this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 12 hours ago

I've done a lot of SysAdmin and DCOps stuff in the past so, thought I'd give you some plausible suggestions (haven't dug deep into Lemmy DB stuff and DNS/Federation of the stack, so not sure all is practical).

Scenario 1 - Preserve and merge when access is restored

Setup

  • Spin up two VMs/VPS (or one that has enough grunt for two Lemmy servers). Call them robak.slrpnk.net and slrpnk.net and point DNS appropriately.
  • Pull federated content from other instances and place it on robak, set as read-only.
  • Sync important comms to (new) slrpnk.net without content.
  • Allow users to sign up, vetting as possible (all mods). Keep a list of those that are vetted (call it vetted.list). Inform all users that any non-vetted users will have their content dropped when access is restored.

Merge!

  • Once access is restored, ensure that (old) slrpnk.net is set to read-only.
  • Schedule a maintenance window (announce more time than you are likely to need).
  • During the maintenance window, put (new) slrpnk.net into R/O, or just block external access.
  • Query the db on (old) slrpnk.net for all users.
  • Subtract the vetted users from vetted.list from the list.
  • Drop all records from the resulting list of non-vetted users from (new) slrpnk.net.
  • Insert the records from vetted and new users (those without conflicts) into the DB on (old) slrpnk.net.
  • Validate that everything is working
  • Cut over DNS and spin down the new VMs/VPS.

Scenario 2 - Server is in DC or Admin able to facilitate access

  • Get a db dump/backup.
  • Spin up temporary slrpnk.net on a VM/VPS.
  • Use backup of temporary server to restore data to original, when possible.