85 replies to this topic

[jaydfox]

Well, I finally have some time to dedicate to moving ImmInst to our brand new dedicated server, which is being provided by our forum sponsor Canaca. Actually, Canaca staff are even assisting in the move, at least the initial testing phase so far. We're in the process of doing a test run of copying the entire website/database to the new server. Assuming all goes well, the actual move should happen some time in the next 48 hours. I won't know the exact time until shortly before, so I'm posting advanced warning: expect intermittent outages! Depending on the exact circumstances of the move, the forum might be disabled for up to a couple hours (well, possibly more, but only if something goes wrong), though I'm hoping we can keep the downtime minimal.

Also depending on the exact circumstances of the move, the forum might be operational but really really sloooooww, at least until the move is completed.

Anyway, you've all been warned. I'll post updates in this topic as new information is available.

[jaydfox]

Rather than close this topic, I just ask everyone to keep comments to a minimum, unless they have relevant questions or comments. If you want to just chat about the move, I suppose the following topic might be a better place to do it:
http://www.imminst.o...f=177&t=9774&s=

[Mind]

bump

[jaydfox]

The move will be in stages. The first restriction you'll notice is that I'll disable the ability to upload files to the forum. I may also limit the ability to upload avatars. These restrictions will be lifted once the site is moved. The move will be tomorrow at the earliest, but there might still be intermittent outages as I'm testing things.

[DJS]

Biocons beware - you can't stop us, you can't even contain us. [pirate]

[jaydfox]

The test import was moderately successful. There were some permissions issues which I'll have to sort out later, but otherwise I think we're good to go. The only unknown now is actually handing off control from the old server to the new one. Canaca staff will be helping with that tomorrow.

[jaydfox]

Uploads for basic and full members temporarily disabled, will re-enable after the move to the new server is complete.

[jaydfox]

Alright, if you haven't already guessed, the move won't be today. I'm basically prepared for the move, save for two small details, which I hope to have sorted out tomorrow morning.

Apologies for the delays...

[jaydfox]

Alright, I lied again. I apologize for the inconvenience; uploads are still disabled. I have to wait 24 hours for the name server entries to propogate, then I can change the DNS registration for imminst.org.

Tomorrow during the day, when the site is usually pretty slow (well, I mean slow as in very few users online, but I suppose it's also just slow), I will move the database to the new server. This means that all the sql queries for the forum database will be running across the internet. This will probably make things really, really sloooooww, as I previously warned. This is necessary to keep the old and new sites in sync, since the DNS propogation is somewhat piecemeal, and it won't do any good to have some people accessing the old forum database and some accessing the new. By pointing at the new database before the move, it won't matter which site you hit, it will still use the right database.

Anyway, boring details you probably didn't care about...

[jaydfox]

In a few minutes, I'll be taking the forum offline for a little bit, in order to move the database. Don't panic.

What might be of more concern is that when the database comes back up, it'll probably be a little slower than usual...

[jaydfox]

Testing 1 2 3

[jaydfox]

Yay!

I'm posting this post from the new imminst server!

[jaydfox]

Of course, the rest of you are still accessing the old imminst server, but the database is the same either way, residing on the new server.

[jaydfox]

The content for the wiki pages is also now being served from the new database.

[Bruce Klein]

Test

[jaydfox]

I fixed the active users list on the home page (not the forum home, the main home page). It was still pointing to the old database, which means it was showing 0 active users. It's now pointing at the new database, and hence shows the correct list of users.

[jaydfox]

BTW, the move might be delayed a couple more days. Our domain registrar sucks ass, and name propagation is nightmarish at best. One domain we registered, as a sort of test, keeps flickering between the old nameserver and the new one, and the old name server has already deleted its records of the site, so if you're unlucky enough to get the old nameserver, then the site doesn't show up, i.e., no IP address is returned.

So I'm leery to move imminst.org just yet, as this could lead to days of downtime. Days.

[jaydfox]

Okay everyone, I finally have a schedule.

Tonight I'll make the final move of files to the new server (most are already there), including restricted files that I can't copy from the shell account, but can access from the web through http. (Interesting story about that, for those interested, I might write about it in the computing forum later.)

