Since this update required some manual intervention anyway to update the database version, I took the opportunity to perform some overdue server maintenance and upgrades.
I have migrated the server to a more powerful configuration, and changed the way image files are being stored and served (object storage as opposed to filesystem storage).
I am also aware of some federation issues that have affected this and other instances. I am not sure whether this upgrade will deal with these problems automatically. I will be looking into it and hopefully will implement some solution soon.
Sorry for the downtime experienced in the past few days, but hopefully with the more powerful server the experience will be smoother and will remain so for a while.
For other admins and users interested, this is a bit of information about the server
The 400 GB SSD was being used to store both the server's database and the image files, and this component in isolation had a monthly cost of $36. I have migrated the images to an object storage provider ($6/month for 500 GB), and used the resources previously used for disk space to increase
the other parameters. The new configuration is a lot better and less expensive.
Since the upgrade, I can see (here) that activities from lemmy.world are being fetched significantly faster. I will let it run for some time and hopefully this speed-up is enough to catch up.
Sal, I got some error here: couldnt_get_posts. That appears every time that I try to visualise the instance through the "Subscribed" communities.
The error does not appear if I browse the instance through "Local" or "All", nor if I check the list of communities that I'm subscribed to. The error happens across devices and front-ends (tested with Linux Firefox, Android Firefox, Jerboa).
EDIT/UPDATE: I unsubscribed manually to a few communities each time, checking if the front page loaded fine. Eventually, it did.
(@Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz ) I think it is related with the processing of so many activities per second while syncing with Lemmy.World.
I have tried changing some rate limits and the number of maximum database connections, but I get similar errors while moving around the site. The server is running well below 100% on all metrics, and the logs don't produce an obvious error. I will wait until we catch up with Lemmy.World and see if that fixes the issue. If it doesn't, then I will trouble shoot more in-depth.
That's the same error I was asking about below, and wondering if it had to do with the current status of collecting all the content. If so, it sounds like it could be another day or two before we can view our front pages again?
For now, one option is to temp change your settings to browse by "Local" or "All". Or alternatively temporarily unsubscribe off a few comms; if you're subscribed to a small number of comms, some trial and error might help you to find which ones are causing the issue. (For me it was two LW comms).