LlamaServer down for next few hours

[llamabeast]

The LlamaServer has been unplugged in Birmingham, where it has been living for the last few months. Over the next few hours it will be making its way to a pub in Kettering. Then it will sit there for a bit and listen to me and my brother talking, and finally it will accompany me home to Cambridge, where it will hopefully begin a new and happy life.

For the first time in several months I will have access to the server again - thank goodness there have been no serious errors in that time! I haven't been able to log in at all since July.

I expect to get back to Cambridge about 10.30pm (British summer time, GMT+1) tonight, so the LlamaServer should come back online shortly after that.

[chrispedersen]

thanks llama

[rdonj]

Err, I have a game, tourmaline, that's going to host not too long after that timeframe. If you could delay the hosting on the game by a few hours so I can make sure I get my turn in, that would be very helpful.

[DomDomDom]

Please delay NewHorizons3 as well. I was trying to send my turn in for some time before I read this post. Hosting time is over and server will generate new turn as soon as you plug it in.

[Stretch]

Mists of Time is due to host at 2245 GMT. I and 2 other players didnt have turns in by 1000 GMT but I'm pretty sure we all sent them in well before the deadline. Is there any way to make sure llamaserver checks its email before hosting? Maybe set its PC time to 1030 GMT before firing up the llamaserver backend so that it doesn't auto host all of those games, and then it can check its email, get all the turns in, and once it's done that you turn it ahead to the current time?

If not then please delay Mists of Time too, if we have another rollback/series of missed turns the game's going to die.

[thejeff]

Hopefully the requests to delay sent in through the website will be checked first.

[llamabeast]

Regrettably I got back completely exhausted from a long day after driving futilely in circles for a long time because of roadwords when I desperately wanted to go to bed. Whereas it would probably have been sensible to delay all games by 24 hours (or indeed read this thread) I did not do that, but instead just plugged the llamaserver in. I think it should process any delay requests before it does hosting, but I don't completely know for sure. I also don't completely know that it's doing anything, but I can't do anything to it at the moment anyway because it is *probably* hosting games, and it doesn't like to be interrupted (I would have to unplug it and move it to a different room to connect it to a monitor).

Well, hopefully it won't cause too much chaos. I'm afraid I won't have time to deal with any issues to individual games. Hopefully there will be few, and admins will be able to cope.

I must now go to bed as a matter of emergency.

[llamabeast]

Okay, for reasons unclear the llamaserver isn't accepting people's e-mails, so I will turn it off again and look into it tomorrow.

[SciencePro]

wow shrapnel/illwinter should really be paying you for this (they don't, right?). You seem to be pretty much the linchpin of their post-release team.

[Quitti]

There's the fancy donate button if you wish to give something little for him :)

Still, thanks for doing all this work llamabeast. We appreciate it.

[WraithLord]

llamabeast, thank you for all that effort :bow:

As for ppl starting wholesale staling once the server is plugged in - May I suggest you do some configuration/programmatic magic and set all games to turn off quick host, or add 24h extension to all games.

If that won't be possible I'd like to humbly represent Sharivar1 game interest and asked that it gets an extension.

[llamabeast]

Thanks guys.

Right, I have spent the evening screwing and unscrewing computer components (very long story, but basically I am trying to make the LlamaServer silent so it can sit in my lounge). I think hopefully it's working now. It's currently humming away to itself processing the backlog. Unfortunately I can't see what it's doing until its finished, so hopefully its doing good things!

Things to note:

1) I accidentally set an ANCIENT version of the LlamaServer going earlier - I booted off a hard disk that used to be the LlamaServer disk ages ago without realising I'd got the wrong one. Unfortunately that version checked the e-mail, so (a) people may have got odd rejection messages, and (b) turns sent over the last day may not have got through.

2) I postponed all games by 48 hours.

Fingers crossed!

[llamabeast]

Okay:

1) It seems to have worked, so far as I can tell. I will set it running as normal overnight and see what horrors await me when I wake up.

2) I think I was wrong about the ancient account eating e-mails. It may have eaten ancient e-mails from a different account. Probably the only effect is that a few people got VERY odd e-mails.

