PMC websites from shared hosting to Virtual Private Server

[Snake Man]

Yesterday was the big move, we moved PMC websites from shared hosting to Virtual Private Server (VPS).

Our shared web hosting was really bad, we ran out of memory and "entry processes" quite often and then our sites gave "Internal Server Error" or were just really slow. I experienced this many times over the past year myself.

I was so embarrassed when linking our PMC Editing Wiki tutorials to someone and then they tell me the website is down

But now I've been assured the this VPS where I chose to run Linux Ubuntu 16.04 configured by myself (yikes) has enough CPU, RAM and software capabilities to run all our websites.

Got to admit, this is the real way to run websites; in a linux shell and not in some lame shared thing where you only got stupid cPanel access

Obviously VPS is almost three times more expensive than shared hosting, but hey you gotta do whatever it takes to keep sites running like a pro. We get no donations from users so I'm saving (especially now with this more expensive VPS) throughout the year to pay the internet bills. But I guess if you think about it how much our sites are used, even by myself... the daily not to mention hourly cost is still quite low.

Anyways. New linux ubuntu VPS is rocking and lets hope everything runs smoothly over the next year before we need to renew this VPS the first time.

[Snake Man]

Our VPS hosting was down for over two days straight

This was some technical issue at the web hosting company, as soon as I noticed PMC websites being down and SSH connection lost to the Linux server I contacted support on 2022-08-17. Back and forth extremely slow emails and now finally today 2022-08-19 I see no new emails but websites are working again.

To my best memory, in all our web server running history starting from 1998 I have never experienced full two day downtime

If this ever happens again with this web hosting company, its time to start searching for a new one.

[Snake Man]

Received email today from web hosting company, the current VPS deal I have is no longer being sold, the "product" is not sold for new customers but old existing customers are able to keep using it, however the monthly fee increases relatively speaking a lot as its old product this hosting company has to maintain to keep old customers happy.

I'm thinking now that the NEW product they are selling, VPS with 400gb SSD, is actually slightly cheaper than this old one would be at the time my yearly payments run out in october 2024, so I most likely will "upgrade" into that, at the same time I could switch from Ubuntu to Debian 12 operating system as well, which would further allow me to run more secure, stable and up to date forum / dokuwiki etc website softwares.

If anyone wants to donate money for PMC website hosting fees that would be greatly appreciated as it would really help me to keep all our websites online.

Here is PMC website hosting donation link.

Thank you.

[Snake Man]

This week have been doing a lot of Linux studying, Debian 12 Bookworm install to my Gaming computer, Linux Bash Scripts for backups, regular backup file studying (what essential configuration files to backup), etc all kinds of Linux learning related to website and network administrating.

I'm sad to see that here has been no support for the web hosting and domain fees. Currently I don't have enough money to pay for the web hosting and domain fees, been trying to hustle to save money, instead of eating 3 hot meals a day I eat only 2, reduce "food quality" to make my monthly food allocation cash to last longer etc, stupid shit that you shouldn't be required to do in western world at 2024. My goal is to keep PMC websites online 24/7 and 365 days per year, however right now it seems I'm going to fail on that this year.

Things are not looking good today, but I'll still have my hopes up that I can hustle some money together, somehow, somewhere... without needing to get into extreme measures.

So if you want to Support PMC to help keep these websites online, now is the time.

Speaking of extreme measures, I never wanted to do something like this but if anyone wants personalized addon editing help from me, one on one chats, helping you one step at the time to create and edit the addon you have always wanted but didn't have the skills to do so, well I'm willing to do that in order to get support for PMC web hosting.

Current plan is to drop out my own VPN first, that wont help much but its a start, that would be "devastating" to my internet online activity but I am willing to do that sacrifice to keep PMC websites up. Next is to cut the website hosting, meaning PMC websites go offline while I still own the web domains like pmc.editing.wiki, pmctactical.org, farming-simulator.org and many others. However for YOU that is game over regarding PMC website visits as these sites are offline, down, not reachable, page is 404. If the worst case scenario comes to be, it would be to let go some of the domains... but that is such unheard of horrible scenario that I'll go truly medieval measures before I let that happen, don't even want to think about such things yet.

