• Updated Ace to 3.8.1

Changelog:

• Added NIArsenal
• Added CLafghan
• Added VSM Gear Pack
• Added Achilles

This update will start being used on 30/10/2016.

• Added Chernarus Winter version 1.11.
• Updated TFR to 0.9.12

Just so everyone sees it, I'm putting it nice and big And in pink. Cause everyone loves pink.

ts.fuckknows.eu

Changelog:

• Updated CBA to 3.1.2
• Updated ACE3 to 3.8.2
• Updated lingor to 3.8
• Updated NIArsenal to 7.0

I have changed the passwords for all the servers and from now on the following rules are in effect for them:

• From now on the admin passwords will be handed out to a limited amount of people, if you feel you need the password you can contact one of the community managers.
• Only take an admin slot if asked by one of the community managers, or if the server is empty (for testing missions etc).
• If asked by a community manager to leave the slot do so without asking questions, you having that password does not give you any right to the admin slot.
• Do not go afk without leaving the admin slot. You have logged into a slot of ultimate power, act responsible and log out of it before leaving.
• Do not abuse your powers! Only use your powers when a rule is broken, that means no kicking to settle a grudge.

Failing to follow these rules will result in an instant ban from admin powers without right for appeal!

• Disabled IFA3Lite 15.1 (IronFront)
• Disabled MBG_Buildings_3 1.0
• Disabled Schwemlitz 1.04
• Disabled MikeBarts Vegitation 0.9
• Disabled Thirsk Island 1.0

What do we have:

First lets start with a breakdown of what we/I own, lets start with the easy stuff. There are currently 3 machines that are dedicated to FK activities, these are:

• A3sync/Repo server - €10,-/month
• TS3 server - €10,-/month
• ARMA server - €60,-/month

These are easy because these machines are dedicated to FK. The rest of our machines are hosted in combination with some of my other virtual machines, these are:

• Web server - €5,-/month
• Mail server - €5,-/month
• Wargame server - €5,-/month
• Minecraft server - €35,-/month

These 4 servers are hosted on 2 dedicated machines I use for testing and some private stuff. Since they are shared I wanted a good way to share the costs between myself and the FK community.

Breakdown of the costs:

The 2 servers that I use to host from both have 8 cores, 32GB ram and several TB of storage. Each host costs €70,- making a total of 16 cores and 64GB ram for €140,-/month. I have decided to base the costs on the ram usage, ram is not shared between the different virtual machines so any ram used by FK machines is unavailable for my machines.

Dividing these makes a cost of €2,19/month per GB, I have rounded this up to €2,50/month for all but the minecraft server (I too enjoy a beer for effort). With these costs now clear we can set a new goal on the donations page.

New upkeep goal:

With all these numbers the new monthly server cost will be set to €130,-/month. The new goal will be €150,-/month, this will allow us to build some extra cash to buy among others a teamspeak license.

• Updated RHS to 0.4.2
• Removed Clafghan

What has changed on the website?:

Not a lot. The theme/skin might look different here and there, but in its core the website has not changed at all from a user point of view. However on the back end there have been a lot of performance and security improvements that you all benefit from.

Access your teamspeak tags from anywhere:

The TS integration allow us to link your TS tags to your website rank. This means that if you have your TS uuid configured on the website you will automatically get the corresponding tags on TS. If you have multiple devices you can link all the uuid's on the website to access your tags from anywhere without having to bother a CM or Admin for help.

Currently we have no way of knowing who belongs to what group, this means that initially when adding your uuid your tag might be reset to fng. To have this fixed contact a CM or Admin so they can add you to the correct group.

I have manually gone over the list of regulars on TS and given the ones I could find on the forums their regular tag. If you are still missing your tag contact a CM or Admin and give them the username you have used on the website.

Where can I find the teamspeak settings?:

The teamspeak settings are located under you account settings page (Click on your username in the top navigation bar top open the menu with the account settings option). The Teamspeak tab will allow you to add several uuid's, it will even explain where to find the uuid in teamspeak.

Will the teamspeak tags be coming back?:

Yes and No, we are working on expanding the current tags and ranks. However there are no plans to make the specialist tags return. The new ranks will have clear requirements and expectations that are being finalized as I write this. So expect more news on that sooner rather then later.

Changelog:

• Updated Werthless HC.

Oh boy, look forward to this weekly update that I'll probably get disenfranchised with after 2 days!

So what have we got coming up these next 7 days? Why, a whole lotta training of course!

