Forum Crashing
 

As has been noted on an increasing frequency of late, the forum database seems to fail on an almost daily basis, which isn't sustainable.

We are running on an older version of vbulletin and mysql and have been conscious for a while it is due an upgrade for a number of reasons, including security, functionality and mobile app connectivity.

However, this isn't a 'run setup.exe' 2 minute job as a number of you will understand, so please bear with me whilst we work out the best route forward.

Thanks Ian. Will https be included in the upgrade?

I presume all this stuff is running on Linux so my Microsoft skills won't be of much use, but happy to help if I can :) Or if you want to put it in Azure :D

We actually went HTTPS a few years back..... The problem was, that there were so many hardlinks within the forum that point to HTTP that people naturally end up back on an insecure link again.... it was so unsuccessful, even you didn't notice ;-)

Its still operational, but we let the certificate elapse... I'm hoping newer version of vbulletin have better handling to force HTTP users on a redirect to HTTPS instead.

.... and you'd be wrong....

I dont do linux, so its 100% windows. However, its mysql and php which is all a bit linuxy if you ask me....

Ignoring the Azure comment. I want more control and data protection, not less... ;-)

If VBulletin doesn't then the "URL Rewrite" module of IIS will fix this +++

I'm also happy to pitch in and help if I can be useful, far from my day job these days but I like to keep my hand in!

Yeah I totally didn't notice that :rolleyes: IIS can do HTTP to HTTPS redirect with the URL Rewrite module if vbulletin can't.

(spent too long typing and Paul beat me to it)

Very linuxy! I've done vbulletin on hosted linux with cPanel. It never occurred to me to run it on Windows.

I'm ashamed to confess what version of Windows we're talking about here, but the IIS you're thinking of, and this one, worlds apart.... :)

A simple 'URL' redirect of anything hitting HTTP to the root HTTPS would break whatever link people were trying to visit so I had a brief look at the time and parked it.

I knew it would rear its head again one day, and here it is.... ;)

Glad to hear you're on it, but can't help at all as it's not my bag, but just wanted to say that it's only a minor nuisance, even though it's happening more frequently - nothing on here is time critical, well not for me, anyway...

Well, I'm sure that you'll be building a shiny new Server 2019 machine for the shiny new vbulletin, so you'll have a shiny new version of IIS with URL Rewrite... :eek3:

URL Rewrite runs within IIS and uses regex to dynamically change the request, so if a link on the forum points to http://something IIS will accept the request, rewrite it to https://something, and vbulletin ought not to notice the difference.

Probably...

Exactly this, think it came in in IIS7 - so many moons ago, and prior to that you could use a 3rd party filter (free) in earlier versions that did the same thing..... I'm assuming it isn't NT4 still? :ROFL:

I hate these foriegn language threads.
If I had the power I'd send you all to a room where you could talk dirty without annoying us mere mortals! :ROFL: