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Time to rebuild my host spread

I hate having epilepsy. Back in the saddle again :) the server didn't go down while I was gone according to my monitoring.
 
Okay I have a test config up and running. Dropbox will operate successfully in a shell, and it is fairly simple to set up that way. At this very moment two independant instances of it are operating on my server, each under a different username.

The only quirk I see is that the daemon for it has to be started and stopped manually or using a cron job, though if I tinker with the code enough I might be able to create a plugin for virtualmin to automate it.

Anyway what folders in your account do you want linked to it, and where should they appear. I figured out in testing that I can symlink them into the dropbox folder and it will automatically keep them synchronized, which should be the behavior you were hoping for keeping all of the copies identical. In fact I may use it for a similar purpose to keep some of my own code sorted out a little more reliably.
 
Sync!

I think it is possible to set up dropbox on a per-user basis to automatically sync like he is talking about. Just based on the windows client behavior, which I installed on one of my local systems to see what exactly it does.

Would have to read into how to perform the same function using the Linux CLI version, and then figure out a way to automate the process so it either maintains a daemon for it or does a polling check. Will experiment with this, since if it can be done dropbox would solve the dilemna I have of keeping both copies of my website in sync when developing new code for it.

Dear Seraphim. Please do report in.

The hosts that can do this will earn a little leeway against glitches elsewhere.
 
I hate having epilepsy. Back in the saddle again :) the server didn't go down while I was gone according to my monitoring.

Yuk! I think I agree that your hardware stayed put though. I'd just noticed that something was getting you down : (
 
Okay I have a test config up and running. Dropbox will operate successfully in a shell, and it is fairly simple to set up that way. At this very moment two independant instances of it are operating on my server, each under a different username.

The only quirk I see is that the daemon for it has to be started and stopped manually or using a cron job, though if I tinker with the code enough I might be able to create a plugin for virtualmin to automate it.

Anyway what folders in your account do you want linked to it, and where should they appear. I figured out in testing that I can symlink them into the dropbox folder and it will automatically keep them synchronized, which should be the behavior you were hoping for keeping all of the copies identical. In fact I may use it for a similar purpose to keep some of my own code sorted out a little more reliably.

Heh - the terminology gets a little weird here, and I'm sure we'll have to fiddle with settings... but the "Top of my Dropbox" should match the "top of my web area" for example where the top ReVision files are. Please do not use the "Dropbox-public" folder, because that's for web2.0 type sharing - I am using a webhost to share to the world!

Someone somewhere was talking about index files... I hate Indexes. If I want something to be visible to the world, I put it through a page. Otherwise it's my private file. Especially with Dropbox running, check the settings that someone can't arbitrarily type http://taophoenix.seraphimlabs.net/ and start browsing. (Seraphim, so far it's decently blocked, though it says "You are viewing a newly created account that is eagerly awaiting it's first content." - A better message might be more like "Incorrect page - check your spelling" etc. )

Anyway, the intended usage is when I float something into the top of my local install of DropBox, it becomes readable to the top level of pages on my site. Then through no accident, there will be the usual subfolders Science, etc, with the same structure match to the files I have now if possible.
 
That page is a default index.php that is copied from a skeleton folder into a new account as a placeholder for actual content, and also to make sure that the DNS propagated correctly. Should be able to just delete that file without any issues.

And yeah, I already noticed the public-shared folder in dropbox and have been avoiding that. The way my test environment is set up right now, the public_html folder of the test account appears as a folder inside of dropbox. But all of the content is intact.

It also does sync the files correctly now.

In my test environment at least each account has it's public_html folder under a different folder name so I can tell which server is which. Not sure if you have any host-specific things to keep track of, or if yours is the same on all servers and can put everything under public_html

So far the only real issue I see is the daemon stops after a certain amount of time idle. Will have to provide some type of script to monitor it's status and restart it.
 
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Dropbox cont

Good post Seraphim.

In case I missed it in Monday haze, are we ready to start live trials?

Meanwhile I'll have to think about Host Specific... at first my instinct says Dropbox is universal and host specific stuff would be loaded via the normal file managers - dropbox creates weird exercises in version control but done right it might be unbelieveably useful.
 
The issue with this is if there is any host specific changes, attempting to map all of them to a single public_html folder in dropbox will cause the host-specific changes to be spread to all of the hosts.

Of course a fix for this is just put each host in it's own folder. Then syncing is as easy as a copy-paste operation on your end- just copy the current source and paste it into each host's folder. But any host-specific content can be kept isolated to the correct host for it instead of appearing on all of them.

