static file hiccup details

[mark]

Hi all,

We are currently working around a problem with our static file serving -- i.e., JavaScript, CSS, and image files. I had to move these back to our main web frontend instead of using the fast static frontend.

The root cause is that our hosting provider, ServerBeach, reassigned the IP address we were using for static content. They assigned it to one fo the new machines they are building for us. Given the vagaries of networks, I can't unassign that IP easily on my end. I have to kill the machine and it's still in provisioning, so I don't have access to it yet.

In order to work around this problem, I've had to make two changes -- use the main Perlbal infrastructure and turn off an optimization we use -- this is going to cause things to load a little slower. I will be working this evening to resolve the problem in a more efficient way.

My apologies for the issue here. I don't know why they reassigned our IP address, but as soon as I figure out what happened, I will let you know.

Thanks for your patience.

Comments

[denise]

That's all related! Any of the site formatting/layout, any of the JavaScript, and any images were affected by the core problem (which is why the posting page didn't have any formatting, and things like the RTE, tag autocomplete, icon switching, etc weren't working). Those things are loading again now, but the steps Mark had to take to get them working again means that the whole site will be slooooooooowwww for a bit, since those files are no longer being served by the very lightweight frontend we use to serve static (unchanging) content but are instead being served by the same webservers that build the dynamic pages -- loading things from there takes longer.

Mark and Robby are doing their best to get the static webserver talking to the internet again so we can go back to using that instead of having to use the dynamic webservers!

[kore]

I know you guys must hate when the site has problems, but you always explain what the matter is so quickly and patiently, I get a LOT less worried. It is kinda great!

The site is also much less slow than I was expecting it to me. And since I know what's actually going on (to the best of my limited understanding!), I feel a lot better. I just wanted to let you guys know it really counts.