Update on the new server
Posted by Jacques Chester on Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Today I placed an order for a new server. We had enough to get the base system, so to save time I went ahead with it now instead of waiting for all remaining pledges to come in. Instead, I will use any other cheques, payments etc to upgrade the new server (more RAM, second HDD etc) as the cash becomes available.
Depending on how quickly it gets here, I hope to have it up and running in a week or two. I’ll keep you all posted.
Update to Update: It’s here! Crikey it’s a noisy monster.
Here’s a cut n paste of the order.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 2:11 PM and filed under Site News.
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Come on – you have to let us geeks know what you bought.
Posted on 08-Aug-07 at 3:32 pm | PermalinkAndrew, I updated it just for you!
Posted on 08-Aug-07 at 3:45 pm | Permalinkmmh “extra beige panel”
I coulda sent you one free.
Posted on 08-Aug-07 at 3:55 pm | PermalinkAndrew Reynolds said “you have to let us geeks know what you bought”
And what about giving a plug for the stuff geeks don’t buy but download and install? (Don’t give away software version numbers – makes it too easy for the crackers)
Posted on 08-Aug-07 at 4:27 pm | PermalinkI’m currently running the site on Ubuntu and I imagine that’ll be true of the new installation too.
Posted on 08-Aug-07 at 5:34 pm | PermalinkSurely at these prices it would have been cheaper to buy blogging software capable of handling more than 6 concurrent requests?
If wordpress is as bad as you say there must be some money in doing it properly…
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 12:38 am | PermalinkTransferred some loot electronically to the bank account details you published and it was debited and then credited back to my account again. Any thoughts? Perhaps I shouldn’t have labelled it ‘Observa’?
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 1:11 am | PermalinkTroppo seems to have picked an expensive option, and one that requires more technical administration and maintenance, when all you needed to do was get a decent host.
There are WordPress sites *way* larger than this one that run successfully on AU$25 a month shared hosting accounts.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 7:26 am | PermalinkEssentially, Club Troppo has been continuously outgrowing each level of hosting. First a small shared host, then a big shared host, then a cheap VPS. After that comes a pricey VPS, then private server. Personally I am sick of migrating the site every 3 months, so I decided it would be easier just to hop straight to own server.
Originally I was going to host it myself, but instead we are going to host the system with the UCC, who will give us free colocation and internet access in exchange for the eternal glory of hosting Troppo, plus access to spare capacity on the box. But to do so we needed a rack mounted server as they have no room left for tower systems, which kicked off the current round of fundraising.
The fundraising went better than I had hoped, so I spent it on a better system. That strikes me as the way to go about it.
So as you can see, every step was logical. It only looks bonkers if you jump straight to the conclusion. For what it’s worth, the new system should give us room to expand a lot. Last month we had about 90,000 visits and the only way I kept things smooth was to turn away search engine indexes. This new system would easily handle that sort of traffic every day.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 12:48 pm | PermalinkKnowing bugger all about the techs, it is exciting. Great to see a project grow and develop. Congrats to you, too, Jacques, for putting in what you do.
Troppo is understandably privately run, however, publishing those stats helps make it attractive to contribute. They’re significant numbers.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 4:00 pm | PermalinkThanks for your feedback. Yeah, it’s great to be part of something on the move. It’s also been heartening to see visits and comments growing steadily despite server troubles. We don’t have a “recent comments” function, for instance, though these are typically considered de rigeur for Wordpress blogs nowadays.
Of course once we hit the new server there will be an exciting explosion of features. Recent comments, return of Missing Link emails, link sharing etc etc. Right now I’ve turned off all the frills because of they work the database too hard and cause the whole site to choke up.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 4:06 pm | PermalinkCheers. The ‘recent comments’ feature when it arrives again will help enormously, as posts are revisited.
If you want to have some fun, compare your readership to figures on any regional newspaper or television footprint per show: that perspective would illustrate your considerable achievements.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 4:14 pm | PermalinkI already know that the NT News has a peak readership of about 30,000 people; though that maps to “unique visitors” and not “unique visits”. The later figure – which I gave above as circa 90k – more closely maps to circulation than readership.
Still, our unique readership keeps climbing. It was well north of 5,000 last time I looked, and that figure didn’t include RSS feeds etc.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 6:52 pm | PermalinkCorrection, the NT News a peak weekday readership of around 30,000. It shoots up a lot on Saturdays.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 6:55 pm | PermalinkMaybe you can offer hosting to Catallaxy and LP – keep the whole thing in one, big, happy family.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 8:08 pm | PermalinkThat’d be great for my ego, but would multiply anguish by taking down all 3 sites together if the server came to grief.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 8:27 pm | PermalinkJacques,
Posted on 11-Aug-07 at 4:56 pm | PermalinkAgain, same failure. Some system somewhere keeps my $50 for 48 hrs then sends it back (no fees for which i suppose I should grovel gratefully).
The point is that this time my banker’s system recognised the BSB as Troppo so it can’t claim ‘incorrect details’.
It just doesn’t want to play
That’s a bit rotten. If a bank transfer won’t go you could try Paypal or Cheque, or give it a miss if you don’t think it’ll be a goer.
Posted on 11-Aug-07 at 5:18 pm | Permalink