On Thursday, March 2nd Netheral will be teaching you the basics of SL & PltHQ operations! More info here

On Saturday, March 4th I'll be teaching some of you how to be a do-gooding medical hero! Read my fabulous description here

And immediately following my training (that's also on Sat, Mar 4) Netheral is hosting more crazy shenannigans at the Great FK Festival Vol. 2! Oh boy!

And let's not forget our brand new players; Slouchy has you covered on Sunday, March 5th. He's hosting another of his Simple Sessions so you can learn to be a Suave Operator! SuperSlick.

That's all for this week, check back soon for another glimpse into my broken psyche!

Sarissa, awaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

• Updated abramia to 1.8
• Updated ace to 3.9
• Updated Alive to 1.2.9.1701291
• Updated Ares to 0.0.6
• Updated CBA to 3.2.1.170227
• Updated CUP_Terrains_Core to 1.3
• Updated CUP_Terrains_Maps to 1.3
• Updated IFA3Lite to v17 - 2017-03-07
• Updated Isladuala to 3.66
• Updated lingor to 3.8
• Updated RHSAFRF to 0.4.2.1
• Updated RHSGREF to 0.4.2.1
• Updated RHSUSAF to 0.4.2.1
• Updated Shacktac to 1.2.0.2
• Updated ZADE BOC to 1.1.1
• Deleted FA18X_Black_Wasp

This is a 16GB update, be prepared and start it well in advance!

Changelog:

• Added CUP_Terrains_CWA 1.3.0

ALL OFFICIAL OPERATIONS ARE SUSPENDED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

We will resume regular gameplay once we have our fixes ready. This will mean another repo update, but it will hopefully remain a small one.

Thank you for your understanding.

I have pushed the new repo to our servers, yes servers!, the new update is about 7GB due to an issue called RHS. To help deal with the larger amounts of players I have added a second server to "balance" the load between the 2. Note how balance is in quotes, this is because it does not actually balance the load. A server gets picked at random everytime you connect to the repo.

The reason the update is once again several gigabytes is because RHS decided to include an update script in their latest version. Sadly however the servers that contain the updates did not actually get updated. As a result our repo now contained an older version of RHS then before. We never ran into this issue because RHS used to upload their mods to several other sites. However as of 4.2.1 they started using the workshop. Instead I opted to use said script with this disastrous result.

I am still having some difficulty with the new repo, however as soon as those are resolved I will bring the repo back online.

The incident:

Last Thursday the new 64-bit version of ArmA rolled out, and with it a load of new bugs and mod updates that we had hoped wouldn't be needed. As a result I decided on Friday that I would add a new repo server and set up some form of balancing between the 2. As I was in the process of configuring the new setup I had asked the one of the CM's to test some things for me. During this test 2 things happened. Firstly the CM's got so excited they all decided to start downloading, not what I asked for guys. This caused some frustration as I was trying to do some log tests. Second I noticed someone was actively trying to circumvent the blockades I had put in place during the testing.

Now this in itself I don't mind, if anything I applaud people who test our infrastructure. It helps me make things more resilient and allows you guys to enjoy a safe environment to share your stories in. However! I do not want some kid to go on non FK channels and boast about his escapades. Not only is this a gross breach of trust it is also against everything I stand for myself. What ever he found he should have reported to me, and no one else. Sadly for him he didn't really find anything useful. The info he gathered was something anyone could have found with some simple techniques. Hell I am going to share the same details with you guys right now.

The new repo setup:

In the past we had one repo server that would host a simple web server, this would allow arma3sync to connect via http which it used to download the mods. This box had reached its limits with regards to network speeds and caused painfully slow downloads. To expand this setup I would need a new server and a way to "balance" the load, however due to the amount of data we send out a true load balancer was not an option. Instead I have opted for redirect technique. What does this mean? It means we now have 3 web servers for the repo, one front end and 2 back end servers. In detail:

The front end (a3sync.fuckknows.eu) hosts a small webserver that takes an incoming request and redirects you to another url. It does this by picking a random number between 1 and 4, based on that number it knows what repo to redirect you to. This is not real load balancing, however it does allow us to share load over the 2 repo's. It also allows us to add more servers fairly quickly if we decide to expand in the future.

The back end hosts (repo1.fuckknows.eu & repo2.fuckknows.eu) are web servers that hold the actual repo files. They operate standalone from the front end and allow you to directly connect to should you so desire. They do nothing more but serve files that arma3sync downloads.

Al in all this is not really rocket science, it is a fairly simple setup that allows for easy management and  expansion.