Next week is the first step to the unknown, looks like I'm going to cancel my current web hosting deal (give web hosting company the 30 days notice) and then in september 2024 I need to purchase new one, if by then I still don't have enough money saved, well for PMC website visitors its game over then.

Guys, lets not let it come to this, support PMC to help me keep these excellent historical websites online.

[Snake Man]

Just finished taking backups of all Linux Ubuntu VPS essential files, including Apache web server, MySQL database, PHP configs, rTorrent stats, backup scripts etc. Then proceeded to cancel my current VPS yearly product renewal/subscription whatever its called.

So now all PMC websites go down within one month unless there are any Support for PMC and me being able to hustle some money together. As said above, if you want to keep using PMC websites, (new) addons/mods, tutorials and everything else that comes along with those, please help by supporting PMC in the link above.

My plan now is to save money, hopefully users in various gaming communities will support PMC to help keep these websites, addons/mods online, then in middle of september 2024 I'll purchase brand new VPS service with slightly better "hardware config", install Linux Debian 12 there, restore all backup files and bring PMC websites back up. Then we live to fight the good fight for another year. With this plan there will be only "a few hours" downtime, if this downtime would be more than 8hrs then I have seriously screwed up something.

That's the plan, unfortunately long experience has thought me that only person I can rely is myself, and right now my financial situation is so shit that I just cant see a way without drastic measures to get all these website hosting yearly fees together.

If you appreciate PMC websites, please Support PMC to help keeping them online.

[Snake Man]

Been spending all day to design and edit HTML web pages for some PHP include files, this is multi stage project but goal is to bring easier way to add "global announcements" for all PMC websites across the board by editing a single file. Got the following web sites done: cities-skylines, cmano, cold-waters, combat-mission and elitedangerous.net, now my copy-paste fingers are aching and eyes are shot for staring text screens all day long.

Its been a good day of progress today. For tomorrow I'm really scared as farming-simulator.org is next on my alphabetical list, that beast has so many web pages that I highly doubt it could be done in one day, but I'll get it started and go as far as I can.

Once this php include file project is done then all PMC web sites are in good shape if there is ever a need to add urgent global notifications to them.

This is all part of VPS hosting upgrade, I still don't have money to pay the fees in about two weeks but I'll just keep pushing forward, never say quit, its not over until it is heh.

[Snake Man]

Could not find server down time topic anywhere so guess this one will do.

Today at 2024-09-02T06:51:00Z was starting to edit HTML web pages for farming-simulator.org and discovered that uh oh, all PMC web sites and even my SSH connection to the VPS are down. Was expecting a short hiccup down time of few minutes or maybe even just moments, however this turned into over an hour wait.

Checked out the web hosting company server status page and it was actually few hours later when they updated that datacenter had some serious issue, I think it burnt down or something similar crazy stuff.

Then I was just checking the server status page not trying PMC web sites or SSH connection and it was basically night time already when I now hour or so ago just out of curiosity tried to reconnect into Linux shell with SSH and it worked, then checked web sites and all those were working as well, I have no idea how many hours did I waste just trusting that web hosting company status page would actually be up to date. Anyways no big deal as long as web sites were back online, I was happily playing Farming Simulator 19 while waiting.

This is not related to the looming VPS upgrade, I did not do any configuration or anything, I wasn't even "logged on" when things went belly up at the datacenter, so this was 100% web hosting company's fault.

[Snake Man]

Finally today got back to editing web pages some more after taking several days off as were so burnt out, got some nice progress done on farming-simulator.org but there is just so many files to edit that I have to wonder if I even manage to get all the web sites done before end of next week when none of that matters anymore, I'm running against clock here and its a losing battle...