[Immaculate]

Llama, thank you so much but i have a quick question. Why does it say:

(in game settings and admin options):

Planning game: Casual_EA_for_busy_schedules

Pretenders so far: 8
Max pretenders: 9

BUT

(in general game page)

Nations joined so far:
Helheim
Agartha
Abysia
Sauromatia
T'ien Ch'i
Tir na n'Og
R'lyeh
Arcoscephale
Ermor

suggesting that 9 nations have joined.

8=/=9?

[llamabeast]

Dunno. There will probably be several such haywire things. It's not quite settled down yet. It is always a bit grumbly when I first get it going again. I'm afraid that for all my efforts to make the code transparent it seems to have a life of its own.

However, in that case if you force start the game I think it will be fine.

[llamabeast]

Well, it's behaving a little oddly still, but I have to go to bed. I shall see what mysteries I awake to in the morning.

[archaeolept]

you need to feed more souls into its infernal engine, clearly.

[Immaculate]

thanks...

[Stretch]

Yeah, I definitely got a few weird emails. :D Lots of "turn sent" "revised turn sent" "you sent a pretender for a game that does not exist" "invalid turn file received" messages, all from sending in a few 2h files (for the same game, same turn, one a revision and one a resend of the revision).

[Stretch]

I get 9 more of those emails every few hours, not sure if llamaserver is up and happy yet! I just got these in the last 2 hours.


turns@llamaserver.net
MistsofTime: Revised turn 52 received for Vanheim 22 Oct 2009 4k

turns@llamaserver.net
MistsofTime: Revised turn 52 received for Vanheim 22 Oct 2009 4k

turns@llamaserver.net
MistsofTime: Revised turn 52 received for Vanheim 22 Oct 2009 4k

turns@llamaserver.net
MistsofTime: Revised turn 52 received for Vanheim 22 Oct 2009 4k

turns@llamaserver.net
MistsofTime: Revised turn 52 received for Vanheim 22 Oct 2009 4k

turns@llamaserver.net
MistsofTime: Revised turn 52 received for Vanheim 22 Oct 2009 4k

turns@llamaserver.net
MistsofTime: Revised turn 52 received for Vanheim 22 Oct 2009 4k

turns@llamaserver.net
MistsofTime: Revised turn 52 received for Vanheim 22 Oct 2009 4k

turns@llamaserver.net
MistsofTime: Revised turn 52 received for Vanheim 22 Oct 2009 4k

[SciencePro]

yeah i got a similar thing - seven copies of "Zebra: Revised turn 54 received for Utgard" coming about once every 30 minutes for the past few hours. I'm expecting another one soon...

[Stretch]

Yep, 3 more have accrued by now. But it says all turn files are in, so hopefully it hosts fine. :)

[Quitti]

Well, I woke up to see 51 new emails, all either "invalid 2h file" or "revised turn recieved for game x" :) I'm glad gmail sorts them in single stacks for quick deleting/archiving...

[Lingchih]

Heh, I haven't been spammed by emails, but my turns are not hosting. Early Days and Overlords are all in but not hosting.

If you please Llama, please get the server running and host the games. I am about to go out of town for the weekend, and have no subs lined up.

Thanks
Ling.

[rdonj]

I would try force hosting... but I'm afraid I'll break something.

[LDiCesare]

I'm getting spammed by emails for receiving a pretender too. I also got one telling me Arcoscephale was already taken and I couldn't pick it, when I didn't send anything for Arco.

[llamabeast]

Oh dear.

Problems I am aware of:

- Server apparently repeatedly responding to the same e-mails (though it didn't do so for my test e-mails)
- Server not hosting any games.

I will try to fix these tonight. It is proving quite a struggle to spend time fixing things now I have a job. Being a student was a bit easier. Or rather, more flexible.

Could people confirm whether the spamming is still going on? If it is, I fear it may now be every five minutes! Many apologies for that.

[shard]

Yes, I am still receiving some intermittent bursts of spam, yum!

[Quitti]

Yep, still coming, over 70 emails so far and counting :)

[Mardagg]

i am getting spammed,too.

[Mysterio]

Could people confirm whether the spamming is still going on? If it is, I fear it may now be every five minutes! Many apologies for that.

I've received 36 e-mails for the 4 games I'm in between the hours of 10:18 PM ET to 4:24 AM ET.

