#4183 closed task (wontfix)

Move off Trac - Execution - landing page

Reported by: btlogy Owned by: btlogy
Priority: normal Milestone: undecided
Component: dev-infrastructure Version: n/a
Keywords: Cc:
Launchpad Bug:

Description (last modified by btlogy)

Following #4095 (Move off Trac - Initiation) and in parallel with #4161 (Move off Trac - Execution - Forgejo), we can now start executing the migration of the landing page as a part of the plan.

In short, the goal is to switch the landing page of https://tahoe-lafs.org/ from the Trac Wiki system hosted on the Linode server to the Jekyll static page on the new webforge server hosted by Hetzner.

This while using proxy/rewrite rules to keep serving the other pages (tickets, wiki, downloads) from the Linode server (waiting for the next migration phase).

Most of the following steps could have been reviewed and automated with PRs, but will have to be manually executed for the lack of better DNS delegation (see #4162) and the current broken CI (see #4182):

  1. verify the landing page and other pages/resources
  2. set the TTL of the A record of tahoe-lafs.org to 600 sec
  3. wait at least for the previous TTL to expire (10800 sec?)
  4. update the A record of tahoe-lafs.org from 74.207.252.227 to 135.181.155.146
  5. add an AAAA record for tahoe-lafs.org with 2a01:4f9:c011:b882::1
  6. reconfigure the nixosConfiguration of webforge to handle tahoe-lafs.org (virtualhost + certificate)
  7. verify the landing page and the rewrite rules to the other pages/resources

Notes:

  • we can not use CNAME instead of A/AAAA records because they would conflict with other records (MX/TXT)
  • the downtime will be longer than necessary because the above steps will have to be executed asynchronously (and manually) by different people (e.g. meejah and btlogy/ben).

Change History (14)

comment:1 Changed at 2025-07-16T12:50:31Z by btlogy

  • Owner set to btlogy

comment:2 follow-up: Changed at 2025-07-16T12:52:35Z by btlogy

Asking meejah if he can execute step 1 (asap) and if/when will he be able to execute steps 3 and 4...

comment:3 Changed at 2025-07-16T12:53:24Z by btlogy

  • Description modified (diff)

comment:4 Changed at 2025-07-17T12:08:34Z by btlogy

Note for later: thanks to Flo, we might have a SaaS provider which could, maybe, host the new landing page AND the rewrite/redirect/proxy rules which will be (soon) handled by the self-hosted webforge:

It is worth to give it a try, but I'm pretty sure we can not cover this in the current scope of the MoveOffTrac (maybe must mentioned in the plan for the "SaaS only" phase).

comment:5 Changed at 2025-07-24T21:44:25Z by btlogy

Meejah, if you read this, I'll be in vacation until 10th of Aug. I hope you will have time to change the DNS during that week?

comment:6 Changed at 2025-07-29T18:35:35Z by meejah

Can we see the proposed forgejo content? I don't see "tahoe-lafs" on 135.181.155.146

comment:7 Changed at 2025-08-11T08:11:19Z by btlogy

Thank you for helping us here Meejah. If by "forgejo content", you mean the new landing page build using Jekyll, its content waits for publication on this of sub-domain: https://home.of.tahoe-lafs.org/

Last edited at 2025-08-13T17:56:19Z by btlogy (previous) (diff)

comment:8 Changed at 2025-08-13T19:05:20Z by btlogy

Partly because the GHA were broken and now due to the lack of time, I've decided to rework this original web-landing-page repo to (re-)activate CI/CD as it was working during the development phase (w/o GH thus).

Here are the 2 PRs (already merged) which should allow to edit the website via PRs.

Not sure this will be well received, but it should do what we've said it would (once Trac users will be migrated to Forgejo and/or the registration enabled).

comment:9 in reply to: ↑ 2 Changed at 2025-08-19T13:06:59Z by btlogy

Meejah, can we please have a date for steps 1 and 3+4?

comment:10 Changed at 2025-08-21T16:58:52Z by meejah

Nothing looks ready for steps 3 or 4 yet, as the content etc isn't migrated AFAICT?

(As in, if we switch over "now", all the current trac content is inaccessible but the new infrastructure doesn't have any of that content available)

comment:11 Changed at 2025-08-21T17:16:12Z by btlogy

Thank you for your feedback Meejah, I understand your concerns but I can ensure you this migration is as ready as it can w/o us having the direct access (to alter the Linode or the DNS records).

If we switch now, redirections and proxy rules defined here should make the Trac content available (edit: only after we have reconfigure the virtualhost accordingly).

So the initial question remains, as requested more than a month ago: can we please have a date for steps 1 and 3+4?

Or should we close this ticket as wontfix based on your sole decision?

Last edited at 2025-08-21T17:17:59Z by btlogy (previous) (diff)

comment:12 Changed at 2025-08-22T15:57:50Z by btlogy

The outcome of this workaround involving asynchronous changes with long delay and unnecessary overhead seems to prove me right when I was stating that direct access to the DNS in #4161 as a requirement to MoveOffTrac.

I'm closing this ticket: this approach does not work and will keep delaying the migration forever.

comment:13 Changed at 2025-08-22T15:58:06Z by btlogy

  • Resolution set to wontfix
  • Status changed from new to closed

comment:14 Changed at 2025-08-22T23:19:59Z by meejah

How is it "ready"?

There's no issue content (or any tahoe-lafs content at all) on the IP address specified??!

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