Server Move

[Admin]

Hi All

 

Due to continual issues that I have been experiencing with the Australian Data Centre that hosts the server we use for the site, I will be moving the site back to our extremely powerful server based in a West Coast USA data centre.

 

If you can remember, I moved the site to an Australian one for 2 reasons:

 

1. To try and provide the site much faster to you by having the least amount of latency (time delay) for the data to display on your screen

 

2. To reduce server costs, it went from $3,000 a year to $2,000

 

However the grass wasn't greener, evidence by the number of times the site has gone down in recent days. Please understand that the site continually has up to 150 concurrent users throughout the day and evenings, many images and a huge number of database calls due to the site's interactivity and with its popularity in being the highest ranked recreational aviation web site in the Southern Hemisphere, it becomes a target to many undesirables. This means that if you don't have massive resources to spare, totally NOT a financial option here in Australia, and you are running at the "only" what is needed in terms of server resources, then you are asking for trouble.

 

Our US server has massive resources, completely dedicated to us and as shown in the past, is extremely reliable having performed for a very long time without a single fault.

 

So as soon as I can organise an all nighter, I will be moving the site files back to our US server.

 

However, I will also look at another technology called CDN (Content Delivery Network) which uses other more local servers to deliver slow loading components like images and scripts to your PC. That technology decides at the time of loading a site page, from where is the fastest way to get the code on to your screen for you and if there is a problem with one, it automatically switches over to another etc.

 

The costs will go slightly above the $3,000 a year mark again but for reliability it will be well worth it for everyone here using the resources of Recreational Flying.

 

 

[Admin]

Unfortunately the migration that was attempted throughout last night didn't go as hoped...there were issues with the imported data which I can only assume has come from the backups done from here...I will be talking to the data centre today asking for a please explain and why the site has gone done 4 times in the same number of days...not happy Jan!!!!!!

 

Fingers crossed that some stability will return to the site today

 

 

[fly_tornado]

kernel dumps are usually the result of a memory issue, bad ram, loose ram or a bad motherboard. have a look in your file system for a ??.core file < they appear if its a software issue

 

 

[Admin]

FT, it is a disk i/o issue

 

 

[fly_tornado]

have they tried putting the disk into a different server, seems like moving house again is a bit excessive

 

 

[Admin]

Firstly I would like to say thanks to everyone for their understanding over the last week. Our Australian based server went down 4 times within the same week which is just not acceptable to me. As many of you would know we use to have the site on our own dedicated server in a data center on the West Coast of the USA for a very long time without any issues whatsoever. We moved the site to an Australian server in an attempt to make the site even faster then the already accepted speed of our US server. Whilst we try our absolute utmost to give you the best user experience we possibly can, sometimes, as I have learnt in this case, that it is better to just accept that we already had the best in an "overall" way.

 

We are now back on our US dedicated server, an extremely powerful server with 16gig ram, raid 10 hdd and 8 cores of processing power, so I am now very confident that we will be blessed with trouble free motoring from now on...incidentally, the server is pinged every 5mins automatically to ensure it is still up and running perfectly, and if by some chance there is an issue, a team of network and server administrators are immediately notified and with the necessary tools and login permissions, jump in and bring the server straight back up. This gives me peace of mind during the night and if I am away during the day that you will always get to experience, and use, the vast resources available to you here on Recreational Flying.

 

Thanks for your time, and for your understanding.

 

 

[Compulsion]

Well done Ian you do a brilliant job keeping us all informed and in touch.

 

 

[ave8rr]

Many thanks for the dedication to this service Ian. I had noted the system was down a few times this week and wondered if you were tinkering or it was a Server failure.

 

RAAus should be using this medium to keep their members informed. Their own web site seems to have stalled again. I can't help but think that the few people who have had a go at the web site have lost interest and have lacked help and direction from the Board.

 

 

[Admin]

I offered to do it for them at a cost of $1 with a 100% discount if paid within 14 days...but they declined