Downtime, Uptime, and the future...

Post by **matthew1** » 16 Aug 2010, 21:20

Sorry for the downtime today, guys. But today was especially bad for a reason: I'm working with a PROFESSIONAL server admin (!) to rebuild the server from scratch (software, not hardware).

The additional load used today to copy files from one machine to a "scratch" machine was enough to knock us out several times.

Our pro server admin will be swapping in the new rebuilt server sometime around 2am EST, about three hours from now. After that, you'll be using a site hosted on a server that is up to date, lean, tuned and secure. I can't promise faster page loading (I will however be looking at that metric just for fun), but I can promise better uptime -- in other words a more reliable site.

If anyone's been "keeping score"...

2002-2008 Dreamhost shared hosting
2008-2009 VPS, managed hosting (disaster)
2009-2010 VPS, unmanaged service at Slicehost, I built this server up from online instructions and tuned it the best I could
2010+ VPS, unmanaged service at Slicehost, tomorrow, Jari from Finland is our server admin, whoo!

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 16 Aug 2010, 21:59

The latest Slicehost version, to quote the popular vernacular, "has not sucked".

I'm excited to see how good it can get!

...Lee

Post by **matthew1** » 16 Aug 2010, 22:48

Thanks Lee

. It's a good, solid service that Slicehost provides. It's not the cheapest, but you get what you pay for at this level. It's beyond "hobby".

The reason we've been getting by is because I'm online 24/7/365, and when the server freezes, I'm here to restart MySql or reboot. Which is really bad form, but worked.

I had Jari look into a really neat cloud server service (gigenet.com) that was roughly the same price and service, and may have been faster for end users because files could come down faster, it being in the "cloud" and all. But informal testing of my (brief) account there revealed it slowed quite a bit at the beginning of each North American workday. So we abandoned that route and stuck with Slicehost.

Here's why things need to be more efficient around here:

Thats traffic from April 1 2006 to now. Less room for slop now.

Post by **matthew1** » 17 Aug 2010, 01:23

Quick update: files are copying and taking a while... looks like the switchover will happen lunchtime on the US East Coast, noon EST.

Post by **billofdurham** » 17 Aug 2010, 11:48

I'm glad I'm on BST, not EST, as I seem to miss most of the downtime. Things have definitely improved since I joined, all thanks to your determination to give the best, Matt.

Bill.

Post by **matthew1** » 17 Aug 2010, 12:39

Thanks Bill

. I enjoy making this site work.

Everybody:
Update: the switchover has not yet occurred. (The time difference between MST and Finland time is a complicating factor.) If you come back to the site later today or tonight or (I hope it doesn't get delayed this long) tomorrow -- and there's no response -- know that the switchover is happening at that moment we're coming right back.

Volvofix1 · Post by **Volvofix1** » 19 Aug 2010, 13:32

Hi Matt I answered a couple of posts yesterday and today and I did not see them ...maybe fell through the cracks?

Dick K. from Fla.

Post by **matthew1** » 19 Aug 2010, 22:23

Hi Dick. The switch still hasn't happened. I found posts by you from today and from Aug 16. Here are the ones from the 16th:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... 44#p146744
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... 39#p146739