Action Needed: Dynamic DNS Server Migration

Announcements
1

Summary

On 15th December 2021, the Dynamic DNS server corresponding to the freedombox.rocks domain is moving to infrastructure provided by the FreedomBox Foundation. Keeping your privacy in mind, we need your explicit consent for moving your account and you need to update the Dynamic DNS configuration in your FreedomBox.

Target Audience

FreedomBox users who are using the Dynamic DNS service provided by gnudip.datasystems24.net with the domain freedombox.rocks must take action.

Users who are not using a Dynamic DNS service are not affected. Also, users who are using Dynamic DNS services other than the one provided at gnudip.datasystems24.net are also not affected.

sds-ip.de domain is not being migrated, so no action is needed. However, you are advised to move to freedombox.rocks domain. See below.

Action Needed

You must take the following actions before the 15th of December.

  1. You need to provide your consent to migrating your account to the new server.

    • Login with your Dynamic DNS account at https://gnudip.datasystems24.net.
    • Click on “Go” against “Change Settings”
    • Click “Consent to transfer data to Freedombox foundation*” and click “Save Changes”.

  2. Update your Dynamic DNS configuration in FreedomBox web interface to use the new server. Change the “GnuDIP Server Address” from “gnudip.datasystems24.net” to “ddns.freedombox.org”. Also change the “URL to look up public IP” from “http://myip.datasystems24.de” to “https://ddns.freedombox.org/ip/”. You final settings should like this:

    • [✓] Enable Dynamic DNS (same as before)
    • Service Type: GnuDIP (same as before)
    • GnuDIP Server Address: ddns.freedombox.org (changed from gnudip.datasystems24.net)
    • Domain Name: <mydomain>.freedombox.rocks (this is same as before)
    • Username: <myusername> (this is same as before)
    • Password: <mypassword> (this is same as before, leave it blank so as not to change it)
    • URL to look up public IP: https://ddns.freedombox.org/ip/ (changed from http://myip.datasystems24.net)

Forgot Password?

If you have forgotten your password to the GnuDIP account, use the “Forgot Password” option on the login page to get a one-time login link. Use this to login. Change your password after login and update FreedomBox’s Dynamic DNS settings with the new password.

Alternatively, you can also peek the current password configured on your FreedomBox by reading the files /etc/ez-ipupdate/ez-ipupdate.inactive or /etc/ez-ipupdate/ez-ipupdate.conf using command line interface.

Non-consent/Inaction

If you don’t consent to this migration or don’t take any action before the migration date, your subdomain under freedombox.rocks will stop working after 15th December. Your subdomain and username will still be reserved on the new server and no one else can claim them. After December 15th, if you wish to migrate your account to the new server and resume the service, you can contact the administrators of both services via email to Daniel Steglich <admin@datasystems24.de> and FreedomBox Administration Team <admin@freedombox.org>.

New Users

Until December 15th, the new server ddns.freedombox.org will not be accepting new registrations. You should register an account on the gnudip.datasystems24.de server and give your consent to migration. Your account will be migrated on December 15th along with all other accounts. After the migration on December 15th, new user accounts can be created directly on the new server ddns.freedombox.org.

sds-ip.de

Apart from freedombox.rocks, sds-ip.de domain was also provided by the Dynamic DNS service at gnudip.datasystems24.de. However, sds-ip.de domain is not being migrated and will stay on the current server. So, without any action on your part, you can continue to use this domain. However, you are advised to close the sds-ip.de account and move to freedombox.rocks as it may not receive newer planned features (see below). You can do this before or after the migration date. If you do it before the migration, perform the consent and configuration actions described above.

Migration Details

Dynamic DNS service has been provided by FreedomBox contributor, Daniel Steglich, to all FreedomBox users, free of cost since 2015. Notably, users could assign domains <mydomain>.freedombox.rocks and <mydomain>.sds-ip.de to their FreedomBoxes. Now, we wish to move this service to infrastructure provided by the FreedomBox Foundation. This service will be managed by FreedomBox Administration Team. Currently, the team consists of Daniel Gnoutcheff from the FreedomBox Foundation and contributors Sunil Mohan Adapa, James Valleroy and Joseph Nuthalapati.

If you consent to data migration, the following information related to your account will move to the new server provided by the FreedomBox Foundation: email address, account name, account password (MD5 hash), domain name, current IP address and account settings.

We are doing this so that we can potentially improve the service:

  • Automatically manage DNS entries related to mail exchange and spam protection . This will be useful for the upcoming email server app in FreedomBox.
  • Automatically manage subdomains for your domain. Enable setting up apps that require a dedicated subdomain. Obtain Let’s Encrypt wildcard TLS certificates for such domains.
  • Obtain Let’s Encrypt certificates using an auto-assigned domain name to simplify initial FreedomBox setup.
  • Improve the Dynamic DNS client side implementation while maintaining server compatibility.
  • Provide IPv6 support.
  • Replace the outdated GnuDIP server software with better software.
  • Improve user interface for Dynamic DNS domain setup with automatic registration.
  • Share server maintenance burden among members of current administration team.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Daniel Steglich for implementing Dynamic DNS support in FreedomBox, setting up and maintaining the server and continuing to contribute on Dynamic DNS efforts.

3 Likes
3

After consenting, how much will it take until the domains become accessible again?

1 Like
4

There is an unexpected outage at DNS server for freedombox.rocks and all of its subdomains. We are working to resolve the problem. Sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you. There is no action required on your part, please continue to give the consent and change your configuration as described in the announcement. I will continue to post updates on the resolution of the problem.

Also, to clarify the announcement: you may give your consent and change your configuration any time before December 15th. When you change your configuration your domain should continue to work without any interruption. This works because your requests to the new server due to changed configuration will be automatically forwarded to the old server until the switch on December 15th. The switch on December 15th should also happen with minimal or no interruption. The current outage seems to be unrelated to the consent/configuration change and proxy service running on the new server.

2 Likes
5

freedombox.rocks and all of its subdomains are up and running now. The outage was caused due to a configuration error on the old server during preparation activities for the server migration. The error has been handled.

If you face any further troubles in DNS resolution for freedombox.rocks domains, please report them.

1 Like
6

I added advice to new users seeking to create an account on the new server.

1 Like
7

I moved my FreedomBox to a new Dynamic DNS https://ddns.freedombox.org/ — my FreedomBox is now inaccessible at columbus.freedombox.rocks. (And I can’t get a new Lets Encrypt certificate for my site :(. )

8

15 posts were split to a new topic: [SOLVED] Trouble registering on gnudip.datasystems24.net

9

He’s back :slight_smile: FreedomBox on the new Dynamic DNS.

1 Like
16

This suggests leaving the password blank. Have you tried that?

17

Reminder: Before December 15th, please consent to migrating your freedombox.rocks Dynamic DNS domain to FreedomBox Foundation servers or use another provider. After that date, your domain will no longer work.

Those facing issues with Let’s Encrypt certificate when Dynamic DNS configuration is changed many times, note that yesterday’s release of FreedomBox includes a fix to ensure that certificates are not revoked and re-obtained during the configuration changes and that Let’s Encrypt’s weekly rate limit is not hit. This fix should reach you in 4-5 days.

18

Same here

I See, you got the problem solved two days later. Was this by magic, or did you do something about it?

19

@hanstux, when Dynamic DNS configuration is updated, FreedomBox was removing the domain and re-adding it. At this time, Let’s Encrypt was revoking the certificate and re-obtaining it. First is that this process may take up-to 30 seconds and one may feel that it is stuck and attempt to reload the page and redo the configuration.

Let’s Encrypt has a weekly limit of 5 certificates per week and this may soon be hit (we didn’t consider this when doing initial implementation). I suppose that after this, LE certificate is no longer a valid one. If one were to try again in a few days, this would succeed and work (this likely the above noticed behavior). The latest release of FreedomBox, which is already available in Bullseye backports, has a fix to never automatically revoke a certificate (treating them as precious). So, this problem should effectively not occur on the latest version.

If you have already run into this rate limit by LE. I think the only solution is to try again after a few days when the cool down has occurred.

1 Like
20

I don’t know the reason. I did everything according to the instructions, and now everything is fine. Sunil explained the possible reason.

21

Final Reminder: Before December 15th (only two days remaining), please consent to migrating your freedombox.rocks Dynamic DNS domain to FreedomBox Foundation servers or use another provider. After that date, your domain will no longer work. If you are facing problems or have special concerns, please reach out to us.

22

if I enter https://ddns.freedombox.org/ in my Webbrowser, there is still “Available soon”
Is it up allready?

23

Migration is underway, it may take some time and may finish tomorrow. Will keep you posted.

24

Migration Completed: Server migration has been completed. No further user action is required. Notes:

  • Accounts on the old server that have consented to data migration are now available on new server. Users may login, change password, set IP address/preferences, etc. on the new server.
  • Accounts on the old server that have not consented to data migration have not been migrated to the new server and those users will not be able to login to the server. However, these usernames/domains have been reserved on the new server so that other users will not be able take these domains.
  • Users wishing to consent now and migrate their disabled accounts from old server to the new server can still do so by logging into the old server and providing consent.
  • New registrations have been enabled on the new server and disabled on the old server.
  • Domains for users who have not done their configuration changes will also continue to work as the old server will now forward DNS update requests to the new server. However, this will stop on January 15th, 2022. Please update your configuration to point to the new server if you already have not.
  • There is no further user action required for configuration changes as these have already been done by users who consented.
  • There was no down time during server migration. If you face any issues, please contact us.
25

Also there is a new domain ‘fbx.one’ to use with your Dynamic DNS account. You can now choose between <mydomain>.fbx.one and <mydomain>.freedombox.rocks.

2 Likes
26

Some users have faced an issue with new registrations where the verification email was delayed. The problem should be fixed now and mails should reach without much delay. If there are problems with new accounts, write to us.