Server issues today
Thread Starter
Administrator
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 20,274
Likes: 4
From: Toronto, Canada
Server issues today
We're having some server issues today. It will take a couple of hours to resolve completely and in the mean time the site may be periodic or you may see blank pages.
I'm trying to fix it ASAP.
I'm trying to fix it ASAP.
Thread Starter
Administrator
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 20,274
Likes: 4
From: Toronto, Canada
Ok, it's back, almost.
We had 2 new servers delivered today, a Dell 1950 and a Dell 2950 both with quad core Xeon CPUs and 8GB of RAM. These two machines are designed to take the place of 8 older ones. To make them all fit in the rack at the same time and not blow the circuit breaker we had to disconnect some of the existing servers before racking and powering on the new ones.
This wasn't supposed to be a problem. We have 4 load balanced servers pulling the load of the site but I know that we can run on just one of them in a pinch. So, I picked one, reconfigured to use just that one and then powered down and disconnected the 3 other servers.
Well, as luck would have it the one I chose had a wonky hard disk but I didn't figure that out until there were no other options available except to forge ahead and get the new servers running. I wasn't planning to do that right away, there was no rush, I was just going to take my time.
No such luck. The good news is we are now running on the new Dell 1950 server which replaces 5, yes 5, other older servers. The planned smooth, seamless and unnoticeable transition went out the window and the panicked crazy get it done transition ruled the day.
There are still some kinks and not all of the gallery images have finished copying to the new server yet but it should be done and back to normal in a couple of hours.
Sorry. Sometimes things don't work out the way you hope they would.
We had 2 new servers delivered today, a Dell 1950 and a Dell 2950 both with quad core Xeon CPUs and 8GB of RAM. These two machines are designed to take the place of 8 older ones. To make them all fit in the rack at the same time and not blow the circuit breaker we had to disconnect some of the existing servers before racking and powering on the new ones.
This wasn't supposed to be a problem. We have 4 load balanced servers pulling the load of the site but I know that we can run on just one of them in a pinch. So, I picked one, reconfigured to use just that one and then powered down and disconnected the 3 other servers.
Well, as luck would have it the one I chose had a wonky hard disk but I didn't figure that out until there were no other options available except to forge ahead and get the new servers running. I wasn't planning to do that right away, there was no rush, I was just going to take my time.
No such luck. The good news is we are now running on the new Dell 1950 server which replaces 5, yes 5, other older servers. The planned smooth, seamless and unnoticeable transition went out the window and the panicked crazy get it done transition ruled the day.
There are still some kinks and not all of the gallery images have finished copying to the new server yet but it should be done and back to normal in a couple of hours.
Sorry. Sometimes things don't work out the way you hope they would.
... glad it's back up. 
