Hi all
I'm happy to let you know that new hardware has been ordered by Wikimedia
Deutschland and will arrive probably in about two weeks. We will get two new
systems:
* A more powerful web server, to replace hemlock: Sun Fire X4150, 2x Quad-Core
Xeon, 8GB RAM, 2x73GB SAS HDD. The current web server only has two cores.
* Another database server, to be used for S1 (english wikipedia), so S1 and S3
no longer have to share a server: Sun Fire X4250, 2x Quad-Core Xeon, 32GB RAM,
16x146GB SAS RAID.
This should improve performance and give us some head space for growth. Once the
new servers arrive, S3 will be re-imported too, so we will have live data again.
Any ideas for names? To stay with the nightshade theme, how about Jurubeba and
Erubia? Or perhaps we go the "witches' weed" way, with Datura and Mandrake?
Henbane is taken, i think. Amanita sounds nice, too :)
A third server has been ordered, which will also be installed in Amsterdam, but
will not be part of the toolserver cluster. It's a storage server (X4540, 24TB
RAID) that will keep a live backup of all media files.
Cheers,
Daniel
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Hi,
According to our maintenance schedule, February 7th would usually be a
general maintenance. However, due to the problems with s3/s7 we have
not had enough time to plan it; there will therefore be no maintenance
this time.
- river.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (NetBSD)
iEYEARECAAYFAk1Enq8ACgkQIXd7fCuc5vLrUQCfT7bJEpisyeVpZnNiEfhkM8nu
NcsAn0a7RiZd4ef+KgVem5WbbAiAlRtZ
=92od
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Hi,
We have moved phpMyAdmin to a new host. This should not affect users,
but please open a request in JIRA if you find any odd problems with it.
- river.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (FreeBSD)
iEYEARECAAYFAk0/GKEACgkQIXd7fCuc5vIgxACgmil7NmPpx2myeBdwQqWNwTOg
kjgAnjKzphlrKKVU8/8VLkfNPNrdMnbS
=RxHX
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Whatever happened to that global sitenotice file that was mentioned here: [0]? Running a ls -l on the file indicates it's been almost 7 months without an update. Is it still being used, or is it essentially deprecated? I still like the idea, but if it's not used anymore, I'd like to know if I can remove it.
-X!
[0] - http://www.mail-archive.com/toolserver-l@lists.wikimedia.org/msg01641.html
Hello all,
since the begin of 2011 the number of new interwiki-bots is slow down because
of a change in the approval-policy. So step 1 of the improvment of the
interwiki-bots-situation is done.
The next step (I call it "step 2") I would like to discuss with you is the
following:
*Creation of a multi-maintaincer-project (MMP),
*Creation of a database for this MMP,
*Adding of all new interwiki-bots after 1. February,
*Adding of all old interwiki-bots until 1. May.
The idea behind this is that all interwiki-bots have a common database to
access at the end. That should help to avoid a common problem with interwiki-
bots: They don't know about each other.
I quite often find discussions about the following problem in the wiki-
projects:
"I read the article de:foo 2 weeks ago and found that it has a interwiki-link
to en:foo in it – but this was wrong so I corrected it to en:bar. Last week I
found that a bot deleted en:bar and put en:foo back – and that is still wrong
and I corrected it back. I also contacted the bot-owner. Today I found that
ANOTHER bot removed en:bar AGAIN and put en:foo back – and it is STILL wrong!!
I don't like to speak with every bot-owner and corrected 200 wikimedia-
projects!"
If all interwiki-bots would have a common database, this problem would vanish
very soon I guess (at least for the toolserver-interwiki-bots, but non-
toolserver-interwiki-bots are not our business and the wikimedia-project
should handle that problem). Just having a table with "wrong" interwiki-links.
What step 2 is NOT:
-All interwiki-bots will run from the MMP,
-There is only 1 interwiki-bot for everything.