Might not be necessary though.

I will PM you the registration link to bind dropbox to your account, but am still working on a way to keep that daemon active or give you a way to start/stop it as needed since it shuts down after a certain amount of idle time.
 
I am here..

Sorry for not being here on this fourm, but i am still monitoring my servers and i am still active on my support and such.

I have noticed i have slid to last place due to lost of communication, Sorry about that. I try to stay active on this thread but it is tangled with infomation that i cannot go through all at once.

I will try to keep up, but i keep no promises.


Thanks
Kevin
ColorHost CEO
 
Cross Industries Blip?

Seems like their central pages are up, but I am getting timeouts trying to access my account and pages.
 
I show that as well. The copy on my server is missing it's image button.

Still a no-go on Dropbox. The daemon dies after a few minutes idle, I am working on an automation script to maintain it.
 
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Now to see if SMarvin is watching the forum here... I'm finding that after a good uptime of a week or so the hosts tend to go do their own thing.
 
Schmarvin was talking about some financial issues & a possible shut-down of his hosting service set in another thread. Hopefully that's not struck now or something.
 
Cross Industries Disqualified

Elsewhere Schmarvin wrote on June 22nd, 2010, 03:01

"Seems I will have to close down the hosting portion of Cross Industries. Since no one can seem to help me with it, even for a profit.

**This thread can be closed. "

SeanieB replied in part:

...

You should arrange for saving up cash, automatic payment of running costs from the money you should be making, or deal with getting it paid for before you leave.

----------------------------------------------------
This is the key point. I can understand that a business might need the man hours, but if he was trying to combine a last minute angel investor, then posted that he desires to close the host, that's a lock.

Cross Industries has been disqualified and will be removed from the board in a couple of days. This is an duration solidity study, and owner intent to close ends participation.

... Plus it is a wee bit frustrating of the choice of threads. I would have appreciated a farewell post here.
 
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I think what happened was he had a day front fixing computers, a few people I know do that instead of a steady income like mine.

But when he was going out of town he would be without that for a while, and didn't have enough money to continue.

What effect does that have on the rankings though?

Also still waiting on my end for that one more try with dropbox. I can definitely make a script that will check for the daemon and restart it if it has stopped, executed by a simple hit to a PHP file that I'll leave in your account. It won't matter if other people hit it, all it will do is maintain one instance of dropbox whenever the script is invoked. So at worst it might run a little more than it has to, but it won't hurt anything.

Edit: Okay he might not be dead yet. I reread the thread that information came from, and have sent him an email asking about it. Not sure what this would mean for your metrics, but I would at least like to see what he has put together before it is lost even if he still does intend to close down in the long run. Also there has been no indication that Cross Industries is dropping it's web hosting on their own forum, so if his servers really do start dropping suddenly due to non-payment his users are going to be taken by surprise.
 
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Shame, should have planned a bit better.

Anyone hear anything from him at all yet? I'd think Tao would have heared before anyone, or at least one of his customers.
 
Just for reference, I am planning some scheduled maintainence to correct data errors on one of the hard drives in the RAID array. If all goes well it will only involve minimal downtime (reboots) in order to remove the offending drive from the array for diagnostics, followed by another reboot to reattach it if it checks out. Probably will not begin until Friday or Saturday, I need to make absolutely certain that all probable scenarios for this repair are covered in some way with minimal loss and consult the datacenter for recommended approach to this issue as far as actually restoring full capability on the offending drive is concerned.

Though if I can't repair the drive through software I will have to schedule an outage for a replacement drive to be installed. No data will be lost though, I will be making a full backup to another server before making any changes to the current setup. Just in case, even though with a raid array it's not terribly difficult since for the most part it is automated.
 
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I think what happened was he had a day front fixing computers, a few people I know do that instead of a steady income like mine.

But when he was going out of town he would be without that for a while, and didn't have enough money to continue.

What effect does that have on the rankings though?

...
Edit: Okay he might not be dead yet. I reread the thread that information came from, and have sent him an email asking about it. Not sure what this would mean for your metrics, but I would at least like to see what he has put together before it is lost even if he still does intend to close down in the long run. Also there has been no indication that Cross Industries is dropping it's web hosting on their own forum, so if his servers really do start dropping suddenly due to non-payment his users are going to be taken by surprise.

While possibly his other DirectAdmin is still up, my site is already down for something past a day now, then coupled with no response from him here. It's an opt-in promo spotlight, so even if he limps along later, I can no longer recommend him as a top choice.
 
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