Lab Gab Preview: Oz Linden & Grumpity Linden Go Live At 11am PDT – Friday 26th February

New Lab Gab Episode This Friday Live

At 11am PDT on Friday 26th February Oz Linden and Grumpity Linden will be live on Lab Gab talking about the latest news on AWS. Oz will be talking about his years at the lab as he has officially announced his retirement.

Strawberry Linden will be asking them questions from the Second Life community. You can fill out this Google Form and submit your questions. The lab will review them and pick out a selection of questions for Oz and Grumpity to answer.

Lab Gab will be live streamed on YouTube, Facebook, and Periscope. Please spread the word.

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100% Of Second Life Regions Now In The Cloud

Within the past few hours Linden Lab have finished moving all the regions on the grid to the cloud. Congratulations Linden Lab 🙂

The official confirmation came from April Linden on Twitter today. Well done to the Uplift team for moving all regions way ahead of schedule.

The team just finished up moving all of the regions to the cloud! We did it, before our goal of Thanksgiving!!! Uplift isn't done, we still have things to move, but getting the regions done FEELS SO GOOD! 💜

— April Linden (@LindenyApril) November 19, 2020

Stlit Homes Release Update

Patch Linden confirmed today that the Stilt Linden homes release will take place after Turkey Day.

[10:57] Patch Linden: What’s today?
[10:58] Patch Linden: Thursday

[10:58] Patch Linden: Guess what?

[10:58] Patch Linden: 100% of the regions on the grid have now been uplifted!

[10:58] Patch Linden: That’s why it’s been restart city, and that’s one of the things we had to get past!

[10:59] Patch Linden: Alas, the team still has some stuff to do caused by the various interruptions that’s all created, but that puts our immediate timeline for release to after Turkey Day.

[11:00] Patch Linden: We’re so close, we can taste it, but the team also needs time with their families too 

[11:01] Patch Linden: Thank you everyone! ❤️

Exciting day for Second Life news I think.

Second Life Main Grid Regions Uplift Almost Complete

As of Wednesday 18th November over 50% of main grid regions have moved to the cloud via Amazon Web Services. Today it’s believed that the rest of the main grid regions will be uplifted to the cloud.

There is scheduled maintenance today from 7am SLT through until possibly 4pm SLT (maybe sooner) The lab will be performing rolling restarts during this period and so there could be issues when rezzing objects inworld.

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AWS (the cloud)

For example Oak Grove is running on AWS. Click on About Firestorm or whatever viewer your using to find out if the region is running on AWS.

You are at 175.6, 115.7, 20.4 in Oak Grove located at ec2-34-220-149-232.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com (34.220.149.232:13004)
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Oak%20Grove/176/116/20
(global coordinates 255,408.0, 256,116.0, 20.4)
Second Life Server 2020-11-12.552183

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Linden Lab (data center)

You are at 145.5, 171.6, 24.0 in Debug1 located at sim10376.agni.lindenlab.com (216.82.51.26:13000)
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Debug1/145/172/24
(global coordinates 239,249.0, 343,980.0, 24.0)
Second Life Server 2020-09-11T22:25:15.548903

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Once completed Debug 1 and Debug 2 regions will continue to be hosted at the Linden Lab data center. The next phrase of the cloud uplift will start in terms of improving performance etc. I would expect that to take place sometime in 2021+.

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Scheduled Maintenance

Rolling Restarts and Uplift for SLS Channels

Nov 19, 07:00–16:00 PST

We will be performing rolling restarts for regions on the SLS Channels on Thursday, November 19th, beginning at 7:00 AM PDT. During this time regions will also be Uplifted to the cloud. Please refrain from rezzing no copy objects and remember to save all builds. Please check this blog for updates.
Posted on Nov 17, 14:56 PST

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Hopefully before the end of today all regions on the main grid will be in the cloud. Good luck Linden Lab.

The latest uplift updates can be found on the Second Life Forums in the Server section and on the Second Life Grid Reports page.

I will blog more when new updates become available very soon.

Second Life Uplift Cloud Update

On Friday 6th November Oz Linden and Mazidox Linden talked with Strawberry Linden on Lab Gab about the latest developments on the Cloud Uplift work that is going on. 

Everyone can watch the whole episode above which runs for roughly a hour. 

Here are some of the highlights…

• The plan is still to have all of the transitional work completed before the end of 2020. 
• A specialist company will be clearing out the Lab cages at the co-op facility after the Uplift and they will be disposing the old hardware. All user data will be destroyed. 
• During the transitional period it has been significantly more expensive to operate Second Life. In the near future it’s believed operating costs will be reduced. 
• Running Second Life on AWS can run more scripts and script events 
• User-sensitive data is effectively hidden from Amazon (AWS). Linden Lab have put in strict contractual requirements. 
• Estate / Region owners can file a support ticket if they wish to move to AWS
• 50% of the grid will be on AWS from 10th November 2020
• There is potential for a range of new land products on AWS in the months and years ahead 

Its good to hear Linden Lab is still on track in moving Second Life into the cloud and that more regions are now running on AWS. Hopefully the performance and stability will be improved over time.

