Mike
Well-Known Member
I wanted to post, to let everyone know we will be experiencing some brief downtime, tomorrow, 7 May. I hate downtime as much as anyone else, but this is going to really pay off for us.
As some of you will know from previous posts, I've been keeping an eye on how the site is growing, the overwhelming traffic numbers that just continue to climb and the resources available on our server.
I've been making some server changes, in an effort to keep our load numbers low and to help increase page load speeds, here on the site. I just made 4 variable changes to our database and picked up a bunch of speed. But I keep thinking there is more to be gained.
I've been in conversation with our hosting company and a couple of their support techs. After some clarification on some of the directions I am wanting to go, and a bit of price haggling, we are going to step things up. And more than just a little bit. This is going to be like moving from a horse and buggy into a Bugatti Veyron.
We are going to be taking the server down, adding some additional RAM and changing the database management system from MySQL to MariaDB. We are preparing to start running this place at warp speeds. I'll not bore anyone with geeky details on the whys, but I can tell you from the test data I have been able to read, our database is going to get a huge dose of adrenaline. Some of the more common table activities will be running at least 24% faster, with peak increases in the 60% range. And the additional RAM will allow me to allocate a huge chunk of it to a database buffer pool, which will speed things up even more.
I have the site ready for the MariaDB drop-in. I upgraded MySQL, yesterday morning, to the latest release. So the drop-in should take something less than 1 hour. In all likelihood, it will take less time than that, but I don't want to get myself in hot water, making ridiculous claims.
Once the database system is switched over to MariaDB, the techs will add the additional RAM and we will be able to reboot the machine and get the forums back online. I apologize for the downtime, but trust me when I say it will all be worth it. This will ensure much happiness on our server for years to come. And a little over $77 in server upgrades are going to cost us an additional $5 per month. This is going to be HUGE for us and at virtually no increase in operating expense.
So be prepared, as the site will be going down at some point, tomorrow. It will take some coordination between myself and the tech who will be doing to hardware replacements, so I don't see how I will have much chance to warn everyone. If you get here and the site is down, wait about an hour and check back.
As some of you will know from previous posts, I've been keeping an eye on how the site is growing, the overwhelming traffic numbers that just continue to climb and the resources available on our server.
I've been making some server changes, in an effort to keep our load numbers low and to help increase page load speeds, here on the site. I just made 4 variable changes to our database and picked up a bunch of speed. But I keep thinking there is more to be gained.
I've been in conversation with our hosting company and a couple of their support techs. After some clarification on some of the directions I am wanting to go, and a bit of price haggling, we are going to step things up. And more than just a little bit. This is going to be like moving from a horse and buggy into a Bugatti Veyron.
We are going to be taking the server down, adding some additional RAM and changing the database management system from MySQL to MariaDB. We are preparing to start running this place at warp speeds. I'll not bore anyone with geeky details on the whys, but I can tell you from the test data I have been able to read, our database is going to get a huge dose of adrenaline. Some of the more common table activities will be running at least 24% faster, with peak increases in the 60% range. And the additional RAM will allow me to allocate a huge chunk of it to a database buffer pool, which will speed things up even more.
I have the site ready for the MariaDB drop-in. I upgraded MySQL, yesterday morning, to the latest release. So the drop-in should take something less than 1 hour. In all likelihood, it will take less time than that, but I don't want to get myself in hot water, making ridiculous claims.
Once the database system is switched over to MariaDB, the techs will add the additional RAM and we will be able to reboot the machine and get the forums back online. I apologize for the downtime, but trust me when I say it will all be worth it. This will ensure much happiness on our server for years to come. And a little over $77 in server upgrades are going to cost us an additional $5 per month. This is going to be HUGE for us and at virtually no increase in operating expense.
So be prepared, as the site will be going down at some point, tomorrow. It will take some coordination between myself and the tech who will be doing to hardware replacements, so I don't see how I will have much chance to warn everyone. If you get here and the site is down, wait about an hour and check back.