[SciencePro]

i was getting spammed regularly from 9 pm to 6 am GMT. But I haven't got any since then (its 10 am GMT now so that is four hours with no spam to me).

[LDiCesare]

I got 18 mails but there's no fixed rate. Hours ago: Once 15 hours ago, 4 times 14 hour ago, 2 x 13, 1 x 12, 2 x 11, 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 2 x 7, 1 x 5 and 3 x 4 hours ago. Seems calmed down for the moment.

[AdmiralZhao]

I've only received 8 emails from LlamaServer, but they're all trying to sell me Viagra.

[Deathjester]

Lots of emails, about 55 in total for three games. The last one was 7 hours ago though, at 10-11ish AM.

[Trumanator]

I've stopped counting.

[Fantomen]

I have the opposite problem, the game Zebra refuses to host.

[WingedDog]

Llamaserver stopped spaming to me about 8 hours ago, and it seems to be updating normaly for about last 3 hours. It did even respond correctly to my postpone hosting command in the game I administrate.
Hopefully it gets well, perhabs it dislikes riding in cars. Or it is a mating season for servers, is it sterilized?

[johnarryn]

I am not getting repeated e-mail from the llamaserver anymore.

[thejeff]

I haven't gotten repeated emails, but I also haven't been able to host MistsOfTime.
All turns are in, it's past the deadline and I've told it to force host.

[Jazzepi]

Zebra is currently stuck in a strange limbo on turn 54. It won't host, but all turns have been sent in.

Jazzepi

[thejeff]

MistsOfTime is now set to host "00:00 GMT on Thursday January 1st "

Kind of neat. :)

[Fantomen]

Finally got zebra to host by resetting the timer.

[thejeff]

Mists seems to have hosted! Yay!

[WraithLord]

Sharivar1 was not so lucky. Still doesn't respond to admin commands. Doesn't seem to be accepting turns as well, at least not turn updates as far as I can tell.

[aaminoff]

Hello Llama. Thank you for providing this service for the community.

Is this server a unix box? If so, you ought to be able to administer it remotely. It sounds like you have it sitting in your house - I take it you don't receive enough donations to colocate it in a data center.

It so happens that I run a small data center, BaseSpace.net. I could find a machine for this purpose, if you can install it and administer it remotely. I would appreciate some sort of donation button, perhaps a suggested donation of $5 every time someone joins a new MP game. Let me know if you are interested.

- Alex
[Edit: note that I am in the US, so this would have to be all done remotely]

[thejeff]

I spoke too soon.
MistsOfTime claims to have hosted, but the turns don't seem to have gone out.

[chrispedersen]

Hello Llama. Thank you for providing this service for the community.

Is this server a unix box? If so, you ought to be able to administer it remotely. It sounds like you have it sitting in your house - I take it you don't receive enough donations to colocate it in a data center.

It so happens that I run a small data center, BaseSpace.net. I could find a machine for this purpose, if you can install it and administer it remotely. I would appreciate some sort of donation button, perhaps a suggested donation of $5 every time someone joins a new MP game. Let me know if you are interested.

- Alex
[Edit: note that I am in the US, so this would have to be all done remotely]

No way people would go for $5 an MP game. I'd set up a machine myself first. People probably wouldn't care about ads, but thats about it.

[Stretch]

If money can help some part of the llamaserver setup then I hope llamabeast will let us know of his request. I think that last time he put something up about the server he hit his goal in 12 hours... we seem to have a very supportive community and many thankful users here.

[Lingchih]

Well, I'm out until Monday. Hopefully Llama has luck and gets his server working again, and hopefully I don't get staled in Overlords or Early Days while I am gone.

Good luck Llama.

[Elegy]

Hrm, given the state of all llamaserver-based MP games, I think a good rule of thumb would be to apply some sort of turn delay on every game + quickhost to make sure people don't stale all over the place. As the Admin of SummerMadness I don't seem to be able to submit or request any turn delays so I'm mildly concerned for what to do.

[llamabeast]

Hi all,

To add to the hilarity I've come down with some minor disease, hence me not posting or anything yesterday (instead I inexplicably decided to make a butternut squash stew and completely wore myself out chopping the squash, so I had to go to bed).

