Site Updates

[Skhilled]

I've decided to add a new board: SMF 2.1 RC1 since it is released in case anyone wanted to chat about it.

https://www.docskillz.com/docs/index.php?board=61.0

[Skhilled]

I've set the server for this site to PHP 7.3 and so far, it works! If you experience any problems please let me know. If I find no problems, I'll start upgrading the other sites on the server too

Remember, you can always change your own PHP version in your cPanel, if needed. After the change it will take a minute or two to complete. During that time you may see "Service Unavailable" on your site until it completes. Then all should be good!

[lurkalot]

PHP 7.3 ?  I'm now curious.  Does that mean you installed a mod, or modified 2.0.15 to run on 7.3, because 2.0.15 doesn't support it?  7.1 is the highest version it supports out of the box.

Edit:  I will say, it's bloody fast though. lol..

[Skhilled]

No modifications or changes were done. I just change it on the VPS, although, you should be able to change it in your cpanel if the hosting allows it. Basically, I was testing it to see if 7.2 and 7.3 would work or not. All sites on the server are currently set to 7.1 especially upon account creation. Again, they can be changed to use 7.2 or 7.3 if the user wishs.

I wanted to do it on my site first before trying it on others. 7.0 and older are now EOL and should not be used and should be uninstalled on the server.

EDIT: Please keep in mind that there may be some issues with certain mods, code, etc. which is why I'm doing this as a test here. I can change it back easily if there's a problem.

[Skhilled]

Just thought of this...but things like apache or php extensions or other server settings may also have an effect on if it works or not...

Yes, you are right! I'm JUST noticing how much faster it is! 

[Skhilled]

Ok, found out something. I've been noticing errors on my site related to the arcade for awhile now but thought it just needed updating. But there's more to it than that...

The errors state that the "create_function ()" is depreciated. After a search on Google it seems that it should be changed to "function ()". Now for the bad news...LOL There's tons of "create_function ()" in many files in many places through out SMF 2.0.15! They would all need to be changed but there's no telling what would happened if you did that. Not to mention the same for the mods and themes...

Maybe I'll play around with it on a test site and see what happens.

[lurkalot]

Is was only depreciated since PHP7.2 onwards.  I dare say these things will eventually get updated by the time we're forced to move up. 

[Skhilled]

We can only hope...

[Skhilled]

Bigguy just reminded me about a mod that works for 7.2 to make smf 2.0.x work with it at smfhacks.com.

https://www.smfhacks.com/index.php/topic,9707.0.html

I see Chen's site listed in the credits and it reminded me he did something like that and I've forgotten about it. Looks like they teamed up to make it. But Chen's site is down atm...

[Chen Zhen]

I am the one who wrote the entire script.
The license allows people to distribute it on their websites which is why he has it posted there.
I felt it was best to allow wide distribution of that mod/tool because a lot of hosts are upgrading their PHP (forced) & it's taking quite a long time for the SMF 2.1 branch to roll out a stable version.

My site was down due to a botched kernel update.
I had to reinstall backups 3.5 times to figure it out.
This is using FTP for files because I don't pay for host backups which takes a long time.
My host is pretty good though... they have some options to help recover data that is included in their cheaper limited support VPS packages.

They do allow 1 image backup for free but it requires a reboot of the OS after applying it.
Every time I rebooted it triggered the botched kernel update & made the system useless.
It took me a bit to figure out what it was & how to fix it.
Every time the system rebooted to apply its kernel update, it truncated the entire boot folder on the partition.
I had to use special commands to apply the kernel updates without a reboot.

If you ever have an issue like this, shoot me a PM at my site & I'll help you fix it.

 

[Skhilled]

Yes, I remember seeing it on your site now that you've mentioned it.

I've had the same problems awhile back trying to upgrade the kernel. I must've tried a dozen and a half times but could never get it to work properly without screwing things up. Fortunately, we have a backup system but only via FTP, atm. NFS and CIFS can be added for about $3/month. We have 100GB storage space.

I had to use Cent OS6 for a long time. We finally, were able to use Cent 7 but some other wanted/needed features can't be used without upgrading the kernel. It's been awhile since I've tried anything. We pretty much gave up on it and decided if we get a new server we'd get one that's already updated. LOL

[Chen Zhen]

When using yum update the kernel updates are usually automatically included.
You can make some file adjustments or commands to stop kernel updates but I wouldn't do that.
Next time I know to browse the list of updates and if I see a kernel update in the list, abort & do just the kernel update manually.
The procedure I used to update without a reboot seems to work.
Plus I can ensure that I make an image of my OS just before doing it.

[Skhilled]

I have an image too but it is only available once per month for free, I think. Otherwise, if I need it more than that I have to pay for it. It's been quite awhile since I've needed one and forget the exact details but something like that.

We do have a backup dedicated server but for some reason it stopped backing up the OS and we need to look into it. WHM, does backup the accounts on the main server and the backup server automatically. So, even if we lose the OS we still have the accounts backed up.

I would like to get the kernel updated cause there are some programs I wanted to play with but don't work because of that...like a personal email server and personal chat server. Getting tired of Google reading my emails and sending me emails asking about reviews for things I get.

EDIT: Btw, the PHP 7.2 Compatibility script at smfhacks only works with SMF 2.1 while yours only works with 2.0. I've installed the mod on https://skhilled.com/smftest to PHP 7.2 and it works without any errors! Yeah! I plan to install it here next.

[Skhilled]

I've forgotten to update this, been way too busy! That mod will give errors in your log depending on the other mods you have installed or if anything called that outdated code.

We've moved all of the accounts to the new dedicated server and believe we've got just about everything working as it should! We've got an updated OS with and updated kernel and now have double the RAM of the last server!

[Skhilled]

Upped the site to PHP 7.3...so far, no problems and the site seems faster!