Every bot will still run from the account (ts-account AND wikimedia-project-
account) of its owner and in his/her responsibility. But the owner (and the
bot) will have access to the common-database of the MMP, which he/she can use
to improve his/her bot.
I'm sure that the pywikipedia-bot-developer (and the other bot-framework-
developer) will support this sooner or later too.
I would like to read feedback about step 2 from you (if there is no feedback,
I will proceed ;-) )
Sincerly,
DaB.
--
Userpage: [[:w:de:User:DaB.]] — PGP: 2B255885
Hello all,
with the beginning of the next year (2011) I will not longer accept new
interwiki-bot-accounts, if:
-The homewiki of the bot has at least one active interwiki-bot, which runs on
the toolserver, OR
-The homewiki has less then 1000 articles.
(There can be exceptions if there is a good reason of course)
The homewiki is that wiki where the bot starts and where the account-requester
got his/her bot approved (see [1]).
If the account-requester requested the account only for the interwiki-bot, the
request will be rejected; if he/she requested the account also for other
things, only the interwiki-bot will be denied of course and the rest of the
request will be handled the normal way.
For interwiki-bots which runs already on the toolserver, there is no change at
the moment. When you find a free minute: Please add your bot to [2] and check
if there are inactive bots listed for your wiki.
The goal of this change is to limit the number of interwiki-bots on the
toolserver (and improve our documentary a bit).
Sincerly,
DaB.
[1] https://wiki.toolserver.org/view/Account_approval_process, Request
process, Point 4.
[2] https://wiki.toolserver.org/view/Wikimedia_bots
--
Userpage: [[:w:de:User:DaB.]] — PGP: 2B255885
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Hi,
After the s3/s7 split at Wikimedia, which moved several databases from
s3 to the new s7 cluster, we retained both databases on the same (s3)
server, which is our usual policy in such cases.
Unfortunately, over the last couple of days Wikimedia executed several
DROP DATABASE statements on their s7 server, for the old s3 databases.
These statements were replicated to our s3/s7 server and dropped the
live databases on our server. As a result:
* Several s3 databases (all of which start with 'a') are no longer
available
* s3 replication is halted due to the missing databases
* s7 replication is halted to prevent further destruction of data.
The only way to resolve this issue is to re-import the data from
Wikimedia's databases, which will take a few days at least.
- river.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (FreeBSD)
iEYEARECAAYFAk01800ACgkQIXd7fCuc5vKLMACeIN62eR9PXNDy475V9GLP3Edx
vggAmwUieFLO2hbF6S9NpJh/K3JsFx9G
=nI96
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Hi,
Shortly we will move user databases on the s3/s4/s6/s7 server from the
current primary (cassia) to the secondary server (hyacinth). hyacinth
will become the new primary server. This will involve a couple of hours
read-only time for user databases during the move.
Due to the current problems with s3/s7 this maintenance is being done
outside the normal schedule.
- river.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (FreeBSD)
iEYEARECAAYFAk028soACgkQIXd7fCuc5vJH2gCggv1qjvygWzAM+sUVljUqtZ12
iG0An2fMIRacYeffR9o+hfJ13y8juocm
=vj5q
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Hi all
after some discussion, Wikimedia Germany decided not to hold a developer's
meet-up around the Chapter's conference in March. We just couldn't fit this in
nicely with the venue and the overall organization. Don't despair though:
This is what we will do instead:
* There will be a hackathon hosted by Wikimedia Germany in (late) May, probably
in Berlin, but that's not decided yet. This will mostly about hacking, with a
strong focus on GLAM related stuff. There will be little in terms of presentations.
* There will be the hacking days attached to Wikimania in Haifa, August 3./4.
I'm in charge of setting up the program for that, and I'll try to make it a nice
mix of discussing technology and actually hacking. I would also like to have a
get-together with thechies and chapter folks at some point during Wikimania.
I hope that this way, we can give the hacking events the attention they deserve.
Let me know what you think.
-- daniel