Thread: Moving BroncosForums to new server - view thread for details of timing and downtime

Ok, I'm in the process of finalizing an order for a substantially beefed up server. The load on the server had been slowly increasing since last summer, but there was still quite a bit of headroom. However, vBulletin 4.x puts a much greater load on the server, and as a result we are getting periodic slow downs. I knew this was a possibility before upgrading, but as I've stated elsewhere, it was time to upgrade vBulletin for a large number of reasons.

The new server will have a substantially faster processor and substantially faster hard drives. I'm going to keep the same amount of RAM initially, although it is faster RAM, but if needed it will support more RAM and they can upgrade that in the middle of the night with only a few minutes of downtime.

If I get all the details finalized tomorrow, then I will try and do the migration Friday night/Saturday morning or possibly Saturday night/Sunday morning. If I miss that Window, then the next one will probably be next Saturday night/Sunday morning.

While I will do as much of the migration as possible in the overnight hours, there will be possibly an hour or so of actual downtime. Beyond that, the server IP will change so it will require a DNS change. How quickly this occurs will be based on whether or not your ISP follows the TTL setting of the BroncosForums DNS server, or ignores it as some ISPs do and simply updates their DNS every 4, 12 or 24 hours.

Once the old forum is shutdown and the new one is live, I will have a message on the old one with a direct IP address link that can be used in the short term until the DNS is fully propagated.

Anyway, it will be a relatively short disruption, but should put us in much better position to handle any surge around the draft or once things pick back up when the season starts and the Broncos make their SB run.

If you have any questions you can post them here.

T

What the hell did you just say?

I'm waiting for someone to blame this on Tebow.

Originally Posted by wayninja

I'm waiting for someone to blame this on Tebow.

I blame Tebow!

Also, does that mean the new forum will have a different look to it?

We are ******!

Originally Posted by Tned

Ok, I'm in the process of finalizing an order for a substantially beefed up server. The load on the server had been slowly increasing since last summer, but there was still quite a bit of headroom. However, vBulletin 4.x puts a much greater load on the server, and as a result we are getting periodic slow downs. I knew this was a possibility before upgrading, but as I've stated elsewhere, it was time to upgrade vBulletin for a large number of reasons.

The new server will have a substantially faster processor and substantially faster hard drives. I'm going to keep the same amount of RAM initially, although it is faster RAM, but if needed it will support more RAM and they can upgrade that in the middle of the night with only a few minutes of downtime.

If I get all the details finalized tomorrow, then I will try and do the migration Friday night/Saturday morning or possibly Saturday night/Sunday morning. If I miss that Window, then the next one will probably be next Saturday night/Sunday morning.

While I will do as much of the migration as possible in the overnight hours, there will be possibly an hour or so of actual downtime. Beyond that, the server IP will change so it will require a DNS change. How quickly this occurs will be based on whether or not your ISP follows the TTL setting of the BroncosForums DNS server, or ignores it as some ISPs do and simply updates their DNS every 4, 12 or 24 hours.

Once the old forum is shutdown and the new one is live, I will have a message on the old one with a direct IP address link that can be used in the short term until the DNS is fully propagated.

Anyway, it will be a relatively short disruption, but should put us in much better position to handle any surge around the draft or once things pick back up when the season starts and the Broncos make their SB run.

If you have any questions you can post them here.

T

Tned:

Originally Posted by sneakers

Tned:

Get it right Sneak.

Cat boy's is more accurate, but without the wrist brace. I think he's been stalking me...

I just placed the order. If it's online and ready to go tonight, I'm going to try and migrate it over night. If not, I'm shooting for Sunday night. The way they are recommending I migrate, I won't have the older server online like last time, so the server could be offline for 2-6 hours, depending on how quickly your ISP updates their DNS info.

If we go with this method, I will email everyone the IP address that can be used on a temp basis.

I'll post another update this afternoon, once I have the timeline nailed down.

2-6 hours? What the hell will I do? Ok. I'll make another mock draft. Maybe a full 7 round mock for each team.

Ok, they don't have the drives I want in stock, but have some on order that will be at the data center on Monday. So, I will probably not do the server move until Saturday night/Sunday morning, as I work all week and will be tied up all day Saturday at fantasy baseball drafts.

There is a small chance I will decide to go ahead with the migration during the week, if so, it would probably be Tuesday or Wednesday around Midnight.

Updates to follow.

Originally Posted by wayninja

I'm waiting for someone to blame this on Tebow.

EFX haven't shown the ability or desire to make this site truly competitive. They should crack open their wallets for real talent like The Nostalgia Critic or Anonymous, because scrubs like Zam and Cugel will never make us contenders.

Thanks Tned

Just an update.

The new server was built today, but some things weren't exactly the way I had spec'd it (the actual RAID card, disk partiioning, etc.), so they are rebuilding it. I'll spend the rest of the week configuring it, and then the plan will be to move BroncosForums to the new server Saturday night/Sunday morning, probably around 1:00am when I get home from my baseball draft.

For those of you on now, the new server should hopefully eliminate the sluggish response in the early AM hours when several different backups are being done, as well as speed things up across the board (at least that's the hope).

I wondered what was going on with the upgrade. Thanks and good luck.