The next backup and reboot of the current Brigadoon servers (eros and Hermes) will be conducted on the 7th August. No further updates will be done on these regions.
When the new gaia server comes on-line, these regions will be decommissioned. The new gaia regions will be clean builds because the objects in the existing regions contain modifications that do not represent good building practices. The new regions will not necessarily reflect the current region configurations.
Backups of the old eros and Hermes servers will be maintained so experimentation can be done at a future date without affecting the gaia server. It is expected that tjhis will include testing updates to the OpenSimulator software before installing it on the gaia server.
As with the existing eros and Hermes servers, the gaia server will be running in a domestic situation under the OSGrid umbrella. This means that access can be interrupted by local Internet and power maintenance. Access can also be affected by disruptions to the OSGrid servers
The new computer has arrived and the operating system has been installed and the applications are being installed when time permits. A lot of the Local Area Network (LAN) is also being configured to allow the Raspberry Pi computers to be taken off-line. This means that things like the backup scripts have to be reworked to fit the new network configuration. Current family responsibilities is limiting the time available to work on the system.
In the next week it is expected that the OpenSimulator software will be installed and the configuration of that system will commence. The database to be used by the sipmulator has already been installed and a database and user account have been created.
During the night of the 25th August 2025 there was a power failure that took down the Hermes and Eros nodes that provide the regions that make up the Brigadoon Estate.
Because these nodes are experimental, they do not have a script that brings the simulators back up when the nodes reboot. As a result, the nodes were not restored until the next morning.
The new computer hardware build has been configured and will be shipped today. It is expected that it will be delivered on the 26th August. Once the computer has been delivered, its operating system will be installed and tested. Once the operating system has been installed, an Apache web server, a MariaDB database and other assorted programs will be installed and tested, before the open simulator is set up.
Although the ordering of updated hardware to allow the OpenSIm regions to be moved off the Raspberry Pi 5 computers was previously postponed due to delays in disposing of international paper shares, an alternate source of cash has been used to place the order. The estimated delivery time from interstate is about 3 days, but the delivery may be delayed a couple more days due to the weekend.
Once the computer has been delivered, the initial configuration of the operating system will commence. This will be followed by the setting up of the web server and then the Open Simulator configuration. As before, the simulator will be configured using the osgrid ROBUST servers.
The impending change to the hardware supporting the Brigadoon Estate has resulted in the suspension of any significant changes to the Estate. Just before the hardware is changed, a backup of the entire Estate will be carried out.
A Brigadoon group will be created that will allow interested individuals to participate in the development of the new Estate (subject to compliance to the Estate and Group rules).
It is expected that the new Brigadoon Estate will be created using a "clean slate" approach. The new estate will have an associated SQL database and a web site available for Estate and Group activities.
River Drifter has returned from two weeks "drifting" along the River Murray in South Australia. Over the next few weeks, a plan to replace the Raspberry Pi 5 computers that are currently hosting the Brigadoon Estate will be considered. It is expected that a new X86-64 computer will be used to replace the Raspberry Pi 5 computers. This more powerful computer should be able to support an increased number of regions.
The Brigadoon Estate is prototyping moving Information that is likely to be updated on a regular basis from the previous message boards using notecards to message boards using media presentations. This is being trialled to see if it becomes easier to present complex and/or detailed information.