More updates soon.

Oz Linden & Mazidox Linden Appearing On Lab Gab This Friday Talking About Uplift

At 10am SLT on Friday 6th November Oz Linden (VP of Engineering) and Mazidox Linden (Lead QA Engineer) will be live on Lab Gab talking about the latest news on Uplift which is moving Second Life to the cloud (AWS).

Hopefully we will hear more about how things are going and what’s left to do. 2020 is almost over and time is running out. From what I’m hearing the lab is still making good progress in moving more regions into the cloud. 

The blog post reads this…

Lab Gab is a live-streamed variety show that showcases events, destinations, and different talents across Second Life. 

Join our host, Strawberry Linden, as she speaks with the VP of Engineering, Oz Linden, and Lead QA Engineer, Mazidox Linden. Oz and Mazidox are on the uplift team, which is moving Second Life to the cloud. They will be discussing all aspects of uplift and giving us an update on it.      

Do you have any questions for the uplift team that you’d like Strawberry to ask them on your behalf? Fill out the Google Form and submit your question today, and it may be selected!

Tune in on Friday, November 6th at 10am PT/SLT. Watch us live on YouTube, Facebook, or Periscope!

Please spread the word. 

Main Grid Regions Drop Under The 25, 000 Mark

As of 26th July 2020 the total amount of main grid regions in Second Life has dropped under the 25, 000 mark according to the Second Life Grid Survey. Mainly through Private Estates and some Linden Owned regions have been showing signs of decline during the past month.

The total region count has actually been lower than this in previous years like back when there were 23, 298 regions back on 18th March 2018. At the moment there is no need to panic but if trends continue like they are then the decline will sadly get worse before the end of 2020.

The first six months of 2020 there have been signs of positive growth in Second Life and hopefully soon the grid growth will return. See below for the grid numbers counted for January, June and July.

Main Grid size as of 26th July 2020

• Total Main Grid Regions: 24, 947
• Private Estates: 16, 662
• Linden Owned: 8, 285

Main Grid size – 7th June 2020

• Total Main Grid Regions: 25, 160
• Private Estates: 16, 902
• Linden Owned: 8, 258

Main Grid size – 20th January 2020

• Total Main Grid Regions: 24, 147
• Private Estates: 16, 036
• Linden Owned: 8, 111

What To Expect Next ?

• Once the migration to the cloud has been completed in early Autumn then the region capacity will increase again. The lab have not released any dates yet. This will effect the private estate numbers.
• The Bellisseria continent will start to grow again after the cloud move is finished. This will increase the Linden Owned regions.
• Hopefully during 2021 Linden Lab may lower the land costs or do something to help the Second Life community.

How does OpenSim compare ?

If you put the OSgrid and Kitely regions combined together it will surpass Second Life regions by a huge margin. There are now over 1, 572 public accessible opensim grids now. The total OpenSim land area expanded by more than 800 regions. Is everyone switching to OpenSim now ?

There are now roughly 80, 000 regions on OpenSim which is a huge amount. Second Life has 24, 947 regions in total. From the looks of things OpenSim is still growing in terms of regions and active users.

See July 2020 report

Hypergrid Business Data – July 2020

I will blog about the grid numbers in October and then again at the end of 2020. Hopefully by then the grid numbers will be positive. If there is any big changes or announcements then I’ll share them on my blog.

First Beta Grid Regions Running On The Cloud (AWS)

Morris and Ahern are the first beta grid regions that are now running on the AWS in “the cloud”. Dore and Bonifacio are still vo-lo based at the moment. Simon Linden this week at the Server User Group meeting on Tuesday 14th July said this in local chat “I do have some minor news … if you log into the beta / Aditi grid, the Ahern and Morris regions are running on The Cloud”. 

• Learn about Beta / Preview Grid

Yay, great news! 🙂

Second Life Beta Grid Map – 17th July 2020

To access these beta regions running in the cloud select the Second Life Beta Grid option on the Second Life login screen page or on the Firestorm viewer. It’s worth pointing out that AWS is a huge and complex system. The lab are learning as they go in terms of building servers, getting them deployed, setting up networks and security etc. 

Hopefully more regions will be running in the cloud before the end of 2020. 

Morris running on AWS

Have you been on the beta grid ?

Do you notice any differences while being on AWS ?