The server migration is in progress and currently going very well. The IP addresses have been assigned and all of the major services are up and running in a test environment. Many thanks to Ken Payne of FTE for helping me work out some network issues earlier this afternoon.

There are some challenges to deal with, which include migrating the galleries, which is the reason they are currently closed to adding new pictures. The image files along represent more than 3GB of data that needs to be moved from server 1 to server 2. Even server to server, you can imagine why I only want to do this section once.

Earlier today I upgraded the forums to the latest and greatest version on the live site in preparation for the move. I hope to be able to work on the forums on the new server some time tomorrow. They also present a challenge, as the database tables, compressed, represent almost 1GB of data.

More later...now time for sleep. Good night all.

 

Geez Man, talk about devoted .

Can' t wait to see the improvements. Talk about working late, you are working my kind of hours now. I' am still at the office on the phone most of the day. (story of my life)

 

I don't anticipate there will be any major improvements in functionality for now, just stability and performance.

Ok, I lied. I didn't go to bed. I'm still working. Actually, now I am going to bed.

 

Thats great that everything is going okay for you. Will there be any downtime while moving the forums over to the new server? Also once the new server is up and running are you planning on doing any major changes to the site or anything? I am just curious about what is in store for us.

 

Ok, back at it. I am copying the gallery image files over right now...it is estimated to take 2 hours 45 minutes using SCP!! Well, at least there is a progress bar to watch.

Regarding downtime, I am going to try to keep it as minimal as possible, but I anticipate a couple of hours. Then come DNS changes (the network stuff behind the scenes that tells your Internet connection which server is hosting this site) which may take a couple of days to propogate across the globe.

As I mentioned, I don't foresee any new features right away. We'll probably upgrade to the latest vBulletin eventually, but I don't see that happening until they have released a few more upgrades.

The bottom line for this move was: 1) decreased operating costs, 2) improved access to the server and 3) more room for growth and 4) reduce (eliminate?) "Server Too Busy" messages

 

sounds like someone needs to give themselves a salary.

 

You're getting all these accolades and you openly admit you went to bed and snoozed for over seven hours?

In my day I stayed with it until,

rtyui
fghjk
cvbnm

That was the code that my head hit the keyboard.

 

Well, nearly 4gb of image files have been moved over to the new server. The galleries on this server will remain closed to new images until the switchover because of the time this process takes. (about 6 hours total time, archiving, moving, testing, etc.)

I have made a copy of the forum database and am moving that over right now for testing. It's about 650mb compressed, so it will take about 30 minutes to move. There will have to be some server downtime so no posts (or mail) are lost. When that will be I am not sure, but I will announce it here...

 

Waiting patiently... NOW HURRY UP! LOL....

Thanks Steve...

 

I'm dying to upload my Screw pics..........

 

Any idea when the gallery will be up and running?

 

Most likely this weekend. I am putting the final touches on the migration right now and foresee a bit of downtime this weekend to complete everything...

 

Ok thanks..

 

The forums, galleries and classifieds (as well all of the static content) have been moved over to the new server. We anticipate a number of small problems until the DNS changes propogate. Feel free to report any problems to me.

The email functionality of the site will likely not work for a couple more days. My apologies for that. In addition, the galleries will remain closed until I can figure out what is causing some unusual behavior with image resizing.

Also, there may be some initial performance issues. This server is configured much differently from our old server, faster disks & processors, so we will likely need to tweak several server settings over the next few days.

Thanks for everyone's continued patience.

Steve

 

Hey keep up the great work.....

The clock seems to be off , a little..