Support

Hello,

As I explained in my previous reply the updates are handled by Joomla!, not our code. I am not entirely sure that you understand how Joomla! extensions updates work. If you do, you are already aware that you should not be filing a ticket with us. Moreover, since you've set up your own server you should already know how it works and how to troubleshoot DNS resolution and connectivity issues. Anyway, let's see how updates work and what you can do to troubleshoot this issue.

As you already know, as a developer who understands Joomla! updates, Joomla! needs an XML file containing version information for each component. We provide it as a static XML file, served over our CDN (more on that later), which provides the location of the XML file providing the download URLs for each published version. This is the file Joomla! reads, as you already know being a developer who understands how Joomla! extension updates work.

More things you already understand and knwo. When looking for update, Joomla! accesses the URL of the first XML file and populates the #__updates table. When installing an update, Joomla! accesses the URL of the second XML file, found inside the #__updates table, and parses it. From there it finds the latest version and its download URL. It then combines this URL with the download ID query parameter stored in the #__update_sites' extra_query column to generate the download URL it uses to download the new version's ZIP package.

The only thing our code does is populate the extra_query column in the #__update_sites with the query containing your Download ID, something like dlid=abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789. This happens whenever you visit the component's back-end page. This is the something you couldn't possibly know, but that's immaterial to your issue. This bit is only used when retrieving the actual update ZIP file. You can't even get there.

Our code of course doesn't fetch the update information (the two XML files). These two files are stored in the Amazon CloudFront CDN. The domain name for both our site and the CDN is managed by Amazon Route 53. Both Amazon CloudFront and Amazon Route 53 are some of the biggest players in the respective area (content delivery networks and DNS hosting respectively). Therefore we are pretty sure that they do not fail to load. Not to mention that we do get over 20 million hits on the update URLs every month. That wouldn't happen if the CDN was broken as you rushed to suggest.

Your actual problem is that Joomla! is unable to retrieve the first XML file when querying updates. That's the file hosted on Amazon CloudFront CDN whose domain name is managed by Amazon Route 53. Therefore the only rational conclusion is that your server is somehow blocking the access to this URL. This is what I told you in the previous ticket. Most likely it's your server's firewall. I am pretty sure that you don't run a "naked" server, i.e. one without a firewall?

Since you are a developer managing your own server, you can connect to your server via SSH and try running the following commands:

dig cdn.akeebabackup.com
wget "http://cdn.akeebabackup.com/updates/abpro.xml" -O -

The first command should result in a CNAME entry pointing cdn.akeebabackup.com to d3c25k7is9hneo.cloudfront.net and with several entries containng the location-specific IPs for d3c25k7is9hneo.cloudfront.net If it doesn't you have a problem with DNS resolution on your server.

The second command should return an XML document stating that it's generated by Akeeba Release System and having a root element of updates. If it doesn't, you have a firewall issue.

Please note that resolving your server's DNS and connectivity issues (i.e. server issues) is well outside the scope of our support. Since you are your own host managing your own server you should be well versed is system administration and know how to fix these issues.