BUT, as a bonus since I'm off work I've had time to finally sort the server out. You should all get an e-mail in the next minute or two explaining the situation. Basically, the server's all fixed, but it may have done some stuff without e-mailing you. You should check your game's page on llamaserver.net and request a turn resend if the game has hosted without sending you your new turn file.

[llamabeast]

Hi all,

To add to the hilarity I've come down with some minor disease, hence me not posting or anything yesterday (instead I inexplicably decided to make a butternut squash stew and completely wore myself out chopping the squash, so I had to go to bed).

BUT, as a bonus since I'm off work I've had time to finally sort the server out. You should all get an e-mail in the next minute or two explaining the situation. Basically, the server's all fixed, but it may have done some stuff without e-mailing you. You should check your game's page on llamaserver.net and request a turn resend if the game has hosted without sending you your new turn file.

[llamabeast]

Oh, aaminoff: Thanks for the offer, but I think I have quite a good system set up now. The trouble is moving house, which I've done quite a bit over the last few years.

One issue I haven't sorted in this house yet is that the box is going to live in the lounge, and my monitor etc are in a different room (the conservatory actually). So over the last few days I just keep on carrying the server box into the conservatory to do stuff to it. It would obviously be better if I could just ssh into it. Anyone have any idea how to set up ssh between computers at home? Maybe it has something to do with router settings or something?

LingChih: You should be find with Overlords. There doesn't seem to be a game called Early Days though. Hmm. I wonder if some have gone missing. Let me know if so, and I'll look into it.

[llamabeast]

Ah, it's TheEarlyDays. I've postponed that for you Lingchih (sorry for interferenc Burnsaber, but I figured I should try to save Lingchih being as he specifically posted about his worries during the week). No games seem to have gone missing - phew!

[rdonj]

Thank you llamabeast for working so diligently to fix the issues the poor llamaserver developed in transit. Your tireless efforts on behalf of the community most certainly do not go unnoticed or unappreciated. Actually I think a few people may have started shrines to you in their basements.

I hope you are feeling better soon. Did you ever get to eat that stew?


Edit: Also, I have requested turn resends for all my games that have hosted since the server issues began. Everything seems to be in good working order now.

Heh, Overlords has a week to submit turns. I think that should be enough time for anyone.

[thejeff]

As far as I know, ssh should be easy to setup.
I'm more familiar with Linux, so I don't know it there's something weird you have to do with Windows machines. I think you'd just need a ssh server running on the llamaserver. And not be blocking port 22 with a firewall.

You might have to open the port on the router, but I'd expect that to only be needed for connections from outside the home network.

[llamabeast]

I am running Linux. What do you take me for? :) And I know how to set the machine up to receive ssh connections ('ssh localhost' works). The thing I'm not sure about is how to actually refer to the machine, i.e. I type "ssh what"?

[thejeff]

Ahhh. It's a DNS question.

The simple answer is either the machine name or its IP address. If you've given it a static IP, it's probably easiest just to add the name and IP to /etc/hosts on the machine you're trying to get to it from. If you're getting a dynamic ip from the router, there should be a way to make it give a static ip.

[Benjamin]

And I awake to a turn sitting in my inbox (I had already requested the resend).

Hooray! Thanks llama.

[Immaculate]

The trick to cutting squash is having a big heavy and very sharp knife. We eat a lot of butternut squash. What we do is cut it up into about 1 inch cubes then put it in a big chili pot with about 1/3 the volume of water (so the water is about 1/2 of the way up the squash in the pot) then sprinkle it with a LOT of sugar. Then you slow boil it on mimimal heat until the sugar gets all melted into the butternut squash and the water turns into a squash/juice syrup. The trick is NOT to stir it except very very slowly so that the squash doesn't loose its shape. After you have a delicious dessert perfect for the fall season.
This is a turkish recipe apparently but i have no idea what its called- we call it 'the pumpkin dessert'.


OH yeah, and thanks for all your work.

[aaminoff]

Anyone have any idea how to set up ssh between computers at home? Maybe it has something to do with router settings or something?


