After all of the other problems, I found that something had gone wrong with one of the installed extensions, and a PHP function had gone missing.  I wrote a no-op function to overcome that problem, which seems to have fixed the session-timeout problem.

Happy to see you all logged on again, have a GREAT race !! :-)

/Lennart

As part of my debugging of the server problems on Monday, I changed the basename of the cookie the forum uses to keep track of where each user is.

When I was made aware of the problems ("connection timeout" and similar) I changed it back to the original name - however if you still have problems posting, try to delete the cookie - or even better ALL your cookies in your browser, logout and in again .. and it SHOULD work

/Lennart

FINALLY - I found the reason for the outage. !

And no, it was not a conspiracy due to our engagement with the ACO :-)

The backup server (the old machine, which I use for backups and as serial consola access to the real server) died last week, - I asked one of the guys at the hosting-place to try resurrecting it by switching it off/on when he had time.

Unfortunately he chose to switch BOTH servers off/on ... which caused the usual database-connection problem for the forums - which I normally would fix by running a script (long story) - but since I was on the ferry to Calais when it happened, I couldn't until the evening.

HOWEVER, the reboot caused the forum software to do a complete re-login to the database, which since soem security-updates back in February requires a new way to store the password inside the DB, this login was declined.

This wasn't picked up when I upgraded the DB in February, probably because the forum software was using a persistent DB connection.

ANYWAY, we're back online - I am *VERY* sorry for the outage.

I will hand the microphone to the writers, who no doubt soon will report from this overly exiting day in the pressroom at Le Mans (nothing has continued to happen since early this morning :-)  )

/Lennart

The server for this forum was just unavailable for the longest time since
it was installed some 10 years ago (!)

As part of a due diligence New Year cleanup, I have been busy upgrading
the (long) list of programs that makes up the server on which this forum
runs.

Most applications and forums were done last week, and the last thing is
the operating system itself. This requires a reboot, so I sdaved it for
Friday morning, where teh traffic to the server (all sites) is lowest.

I took a deep breath, and rebooted ...

When the server started booting, it reported it couldn#'t find its disk(!)
arrgh!

Then I rebooted it again, by which time it simply went away - and I never
heard from it again, until I had some of my friends in the datacentre locate
the machine and powercycle it. (!)

Once this was done, It actually booted normally, so it is unexplained why it
couldn't find the boot-disk in the first place. Possibly it got confused by
running with a serial console connected (never heard of that before though)

Anyway, the machine came up, but now it turned out that the web-accelerator
proxy (varnish) I run in front of all sites, had been modified at the update
last week, but the upgrade did not restart the proxy - so it wasn't until
todays reboot that I discovered this.

Since I am actually at work, I can't spend too much time messing about with
this, but I got help from my good friend Poul-Henning Kamp, who is in fact
the author of that web-accelerator, and he quickly spotted that the new
version carried a default portnumber with it, as it wasn't defined in my
old config (didn't have to with the old version).

Problem sorted!

However, I still need to upgrade the Operating System "userland" - but that
really should only be a quick reboot. (famous last words)

Sorry for the downtime, but at least we are now upgraded to the newest STABLE
branch of the operating system and all applications.

/Lennart

Just a follow-up - my sons tam HAS MADE IT ! - all the way to Portugal.

Using text-messaging-to-twitter it was possible to follow their progress at:
             http://twitter.com/teamkitt

although there are several events I look forward to get a real explanation for.
Such as the guy who "crashed into a bus because he was looking at their car!"  :-)

But it appears they have already had a fantastic time !

I am however not sure I FULLY believe them when they wrote:
   "(Team KITT)  Went for a spin on the Mulsanne - probably the best racer ever to tread those grounds "

 - I'm sure they will write up a longer story when they eventually makes it back,
but for now they plan on driving around for a  few weeks.


Lennart/DJet

This is not entirely Le Mans related, although the route actually runs through Le Mans, and as we are all race fans, I'm sure you will all find this an interesting idea.

My son (22) has entered the Sucata Run 2009, which basically is a banger race from Rouen to Portugal in the end of this month (Aug 27-31).

                                     http://www.sucatarun.com/

The requirement is that they buy a car at LESS than 250£, and use it and the event as a vehicle to collect money for charity.

There are points given for :

1) making it to the finish at all (!)
2) longest push
3) longest hitch-hike
4) most spectacular breakdown
5) most money collected

My son and his two friends have purchased a Vauxhaul Vectra 2.0d which they have "prepared" for the race by :

painting it matte black
fitting Knightrider KITT LED's to the front
fittting my old BBQ to the roof so they can sell bbq sausages for charity when in traffic jams
fitting a singing pig to the bonnet (!)
Find a team name : team K.I.T.T   (yes, the legendary David Hasselhoff KnightRider car :-) )
Dreaming up an motto: "Divided we drive, together we drink!"

so I really cannot see how it can go wrong ... :-)


oh - they have also un-SORN'ed,MoT'ed, tax'ed and insured it - the latter was rather difficult, as they are all three non-UK-nationals, and on top of that the terms "2 liter engine" and "under 24 years old" in the same sentence makes most insurance companies go all wonky.