The future:

What happened last Friday in detail? On Friday evening I changed the a3sync url, instead of pointing directly at repo1 it would now point at the front end server. I had disabled this web server while I did the initial setup and synchronization of the new repo server. During a short period of time I brought it online to perform some tests, in these 5 min tops several people connected and tried to download mods. Once I disabled the front end I expected load on the repo servers to drop again, however that did not happen. A quick look at the log files told me someone was bypassing the front end and when I blocked repo1 that same IP jumped to repo2. I did this testing several times and every time the same client IP popped up. That IP was also using a tool other then arma3sync to download with. I responded by banning that IP from the servers and thought nothing more of it until the screenshot posted by Linnet reached me.

What did I do to prevent this? Even tho I can not make the setup 100% obscured due to the way arma3sync works, I can limit the way's people connect. One of the things I can do is limit the allowed user agents to the web servers, anything other then arma3sync gets a 403 error. I have also increased the monitoring of the log files, repeated attempts to access the repo without arma3sync will get an IP ban. This ban will get propagated to all FK servers in a matter of minutes.

Again I encourage people to try and find issues with our infrastructure, however I do ask you do it in a thoughtful manner. I am not asking you to try and ddos our servers because any monkey can do that for a few bucks. I am asking you to find holes in our security and reporting them to me. If I find anyone exploiting our servers or sharing private info I will not hesitate to report you to the police and your ISP. Needles to say such an action will also result in a ban from our community.

That's the only change you need - just make sure that you have ALiVE enabled to be able to play tonight.

Its been nearly 3 months since this last update and a lot has changed since then. So here is a new breakdown.

What do we have:

First lets start with a breakdown of what we/I own, lets start with the easy stuff. There are currently 6 machines that are dedicated to FK activities, these are:

• A3sync/Repo #1 - €10,-/month (the first of the 2 repo servers)
• A3sync/Repo #2 - €10,-/month (the second repo server)
• ARMA #1 - €55,-/month (This one runs the headless clients)
• ARMA #2 - €55,-/month (The main arma server)
• ARMA #3 - €55,-/month (The test/second arma server)
• Gamebox #1 - €85,-/month
  • Currently hosts teamspeak, minecraft, wargame, farming sim, blackwave. This box has 64GB of ram and a 6 core cpu, in combination with virtualization it is highly flexible so I can swap games quickly depending on demand.

These are easy because these machines are dedicated to FK. The rest of our machines are hosted in combination with some of my other virtual machines, these are:

• Web server #1 - €10,-/month (The main website)
• Web server #2 - €5,-/month (Test site and gitlab runner, used for compiling missions/templates)
• Mail server - €5,-/month

These 3 servers are hosted on 2 dedicated machines I use for testing and some private stuff. Since they are shared I wanted a good way to share the costs between myself and the FK community.

Breakdown of the costs:

The 2 servers that I use to host from both have 8 cores, 32GB ram and several TB of storage. Each host costs €70,- making a total of 16 cores and 64GB ram for €140,-/month. I have decided to base the costs on the ram usage, ram is not shared between the different virtual machines so any ram used by FK machines is unavailable for my machines.

Dividing these makes a cost of €2,19/month per GB, I have rounded this up to €2,50/month (I too enjoy a beer for effort). With these costs now clear we can set a new goal on the donations page.

New upkeep goal:

With all these numbers the new monthly server cost will be set to €300,-/month. The new goal will be €350,-/month, this will allow us to build some extra cash to buy among others a teamspeak license.

As you all should know by now, most of the servers, licenses and other official things run in Mavy’s name. This is an impactful event, and as such there will be a great deal of work in front and behind the scenes. It is because of this that I ask to not inflate this issue, so the CM and Admin team can focus on handling this as smoothly as possible.

All server and software will be transferred to me (Greybeard) over the course of the next week(s). Due to this, upcoming changes, in particular the tag system, will be on a lower priority until this transfer has been completed. However be sure that everything we wanted to implement in the near future will be dealt with - in time. 

Again, I would like to thank Mavy for the fantastic and numerous work he has done, without which this community would probably not even exist today. Furthermore I would like to ask that you direct questions to the CM and Admin team, as they will be able to answer your questions best.
 

Changelog:

Added:

• BAF
• Napf Island
• United States Army
• Burnes Challenger
• Project OPFOR
• Hoverboard
• LAV-25

Removed:

• VSM
• IFA

Updated:

• BackpackOnChest
• Ares
• ShacTac
• RHS
• Lingor

Added:

• Map Celle 2
• Map Bozcaada
• ACR NIArsenal
• Advanced Sling Loading
• Advanced Rappelling
• Advanced Towing
• TF-47 Launchers
• MNP

Updated:

• ACE 3
• Alive
• Ares Achilles
• CBA

Update is 1.1 GB (approximate)