[Snake Man]

Just finished editing HTML web pages for farming-simulator.org web sites /19/ and /22/ directories, been at it all day, it was daylight when I started and now its crack of dawn heh crazy stuff man

Very nice that that FS22 web pages are now done, still have to do couple of FS25 pages tomorrow before I get to switch over to PMC Tactical ie pmctactical.org which has couple of tiny web sites plus all the massive ofp/arma and Falcon 4 pages, uuh that will be pure horror to get them done.

Oh and added so called global PHP include files also to PMC Editing Wiki and here in PMC Tactical Forum.

All in all basically just pmctactical.org left to edit.

[Snake Man]

Last night was so tired after another day of HTML web page editing that didn't even write a message about it. Early in the morning did couple of FS25 pages, then started to edit ArmA 3 pages for the PHP include file setup. Did that all day, much more slower pace than the day before though, actually played some FS19 on the side as well because the repetitive web page editing was so horrible task to do for hours and hours.

It doesn't help that ArmA 3 has so many web pages to edit, didn't even realize how many pages there are, if I've fully known the magnitude of this project I would probably never started it

Overall though, guess its beyond half way mark now so no reason to stop anymore, I need to finish the job.

VPS web hosting expires this week, it feels somehow surreal that another year has passed and those fees are due. Still no idea how I'm going to get money for the hosting part.

[Snake Man]

Today was spent all day pretty much same as yesterday, editing ArmA 3 HTML web pages, still many to go, in fact I just hour or so ago started doing those terrain pages, so have too much still to do for tomorrow.

Been playing Farming Simulator 19 on the side, long courseplay field work courses gives me a lot of time to edit HTML files.

Doing good progress but its kind of ridiculous that this project probably wont get done before web hosting expires in few days.

[Snake Man]

A lot of things happened since sep 10th 2024 of the time at my last post, too much to list, but just wanted to make a quick post (just in case someone sees this soon) that just finished configuring Linux Debian 12 web hosting setup including upgraded dokuwiki for PMC Editing Wiki and this phpBB3 PMC Tactical Forum.

I'll take a quick breath now and unless I fall asleep soon exhausted I'll write some kind of conclusion before going to bed tonight.

Then tomorrow I'll write full in-depth description, story if you will, of what happened and what I did. Until then... stay tuned.

[Snake Man]

This is what happened to PMC web sites this week.

I was away from computer at the moment but 2024-09-10T17:28:02Z was the last apache web server log entry before I lost SSH connection to the Virtual Private Server (VPS) which was running Linux Ubuntu 16.04.7 operating system.

Checked web sites and they were all down, SSH did not connect, web hosting company's server status page show no issues so looks like this is localized to my VPS only.

First I was just patiently waiting if the system comes back up by itself, but at 2024-09-11T04:43:00Z decided to send web hosting company's customer support an email reporting this issue.

This then began multi day back and forth ping-pong email exchange with customer support, its too long to go into details and doesn't matter, overall I was furious as all PMC web sites are down for hours at first and then it turned into days, let me tell ya, I was not a happy camper, however I kept my cool because raging and raving would not help at all.

Finally at 2024-09-13T04:29:00Z received last email from customer support and at this time I came to the conclusion that these guys cant help me, this issue will not be resolved like this, I need to just backup my files and re-install linux to the VPS.

Then I started to fiddle with that installation, however it was too little too late as sep 14th was the yearly web hosting fees expiration date already so even if I would manage to re-install brand new linux and restore backup files, it would only run mere hours.

Started installing linux debian 12 to the existing web hosting VPS at 2024-09-13T15:30:00Z and these software installs reached pretty much OK "testing stage" at 2024-09-13T21:41:00Z or so.

Purchased the new more powerful (and web hosting company product wise more up to date) VPS at 2024-09-13T22:33:00Z however the payment procedure messed up, the order went in but my payment didn't, so I had to retry the payment which then worked fine, but now web hosting company doesn't have this new payment info so I had to send yet another customer support email at 2024-09-13T23:15:00Z and then another set of waiting period commenced.

