=][= SACRISTAN NEEDED =][=

[Brother Tyler]

Wanted: Detail-oriented and mature person with familiarity with bash shell and MySQL and Apache. Knowledge of cron, shell scripting, and syslog inspection, ssh, scp, grep, tar, mysqldump, etc. a plus. Some background with postfix (MTA) and DNS. Willingness to learn and a capacity for knowledge is key. Self control to avoid drastic changes until fully tested - and some experience testing prior to deployment also a plus. But the key is: not afraid of Linux, bash, MySQL and Apache. That's a start. Inquire within.

 

No, sibomots isn't retiring. We're just looking to expand the team a little.

[sibomots]

For those interested, reach out to me.  I can walk you through the situation.   The heavy-lifting has been done already.  Now it's a form of Janitor role.   Once in a while something technical comes up. But, those situations are rare now that the site is virtually self-healing.

 

I've put off three major steps that need to be done, eventually.

 

1. Convert the MySQL database from COMPACT to DYNAMIC row format.  It's a technical thing that was an oversight but the Upgrade process did not do us a favor in this respect.
2. The other is wrangle the Painters.  In general three (I think) are working, but there are few more that need to be tweaked.   The overall design of the painter software is somewhat convoluted and if I had the time I'd rewrite it, but I don't have that much time for that.
3. The site needs to copy itself (the backups, not the raw site) to AWS daily.   I've looked into this and the AWS hosting is pretty steep -- it's the bandwidth that is killer not so much the arctic storage facility for data.   I might have plugged in the wrong assumptions when calculating the monthly hit, but it is not cheap.  It's almost worthwhile to just rent another box and scp the files over daily.  That'll achieve the same level of comfort.  It does not literally have to be AWS.  Just stored off-the-site is what is important. -- And not stored in same physical location as current site. (different data center).  Prefer one clear across the other side of the US would be ideal.  Beaverton is situated in a good location, as are other spots along the backbone, but no where on the east coast. 

 

Not doing anything about these things won't injure the site, but nonetheless they are projects that will need some attention eventually.  #3 is the only one that has me slightly concerned.  But only slightly.

 

As a stop-gap, DO NOT download backups to your local machine.  You'll kill the server (the server will have to work harder/longer for it to download to your soda pop straw bandwidth)  Copying between 100Mbps backbone nodes is done faster.  Of course if you're one of those lucky people with 300Mbps links, that's different.)

 

Other than that... the miscellaneous things are quite simple for anyone who has strolled around Unix-like systems for a while.  Not a big deal.

 

Reach out and I can give it straight on what's what.  I'd like to get this resolved sometime before the end of the year (2022). 

 

Thanks.

 

[sibomots]

An addendum to the request for Sacristan:

 

To put it bluntly, for anyone interested in taking this role, the prerequisites are clear.  Someone who wants to do this already knows what they need to know.   It's a zero-knowledge authentication test, to be honest.  See also: Ali Baba's Cave w.r.t. Zero Knowledge Proof.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof#The_Ali_Baba_cave

 

What we cannot ask in advance is to truly understand your interest level -- we can ask, but whatever that interest level is depends on you.

 

Make no mistake, this site needs strong skillset in taking care of the day-to-day user-facing work.  We call them Administrators and Moderators.  Behind the scenes is that engineer in the machine room, below decks, watching the gauges and dials.   In the engine room, literally.

 

If that appeals to you (or if you have the bandwidth time-wise), then volunteer to take over.  

 

I am not going to remain Sacristan for this site..   If you do want the role, PM @Brother Tyler and discuss.  I have my own form of Alibaba's Cave question that will settle that business.  But, frankly it won't matter.  Those who volunteer with the intent of doing the job had better know what they are doing, else they wouldn't volunteer.  It's really that simple.

 

Take this seriously.  I am winding out my involvement.   I've made this clear to the leadership of the site with limited effect.

 

Recruit your new Sacristans (plural), and do it soon.

 

 

 

[sibomots]

I've resigned as Sacristan.  I'm no longer monitoring or working on the server.

 

I hope you have had a good year.  Best wishes for 2023.

 

Take care.