Once that's done, I'll make the change to the domain registration to point to our new nameservers. I've been reassured by our new and old host providers that this process will work, but I'm still hesitant based on my limited understanding of the protocols involved. So if it fails, by Monday morning I'll be able to call in Canaca's support to determine if there's a problem and how to fix it. I could have made the move Friday night, but decided to wait so that if there was a problem, help would be available shortly. Due to the time it takes for the change in name servers to propagate, I decided to wait until late Sunday night, rather than Monday morning after I wake up. It's pretty dead here late anyway, and the extra few hours may or may not help in propagation delays, but it can't hurt (well, it can hurt, but during non-busy hours, so I'm willing to take the risk).

So, without further ado, the name server change will be made somewhere between midnight and 3 AM EDT, in the wee hours Monday morning. The exact time depends on how long it takes to copy all the files: it could take up to 2 hours. And I won't start until probably 11 PM tonight, since I've got to go offline for the next hour or two to get some work done in preparation for my workday tomorrow.

I'll post a message just before I make the change. If all goes well, you'll never know quite when the switch happens, other than that the new site should be a fair bit faster than the old one.

[jaydfox]

*bump*

Just reminding everyone, I'm moving the site in a few hours. In theory, you'll never notice any downtime; the transition should be transparent, other than a speedup in service once you're accessing the new site.

At any rate, propagation issues might make it so that you don't get to the new site for up to a couple days. I've already moved two sites to the new server. One seemed to transfer almost immediately, while the other kept fluttering back and forth between the old nameserver and the new one, and each subdomain seemed to propagate independent of the others.

For example, for Person C, websiteA.net might use the old nameserver (which wasn't working), but www.websiteA.net and mail.websiteA.net might use the new nameserver. At the same time, for person D, websiteA.net and mail.websiteA.net might use the new nameserver, and www.websiteA.net might use the old nameserver. (websiteA.net is of course a fictitious name, used in place of the actual site I'm referring to.)

An hour later, the situation might be reversed, or totally mixed up.

It took about two days before the websites all pointed to the new nameserver and were stable. I was checking this from four different locations (my home network, plus shell accounts on three different servers), and I was getting different results every few hours (sometimes every ten minutes) from each server. Propagation of a new nameserver is very squirrelly.

Anyway, just another boring update.

[jaydfox]

Okay, I've finished copying all the files over to the new server. I'm going to run a few last pre-flight checks, and then report back to this thread.

[jaydfox]

Dang, just testing out the new site, and boy is it fast! Pages load as if they were static content, even though they're dynamic pages!

Alright, I'm happy with the way things look, so I'm going to go ahead and make the nameserver change with our registrar. If ImmInst goes offline, I apologize in advance, and will do my best to get it fixed ASAP.

[jaydfox]

Not that you shouldn't be able to tell which server you're on based simply on the speed of the load (especially if you have a fast connection, such as at a large company), but if you really must know:
http://imminst.org/where_am_I.html
http://www.imminst.org/where_am_I.html

[jaydfox]

And so it begins: from my home PC, imminst.org goes to the new site, while www.imminst.org goes to the old one. However, the fact that it gets to the new site at all makes me hopeful that we won't experience any outages.

Well, I must to bed. I'll check on the site in the morning. If there are any problems in the next 8-9 hours or so, oh well. There's nothing I can do.

[jaydfox]

So far, so good. The server seems to be handling the new traffic just fine.

Out of curiosity, is anyone still seeing the old server? You can check by following either of the links I provided two posts above this one (or check both!).

So, um, I'm opening this topic up to discussion. How's your experience been so far? Have you noticed an increase in speed? Decrease? Is it about the same? (If you're on dial-up, the difference is probably negligible. On the other hand, if you have a 6 MBit DSL connection, or something even faster than that, then you've hopefully noticed a tremendous improvement.)

PS: If you experience any problems and would like to report them, but don't want to post it in the forum, I've set up a new mail account for webmaster@imminst.org

[Kalepha]

Weeeeee!

[Live Forever]

Nice job on everything you have done Jay! [thumb]

[scottl]

It's much faster.

THanks.

[eternaltraveler]

this is dramatically better

[doug123]

I do detect an improvement.

[mitkat]

New and improved!