- AKA
- Yop
Or well, sort of. I got an email from our hosting provider today offering a free upgrade to newer server hardware for the same monthly price; I knew that since we've got a physical server, it wasn't going to last forever, so it's not entirely unsurprising.
The good part is that it'll be an upgrade; the 'points' next to CPU is according to https://www.cpubenchmark.net:
Current:
Intel T5500, dual-core, 1.66 GHz, 920 points
2 GB memory
1x160 GB hard drive
New:
Intel G850, dual-core, 2.90 GHz, 2.682 points (almost 3 times as fast)
4 GB memory
2x250 GB hard drive
The bad part is that it won't be automagic, and I'd have to set it up. Shouldn't be too much of a problem this time, I've got configuration that should work on the latest server software and such. We'd get a month to set up the new environment and move stuff, which should be more than enough; I expect the setup to take a few hours at most, the final moving over and downtime to take about an hour (depending mostly on backup, transfer, and restore speed), but few people should be impacted because I'll probably do it on a saturday when not a lot of people are around anyway.
IDK if the speed increase will be noticeable, I think we're already pretty fast.
I'd like to experiment with new software, too - like using nginx instead of Apache for a web server, and setting it up so you can access the site using https and/or http 2, which should be more secure and possibly faster (although iirc https can be like €100 / year or thereabouts)
Another thing that could be done is to finally go to a different forum software, but as the previous discussions have already shown, that would be difficult to get used to for a lot of people, I'm sure; it'd be more appropriate for a new website.
erm, TL;DR: we're going to move to a new server if I give the okay to our host, downtime will be, if all goes well, an hour at least, forever at most (give or take). . Can't say for sure yet when, I'd probably like to have a fiddle on the new server for a bit first.
The good part is that it'll be an upgrade; the 'points' next to CPU is according to https://www.cpubenchmark.net:
Current:
Intel T5500, dual-core, 1.66 GHz, 920 points
2 GB memory
1x160 GB hard drive
New:
Intel G850, dual-core, 2.90 GHz, 2.682 points (almost 3 times as fast)
4 GB memory
2x250 GB hard drive
The bad part is that it won't be automagic, and I'd have to set it up. Shouldn't be too much of a problem this time, I've got configuration that should work on the latest server software and such. We'd get a month to set up the new environment and move stuff, which should be more than enough; I expect the setup to take a few hours at most, the final moving over and downtime to take about an hour (depending mostly on backup, transfer, and restore speed), but few people should be impacted because I'll probably do it on a saturday when not a lot of people are around anyway.
IDK if the speed increase will be noticeable, I think we're already pretty fast.
I'd like to experiment with new software, too - like using nginx instead of Apache for a web server, and setting it up so you can access the site using https and/or http 2, which should be more secure and possibly faster (although iirc https can be like €100 / year or thereabouts)
Another thing that could be done is to finally go to a different forum software, but as the previous discussions have already shown, that would be difficult to get used to for a lot of people, I'm sure; it'd be more appropriate for a new website.
erm, TL;DR: we're going to move to a new server if I give the okay to our host, downtime will be, if all goes well, an hour at least, forever at most (give or take). . Can't say for sure yet when, I'd probably like to have a fiddle on the new server for a bit first.