Anyway, they quite obviously really could need all the help they can get - so please visit their with donations page:

                                                    http://www.justgiving.com/kitt/  

Also, many of the Club-Arnage members generally show huge skills in team-spirit-inducing car-decoration so if you know somebody who can help by providing things like decals or other essential items, they would be very interested in hearing from you  :-)  

They also have a facebook group : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=90179738526

 
Best regards - and wouldn't we all actually like to take part of that race ?

Lennart/Djet

hmm - I can't see the problem. Next time it happens, try closing IE, clean out cache and all cookies (or at least all ClubArnage ones) and restart IE, and see if that changes things.

/Djet

Tonight we had several severe outages of the Internet between the World and the CA server. :-(
More precisely it was inside the telenor.net cloud, and also their peer'ing with the datacentre (Uni-C.dk) where the server is located.

This unfortunately meant several HOURS of non connectivity, but it is now back, after they have replaced some equipment. The expectation (and my hope!) is that it will now stay reasonably stable.

The server has not had any problems at all - except for possibly feeling a bit lonely, being without Internet connection. I guess we all can relate to that sort of crisis 

We are going to change IP address of the server soon, and when that is done, we will be using a different peering, to a much better Internet peer with modern equipment (the route to the old one is under telenor.net decommissioning, hence the lack of proper hardware, I think)

Not sure when this IP switch will happen, - but people are now back from Le Mans, and the usual hump in server access has peaked, so anytime soon might be a good option - but it is probably a good idea to wait for DNS servers to update the TTL to something low. I am however looking into the possibility of running a proxy-server or http-redirect server on the old address, which might make it possible before.

/Djet

GrandFromage founded ClubArnage in early 1990'ies and used it to obtain credentials - luckily, because later it became much more difficult to get press credentials based on a website.

The "fan site" and unfiliatiated nature caused the ACO to approach us in the pressroom for translations and other help - and that way the ClubArnage team was consolidated as a frequent flyer of  the press-room at Le Mans.

ClubArnage could thus give the fans what nobody else did in those days: near-live updates from the track - this is years before ACO had anything live on their own website in English.

A lot of those race updates are actually still available on this site  (due to a website rebuild in 97 only files since then though) :
http://www.clubarnage.com/lm98/
http://www.clubarnage.com/lm99/
http://www.clubarnage.com/lm00/
http://www.clubarnage.com/lm01/
http://www.clubarnage.com/lm02/
http://www.clubarnage.com/lm03/
http://www.clubarnage.com/lm04/
http://www.clubarnage.com/lm05/

The great thing about these very raw updates is that any mistakes written in the heat of the moment are NEVER changed, except for a correction later on - which gives it a feeling of being there - "now WHO was it that went off at Tertre Rouge?". I certainly feel that when I read through some of these old race reports.

In 2005, however we were approached by the ACO to be incorporated into their team - to produce all their english language material during raceweek - a job we still do.

so yes, we have credentials - but not that we get to use them much - this year I didn't get to the track or pitlane a single time during the race - something I hope to change next year.

/Djet

Grand Fromage has a quick and unadjusted gallery here:
   http://www.davedaviesracing.com/LM2009/

My pics (didn't get out much during the race, so mainly scrutineering etc) :
   http://www.sorth.dk/p/20090614/

(The one of Tom K is taken shortly after the one Gilles posted in another thread)

/Lennart

BUT - you have to give them credit for a wonderfully sounding engine. When they were working on the electronic (ECU) problem that had them so pitifully down on power, they at one time revved the engine to max in the garage ... and KEPT it there for 10 seconds or more - several times.   (and we were sitting almost directly above their pit)

However, already before the race the team owner decided to only parade around the first lap and call it a day, as the engine management problems made them dangerously slower than the fastest cars.

Tortoise or not - personally I will hope they get the car going (as it actually has done fairly successfully in 4 hour races at Suzuka)  - I love the sound and shape of that car.


/Djet

You think I look small :-)

Gilles has managed to capture me with a rather angry face  .... shame on you Gilles :-)
(ps: I was possibly watching the deluge of rain pouring down outside the canopy)

/Lennart aka Djet

Greetings from Le Mans

Last night, during the LM test session, it seemed there was some network problem affecting the clubarnage servers network - as far as I could see, it was somewhere inside the TELE2 cloud  - not something the hosting-centre where it is placed can do much about. They have asked TELE2 (with whom they are peering) to investigate.

The server and its immediate environment is working perfectly - so if you get a timeout, its almost certainly the network-link, and just wait or reload until you get your page.

PS: This is another very good reason for the server changing IP address, which I however have postponed to *after* Le Mans - but the new IP range is not as dependent on other ISP's as the old one.

/Lennart

As Tom said, - it was tested on another forum first.

But there were some rather important security issues, that I didn't want to leave unpatched over the most important time of the year.

--
Djet/Lennart

We're now running the latest and greatest 1.1.9 - please report any errors to me (e.g here in this thread)

/Lennart