Bill

Data server partially restored

Added 2024-06-12 04:57:25 +0000 UTC

The data server has been successfully transported across the country and I have gotten it operational again with exception to the NWS warning and advisory products (horizontal warning crawl and the vertical scrolling advisory screen in the simulator).

Unfortunately, getting the warnings functional again is not going to be simple because the backend feed software for it (LDM) is intentionally designed to be hostile to feed requestors that are at the mercy of a frequently changing IP address. The new internet connection unfortunately suffers from a frequently changing IP address, and the provider has no static IP option available. This is not surprising given the ridiculous premium that IPv4 addresses have skyrocketed to (for this very reason the frontend monthly cloud cost of the simulator website has nearly doubled this year due to a new fee imposed on cloud instances that require static IPv4 addresses).

The college of DuPage has been very generous over the years in providing a feed for the simulator's data server to use for these products, and time is at a premium there, so having to contact the staff each time the data server's IP changes is not a viable solution to the issue. Therefore my next task is trying to find a way to restore the LDM feed with minimal downtime each time the IP changes, and without it needing to involve manual intervention by CoD personnel. I have a few ideas/workarounds in mind and have begun work on one of them. I am hoping this process will go smoothly and the feed can be restored within a few weeks.

For now, all simulator data should be working with exception of the radar, outlook, horizonal warning crawl, and vertical bulletin scroll.