment time for the list of fixes.
The operating system will also be updated to Ubuntu Server 17.04 (now 16.10) and will therefore be restarted several times during the course, please limit the connection to the server if it is available during the update and testing processes until the server with all adjacent services is fully launched. Thank you for understanding.
Repairs
03.05.2017 – 23:00 (Approximate date and time of deployment of all fixes see below viz no more than Wednesday night)
1) Updated operating system to Ubuntu Server 16.10
2) Updated operating system to Ubuntu Server 17.04
3) Deployed the first part of major debug fixes after 2 years of server inactivity and customization of patches by Trinity kernel