Well, you could try to figure out what IP address your router is giving it, but presumably you have some sort of dynamic DNS setup so that www.llamaserver.net will work. Why not just ssh llamaserver.net? You would have to tell your router to forward the ssh port (22) just as you do the http port (80). That has the advantage that you could do it from work too if necessary (and if they allow it), or from a cybercafe.

If you are worried about opening up your machine to ssh from the whole internet then you could set firewall rules on the router or on the box itself to only allow in certain IP ranges, like the range from your ISP and the range from your workplace.

I'm making educated guesses here about your setup, but you did ask for advice.

[Gandalf Parker]

I am running Linux. What do you take me for? :) And I know how to set the machine up to receive ssh connections ('ssh localhost' works). The thing I'm not sure about is how to actually refer to the machine, i.e. I type "ssh what"?

I just ssh dom3minions.com
or I ssh 63.199.8.158
which bypasses going off onto the net to convert the name to an IP I already know anyway.

But since Windows is my desktop I usually use free PuTTY anyway which gives me nice things like a scroll back window. Not that I use it much. (in general ssh has given me more problems on the server than telnet has)

Also, I have dom3minions on a KVM switch with my win desktop. They are fairly cheap. The keyboard/video/mouse switch lets me toggle which machine is "attached" to my keyboard/monitor.

[llamabeast]

Thanks all.

To clarify, the LlamaServer itself is a different machine to the web server (which is provided by hostgator.com). That is why there is a delay in communication between the website and things actually happening (e.g. when you postpone hosting nothing actually happens until the next time the LlamaServer contacts the web server).

However, "ssh llamaserver" worked! Hooray! I would never have tried that, I just assumed the solution had to be more complicated.

I guess in principle the next step would be to set up the router to allow access from outside, but in fact we are not allowed to use ssh at work(!!), so there's little point.

Immaculate: That squash recipe sounds interesting! One question - how do you peel the bugger? That took me ages.

[chrispedersen]

Hey llama,

For me, the easiest way is to cut the squash in slices (like an apple slice) and then cut the skin away.

Don't sweat getting really close to skin.

In spanish dish - and others - a lot of times they don't bother removing the skin.

Before I discovered A.... I cleaned it all real good and threw it in the food processor. Problem solved.

[Deathjester]

Two things:

1, Thank you for all your work llama on the server. Fantastic.

2, You do not need to peel it, it's good either way in most dishes!

[Maerlande]

We cook a lot of pumpkin this season. Really big ones too, like 24 inch diameter. We just slice in half, scoop out seeds, put on baking sheet with a little butter and bake for 30 minutes or so. Skin just peels off and then mash into favourite recipes. Pumpkin soup with lentils, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cakes, pumpkin fritters with green onions and chick pea flour and cumin, etc.

Pumpkin are dirt cheap and great nutrition. Leftovers we freeze in big chunks. Use as thickener in stews.

[Fantomen]

I usually don´t peel squash. I like it fried in slices with a thin layer of melted goat cheese. Or in a pie with tomatoes and whatever is left in the fridge.

Thanks for the recipies! I´ll try them, see if my daughter likes that desert. Heh, way to sneak in some nutrition with the saturday sweets...

Wonderful to have the llamaserver back! I´m actually quite impressed it´s been so stable for so long without maintenance.

[Quitti]

I usually don´t peel squash. I like it fried in slices with a thin layer of melted goat cheese. Or in a pie with tomatoes and whatever is left in the fridge.


This I can recommend. Except the fridge part ;)


Also, thanks for keeping the server up, I really appreciate it :) Good work.

[Fantomen]

This I can recommend. Except the fridge part ;)

Remind me not to open your fridge then:p

[Gregstrom]

I peel butternut squash with a potato peeler. It doesn't take too long, even. I am a bit lazy with the cooking though - I just roast it with olive oil, garlic and perhaps a little rosemary. It's great with any roast meats.

[Zeldor]

Is it down again?

Last updated at 14:05 GMT on Sunday October 25th
Current time: 16:28 GMT

[llamabeast]

Oh noes! Let me check...

Edit: No, looks fine to me. Maybe you caught it after a busy spell (I have a suspicion that some games may now take a very long time to host, so maybe it just did several - it would still check its e-mail in the meantime, but the "last updated" timer doesn't get updated till its completely settled).

[Zeldor]

Yeah, it seems to be fine now.