Server Maintenance

[Ian]

Sometime in the next few days (most likely Monday 7/3/11 am), the PC Review server will undergo some maintenance to have an additional hard drive activated (as part of a RAID setup).

Rather than taking everything offline for a short while, I can run the site database from another server for a short while so that reading posts can still take place... however it will mean that any new posts/thread will not be added while the transfer takes place.

The entire period of read-only mode shouldn't last for much longer than 2 hours in total and I'll do it when the site doesn't have many active members online to minimise impact. It won't take anywhere near as long as the site upgrade and it will look/work exactly the same as it does now.

Hopefully, this should be the last change for a long time. However, making this change will dramatically increase the reliability of the site should a drive failure occur in the future.

As soon as I've got a date/time for the transfer, I'll post back here with more information.

 

[Anon_F]

You do a great job Ian with the site & if you do whilst i'm at work even better!
I can access the site but the work firewall will not let me log on & i'm very busy Monday!!

 

[Ian]

I'll hopefully be starting the move soon - I've just had to make a few changes (one side affect is that the sidebar avatars may not work for the next hour or so).

I'll post more as progress is made .

 

[V_R]

Good luck, will hold off posting until its complete.

 

[Ian]

I'm starting the DB move in a moment, so I'll get a notice online any second now.

Sorry for the short messages from me, I'm trying to get the move done ASAP so that there's plenty of time to fix anything that could go pairshaped . I don't think that there should be any problems during the move, but there's going to be an IP swap from the hosting company end and I've never had that performed before.

 

[Ian]

The DB move is now finished . The site may be a little slow for the next hour or two, as I still need to get the IP's swapped over - I hope that should only take a few monents.

 

[Ian]

The IP switchover is now also complete - that's all done folks

 

[V_R]

Good show Ian, seems all good here.

 

[Quadophile]

While you were at it It said server is unavailable, and in the next five minutes I tried it was fine. seems to be OK. I do not feel it is slow.

 

[Ian]

Thanks folks . The transfer was less painless than I thought and the RAID config is working well

 

[nivrip]

Super job, Ian.............................................................................as usual.

 

[muckshifter]

... can you please go fix BT, is not far from you, I'm sure you can do it in an hour or so, please

 

[Taffycat]

Well done Ian, nice work.

 

[Anon_F]

Have a beer or 2 Ian. Great job as ever.

 

[EvanDavis]

Would what you hve done affect the way pages load ? Cause this site is loading bloody fast for me now

 

[floppybootstomp]

Sooper work boss

For those of us who have e-mail accounts with PC Review would the recent work have prompted an e-mail to be sent informing of account activation?

Before I decide to d/l or bounce I'm trying to figure if it's spam or if it came from this site.

 

[Ian]

Thanks guys

Would what you hve done affect the way pages load ? Cause this site is loading bloody fast for me now

The RAID setup should technically be faster, so that could be it

Sooper work boss

For those of us who have e-mail accounts with PC Review would the recent work have prompted an e-mail to be sent informing of account activation?

Before I decide to d/l or bounce I'm trying to figure if it's spam or if it came from this site.

Yep, that extra e-mail notification would have been created at the same time - so don't worry .

 

[EvanDavis]

Thanks guys



The RAID setup should technically be faster, so that could be it



Yep, that extra e-mail notification would have been created at the same time - so don't worry .

What RAID config are you running .?

 

[Ian]

What RAID config are you running .?

RAID 1 with 2 x SAS 15k drives

Read speeds should be improved using RAID 1, so there may be a small performance increase .