I got to tell ya, at this point I was so sick and tired of waiting for customer support email replies that I just wanted to throw my hands in the air and run outta the door screaming

Since VPS went down on sep 10th I had been slowly editing PMC web pages to add global announcement PHP include files, this project got completed, its just that VPS being down I cant upload those files. Also it was extremely frustrating that time was running out as server expiration deadline is getting closer and closer but none of these PHP files help at all as nobody can see them.

Then the next day at 2024-09-14T10:51:00Z finally received email that my brand new VPS payment went through and the product is ready for me to use, well cool but this kind of feels like everything just went to shit fast and now its too late. Also at this time I was end of my day already just about to get some sleep so yet another delay with PMC web sites being down.

Woke up yesterday at 2024-09-14T19:02:00Z and then after days first meal it was go time, Linux Debian 12 configurations begin! Cool!

I'm not going to bore you with excessively long story about configuring linux, fail2ban, apache, letsencrypt, MySQL and PHP etc, but it was 2024-09-15T09:27:00Z (today actually, even though for me this time was last night) when I finally got PMC Tactical Forum working along with other MySQL database using web sites.

That's the story what happened with PMC web site down time on september 10th 2024.

For privacy sensitive info reasons I'm not going to go into details how I got the money to purchase this new VPS web hosting package, but its now paid until sep 2025, however domain registration fees are due starting october 3rd 2024 and across various domains their due dates are along oct with last ones expiring on oct 28th 2024 I believe.

Right now I have even less money than before, I do not know how can I pay those domain registration fees, so if nobody support's PMC with this issue then there is a real chance that starting from beginning of oct 2024 PMC web sites go dark one by one.

Yes web HOSTING server has been paid, files are on the SERVER but the domain name is the "pmctactical.org" and "farming-simulator.org" etc and if those are gone then you could still connect through IP but that doesn't work because how apache web server is configured, for example if you try to reach pmc.editing.wiki with IP address, its not possible as there is no virtual host information in that IP. Once domains expire so do the web sites, they simply go down.

I am obviously working hard trying to come up some way to get money for the domain registration fees, there is about two weeks time now to hustle some cash, but I just don't know how that plays out, I have my doubts but yeah dunno.

If you want to enjoy PMC addons/mods, tutorials, guides, stories and all the other content in our web sites, don't hesitate to Support PMC before its too late.

[Snake Man]

Global announcement PHP include file project is now complete. Just finished uploading the previously edited PHP files when VPS was down (past few days since sep 10th) and verified them with firefox browser in actual production web site environment, all of them work well.

Man let me tell ya, if I ever have to do such project again... I'll out right refuse

But the whole point of this global php include file thingy was to provide me a way to instantly announce text to all PMC web sites just by editing few files in a single dir and uploading them.

Hopefully in the future there wont be any big projects like this where you'd have to edit several web sites with combined total of hundreds of web pages.

[Snake Man]

Just finished the main part of Linux Debian 12 Apache web server configurations for today, its been hardcore day of some cool Linux shizzle, straight up from the morning I blasted off configuring apache web server, added bunch of virtual hosts kind of like new web sites, been a really fun day of editing, done good work and progress, very happy about it.

It starts to feel like the RAW portion of linux configuring is over now for this new VPS setup, I already had trouble finding the next task to do just now, in fact I'm writing this forum post to mark down the progress and then move into adding new content with some tweaks to the old pages as well.

PMC web site domain registration is still looming in the horizon at early oct 2024 so while that doesn't really require any configuring I'm still considering that a big part of this topic, so in two weeks I'll definitely post into this topic how did everything end up.

[Snake Man]

With great sadness I have to report that because nobody supported PMC it forced me to go into extreme measures to get the money together, but PMC website HOSTING and DOMAIN REGISTRATION fees for 2025 have now been paid.