New opensim released

After months of not much happening codewise, 2 versions of opensim were released to the OSgrid, of which the latest is found HERE.  Few things for your consideration, depending which version you come from :

- On windows this build requires .NET 4.6
- This build has a new OSSLenable.ini. It's located in bin/config-include
(OSSL is now completely removed from opensim.ini).
- This build no longer has a VIVOX section in opensim.ini
(You can just add the vivox code snippet below the section "freeswitch", if you have vivox access)
- This build no longer has 3DWarpmap as default maptile provider.
If you want to run 3dwarpmap, consider these steps :
* enable 3dwarpmap in opensim.ini
* Disable "draw textures on prims" -> false (if you fail to do this, region will likely spit EOC marker errors in console, and make you wait forever to fully start).
* Start region, wait until its booted. Shutdown
* Enable "draw textures on prims" -> true. save.
* Start region. (Initial boot will take longer, but it works, and you will have pretty map tiles. Be patient). Can still give EOC marker errors, but will skip those faster somehow, if the map already has tiles.
In short, above means you can best start a fresh install, and manually reconfigure your INI's, where needed.

For as far as the Red Dragon regions are concerned, there all up and running latest.
I did create OAR's exports, dropped the database, created 5 new databases, and split my 25 region VAR in smaller bits, as i didn't like the load of the 5x5, and startup took way too long. My conclusion is that 160000+ prims and 6000+ scripts should just not exist in 1 VAR. It will work. But that's about it. Boot's slow, lag, huge memory load on a single process. Not optimal.
Performance is much better now the load is divided. And having fresh OAR's is not a bad thing either.
note on last week :

OSgrid fund raising Carnival

One of OSgrid's annual events is a fundraiser. As oldest and largest grid in the Metaverse, it runs off quite an impressive array of hardware, which hosts all the assets. Along with the new grid-servers running the web page and grid services, this gobble's up RL cash.
Since OSgrid completely relies on donations and volunteers to remain in operation, it collaborates with it's great in-world community to raise funds.

This year a whole week of events is being planned, with carnival rides, games, shows, a donation auction, swimsuit competition, a soccer event and lots of Party's !

Keep posted inworld and on the Facebook and G+ pages. The events will run from the 21st to the 28th of September.

With your donations  the grid is kept alive, going strong, and moving forward. So your contribution, either small or big, and in whatever form, is very much appreciated and needed.
The voluntary nature of OSgrid's setup keeps the grid open to anyone, and it's worlds free of greed so you can really "just be" and enjoy the promise of "your world, your freedom".
If you would like to participate actively and / or host your own event, get in touch. Best way is to do this through the community meeting held every Saturday at 11.00 on Hurliman Plaza.

Moving ahead

Last few months tons of changes have been made to OSgrid. The main change being all grid services, that have been migrated from Texas to new servers in Canada. Dan Banner and Paela Argus took care of the migration project and succeeded without notable "unexpected issues". I call a Great job on that one ! For added functionality and changes in the grid, changes to the INI files have been made. OSgrid issued a new version which includes these changes. The Red Dragon 25 region VAR has been manually updated with the changes, it and is happily running without any complications.

Also huge improvements to it's website have been made. A lot of the old URL's no longer work, so  the Symbaloo page with quicklinks to handy pages has been brought up to date, we're currently updating all our wiki links.Feel free to use the contact form to send broken links, or your feedback if needed.

For those not aware, updating the OSG webpage was a pretty insane task. The old webby was great, but the code below it was very severely outdated. It's not a matter of rewriting a css, and moving some stylesheets around. Much had to be to be manually recoded, to be able to meet current web standards.  Loads of new features are implemented, and overtime the site took more shape. Currently, it runs better than ever. Congrats and chapeau to Paela Argus for doing an awesome job there.

When OSgrid ran a fundraiser event last year, it ended up at almost $3500,- keeping the future of the grid secure for the forseeable future. It proves OSgrid has a very devoted community, and despite being a niche, we are still very alive and viable. I cannot thank you, fellow residents and OSg users enough for your contribution in this. Your financial support helps everyone in this grid, also the people that really can't afford such, or maybe even the one you don't like. You are bigger than that. Hence I'm proud to be part of this grid, and i hope you are / can be too. Your continued support is highly appreciated though.

Above fundraiser has enabled OSgrid to change ISP and upgrade their hardware. More "bang for bucks", and less bucks. All plaza's had already been migrated to a newer server with more bandwith , RAM and CPU power a few weeks back, and the grid servers have followed succesfully last week.

Now most is migrated, only the asset servers still need to be transferred before the operation can be called 'complete'. Above will mean OSG will get some unavoidable and possibly longer downtime, as not everything can be transferred into operations "on the fly".
To the best of my knowledge this is unlikely to occur before Q4 of this year.  Despite that being months away, It is however a good moment to consider refreshing your OAR / IAR files if you haven't done so in a long time.