I've been quiet on RA the last couple of weeks because my attention is focused on a non-software project.  The current RA server has been in service for over 3 years.  It had plenty of capacity when it came online in 2008 but I also did not expect it to last much longer than 3 or 4 years.  Increasingly, the server cannot handle the traffic load.  You may have noticed that some pages take a long time to load.  I made many changes to optimize the software to speed up data processing but it is time to upgrade the RA server.

RA will run on a new set of computers, including a second web server.  Currently, RA goes offline occasionally (typically around 1 AM Eastern US time) for maintenance.  With the second web server, I can do maintenance on a server without taking RA down.  The best part is I can do it during the day and not have to pull all nighters if the upgrade goes wrong.

The servers came online in the data center two days ago. It will take several more days to configure the web servers and do the final round of testing.  The amount of data on the current server is too large to copy over the internet so I took a snap shot of it onto a hard disk and then copying it to the new servers.  When I make the switch to the new servers, the data you added after I took the snap shot will be temporarily unavailable.  I will copy them to the new servers after the switch.  It make take up to a day for me to find and copy these entries.

I am doing everything I can to make the switch somewhat seamless but there will be some service disruption.  Hopefully, the down time will be minimal.  I don't have a timeline for the switch yet but will let you know when the servers are ready.

Awesome.  Sounds like a win-win.

Good luck with the transition.

Good luck, and Vaya Con Dios if you went with Go Daddy :-).

Folks.  PayPal.

 

What he said!

Thanks, Eric.  As always, you rock! 

Heck...just pull the plug, do a cold cutover, and make it easier on yourself all around.  A couple hours downtime would be good for many of us, and for those who start twitching...it will be a good warning to seek help. 

Not everyone is as understanding.  When I put up the email from Active asking me to join their network, someone sent me an email asking if I'm finally giving up on RA and if he should back up his data now.

Not everyone is as understanding.  When I put up the email from Active asking me to join their network, someone sent me an email asking if I'm finally giving up on RA and if he should back up his data now.

"finally giving up on RA"?!  WTF?!  Perhaps said person should go hang out at Active.  I hear their running log is awesome. *snort*

Not everyone is as understanding.  When I put up the email from Active asking me to join their network, someone sent me an email asking if I'm finally giving up on RA and if he should back up his data now.

Tell Active Sara to mind her own business....

Some people can never be happy.  Needing to move to bigger space is a good sign.

Good luck Eric and the first thing I did when I saw this message was back up my data

 

It is to important to lose.

No need to back up your data for the transition.  Just so you know, I'm not backing up my own data.  There is no chance your data would be lost because it is copied from one computer to another, as opposed to upgrading the server itself.  I am planning to use the current server as a backup server after the upgrade.