I get time-out and lines in logfile saying the same.

There are several other posts regarding this problem. Is someone going to look into this soon?

Seems a bad idea now converting several client sites from drupal.

I also get time-out trying to install new modules.

This is backdrop specific. Drupal and ModX sites have no problems. Certificates are all good.

Comments

Egmund, thanks for posting. Yes, this has been an issue that has affected other people in the past. Are you working on a local setup or on a remote server? I noticed you posted also here - have you tried some of the solutions there?

I opened a new issue in Backdrop's issue queue to provide http fallback for the update manager (which is what Drupal 8/9 currently does). Hopefully this will be tackled soon.

Thank you argiepiano.

The sites are on a shared server in Germany, Hetzner Online Gmbh via a reseller in Denmark. There is no problems with connection from my pc to this server, but there is timeout between Germany and wherever backdropcms server is.

This have been going on for too long now! Sorry, just as I got exited about backdrop.

Thanks, Egmond. The Backdrop community is very active and interested in helping people like you who are migrating from Drupal. I'm sure someone will pick up the issue I posted at some point.

In the meantime, you may want to work with your shared server provider - they may be able to solve it. The issue often is that Backdrop's update manager tries to obtain update data from updates.backdropcms.org/release-history with an SSL connection. In order to do that the server sends a certificate that's stored in your server. If there is a problem with that certificate the connection fails.

In your site hosted in the shared server, are you seeing question marks like the ones shown in this image? Can you provide a few more details, including the server type, PHP version, Backdrop CMS version?

CloudLinux v7.9.0 [cp03]
php Version: 7.4.27
LiteSpeed webserver

Newest ver of backdrop

This morning all is fine again.

& I am on 1.21.0

Guess I need to relax about this - give it a few days

Tha saga continues. Several sites can not connect at all, other sites get some modules checked but not all.

I tested a Drupal site for comparison: No problems at all.

I checked certificates: All valid.

I asked the hosting company: Awaiting response.

What is the difference in update checking between Backdrop and Drupal?

Seems the backdrop server is difficult to reach at certain hours/days. I do not think it would fluctuate this much if the problem was with my hosting company - then it would be either on or off.

Problem is less in the pm (European time). I hav no issues right now for instance.

indigoxela's picture

Hi Egmund,

I know I'm a little late here, but there's an important question: which exact problems do get logged?

Go to /admin/reports/dblog, expand the filter fieldset and filter for "update".

If there are entries - how many?

Now the interesting part: inspect them all and provide the failure type, something like:

HTTP request to XXX failed with error: [This info here please!]

Without knowing what fails, it's hard to suggest a solution. It could be an ssl problem, timeouts, whatever...

(I'm also using Hetzner, no reseller though, and never experienced problems.)

To me this, and the fact that some times of the day are better than others,  sounds like a server connection issue, rather than a certificate issue. I'd talk to your provider to see if there is way to improve this, and the people who maintain the Backdrop update server should check as well. 

You asked about the difference between Drupal and Backdrop for updates - they use the same approach to get the list of updates, but they are of course different addresses. Also Drupal 7 still uses a non-secure connection to get update information. Backdrop (like Drupal 8/9) use a secure connection which sometimes causes certificate issues (which doesn't seem to the be problem in your case). 

Yes - problems connecting. But you are on the same server - so weird.

Drupal 9 checks works just fine - no issues ever.

The problem also is same for auto-check (cron) and manual check.

indigoxela's picture

Drupal 9 checks works just fine - no issues ever.

Quite puzzling...

Two differences I noticed:

The Drupal update server is actually a CDN (fastly) with multiple servers around the globe. OK, they need a CDN, they have a lot more users.

The Backdrop update server is a single instance and also has an IPv6 address.

As noted before - I never noticed any connection problems from Hetzner servers to Backdrop updates, so your problem might be specific to that reseller.

It could have something to do with an IPv6 routing problem.

@Egmund are all your webs on the same server?

I am still waiting for response from reseller, azehosting.net. I will f.w. the IPv6 question to them.

Yes, all my eggs are in one basket. I have cPanel, it is quite cheap, server is fast. But the response time is sometimes ridiculous. Maybe time to look around again. On the other hand: problems I had with various other hosting firms are gone.

My hosting corp. finally got to check the problem: An IPv6 address was blocked or graylisted.

Is it possible to get a list of the IP addresses on the server?

indigoxela's picture

Is it possible to get a list of the IP addresses on the server?

Yes, that's easy (and public, anyway):

updates.backdropcms.org has address 66.175.208.83
updates.backdropcms.org has IPv6 address 2600:3c03::f03c:91ff:fec2:d257

Super, my problems are over.

& for others w. same/similar problems: Look into whether IPs have been graylisted as mine was.