A New server for INGO?

[shooter521]

THIS...
...AND THIS would be full of WIN!!!

I suggest that now might be a good time to roll out the multi-level Site Supporter structure (bronze/silver/gold/ninja) we talked about awhile back.

 

[Bigum1969]

I suggest that now might be a good time to roll out the multi-level Site Supporter structure (bronze/silver/gold/ninja) we talked about awhile back.

I agree. There are many of us that would be interested in this.

 

[42769vette]

i wouldn't mind upgrading my membership

since im not a computer guy are servers expensive? do you rent one or buy it?

 

[Bigum1969]

It sounds like INGO is in a significant growth phase; Fenway is going to need to strategically plan how to manage the growth and increase revenue. Product sales along with tiered site supporter levels need to be rolled out. They've been talked about but never come to fruition. With some planning I'm confident INGO can easily generate the revenue necessary to accomodate its growth.

 

[Scutter01]

since im not a computer guy are servers expensive? do you rent one or buy it?

Both options are available. They can be expensive depending on how much you need in terms of resources. INGO is getting to be one of the Big Boys and this will make the second time in about 18 months that we've outgrown our server. We're currently renting space on a server that houses dozens of other web sites. We're currently looking to lease our own dedicated server that will house only INGO, LLC. web sites.

 

[42769vette]

i remember the last server change. no ingo for a couple days about killed me

 

[public servant]

Ain't gonna happen. We looked into raffles extensively during the whole "INGO Glock donation" episode, and came to the conclusion there was no way to do it easily (i.e. without wading through a crapload of red tape) and legally.

If Fenway became an ordained minister....would the raffles be legal??

Universal Life Church

This whole thing could be a religious experience. Hey...the big churches do raffles all the time.

 

[esrice]

He became ordained under the Church of the Brass Rainbow at last year's NFA Day.

 

[public servant]

He became ordained under the Church of the Brass Rainbow at last year's NFA Day.

Holy Moly...I just became an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church. Reverend Public Servant...has a nice ring to it...don't you think??

 

[Scutter01]

i remember the last server change. no ingo for a couple days about killed me

We had it moved in a couple of hours. A couple of features were temporarily disabled for a few days.

 

[teknickle]

since im not a computer guy are servers expensive? do you rent one or buy it?

I have worked on servers that cost as much as $350,000 (new IBM AS/400 bought 10 years ago), down to little dedicated servers made out of modded Xbox game consoles.
Money doesn't matter. I replaced a Dell Poweredge 4u rackmount server that cost over $30,000 (and it only ran ecommerce apps) with an Altus dual processor 1u rackmount that only cost $1500 (and beats the dell in performance).
Real servers have hotswappable components (power supplies, hard drives,etc) that can be replaced without shutting down the server.
That mentality (that led into component Blade architecture) is one track of thought.
Look at Google. They don't do that.
Instead, they started with massive server farms of cheap, commodity x86 1u rackmount servers ($500 per server). Using geographically dispersed clustered linux boxes, they could have a server completely poop out and it didn't matter. They could lose an entire rack (performance would sag, but not go down).

But that doesn't have anything to do with INGO.
I assume they are on a shared hosting box (hopefully, fully virtualized) where they share CPU, memory, IO and 'net bandwidth with other customers.

so is the problem REALLY with the server?
Sure you can throw more horsepower, bandwidth and money at symptoms of a problem.
I prefer to know what/where/why.
Use the available tools to look at current utilization and work loads.
(awstats, top, ps..etc)
That will tell you what is sucking bandwidth at what times (and breakdown by object type, client ISPs, et all), memory usage.
Sometimes, just adjusting cache for database queries can really help performance.
Or database tuning (reindexing, pruning, normalization) can help with long-term performance bottlenecks.
For databases with LARGE number of records, having a forward proxy can alleviate the performance lag for normal traffic (but like archived or old articles would respond slower).
There are more articulate utilities that can measure lag and latency with executing and returning queries (or whatever metrics you wish to measure, say PHP side or MySQL side or process threading).

 

[Scutter01]

so is the problem REALLY with the server?
Sure you can throw more horsepower, bandwidth and money at symptoms of a problem.
I prefer to know what/where/why.

We know what/where/why. That's why we're moving to nicer digs.

 

[teknickle]

Well, if I can be of any help let me know.
Otherwise, I will shut up and throw some money in the kitty when the hat is passed around.

 

[danmdevries]

nevermind

 

[Lars]

Having spent many hours on the machine currently hosting INGO, I can say with very little doubt, that everything that can be done to improve the performance has been done.

Scutter has done a great job since I turned in my keys

 

[MBG]

Well, spill! What is the issue? Bandwidth? Memory utilization? I/O speed?

Are you still using mySQL ? In addition to rackspace and bandwidth, I can help with an MS-SQL server. One that can grow into a cluster if need be.

Lets get our heads together and make something happen. If you guys want to come see the Datacenter, let me know when you can meet downtown. A few of our customers are INGO members also!

 

[Bigum1969]

This thread makes my head hurt. You all are way too smart.

 

[teknickle]

Are you still using mySQL ? In addition to rackspace and bandwidth, I can help with an MS-SQL server. One that can grow into a cluster if need be.

Out of all of the following RDMBs I have worked on: Oracle,Postgres,MySQL,postgress,MS-SQL(aka Sybase), or the myriad of all-in-on lowend (access,filemaker,approach)..
MySQL is by FAR much quicker at retrieving info than the others (MS-SQL is far behind).
If you have many database writes, then MySQL is not as efficient (look to Postgress then).
Don't confuse FOSS with junk.
It is used EVERYWHERE around you and performs better than stuff you throw money at.
(from the BSD backend of OSX to TiVO, Mozilla Firefox, Linksys WAPs, cell phones to sites you run everyday...or if you are using XP your TCP/IP stack is still the stolen er borrowed from University of California Berkley institute).

 

[Feign]

The load is almost entirely database-related. It's got nothing to do with how many PM's you have stored or anything like that. We just have too much traffic for the size of our server. You, as a member, can't really do anything to alleviate that, but thanks for asking.

This man knows what's up.

 

[slacker]

would you be leasing a dedicated server? or doing a co-lo type deal somewhere? I like the silent auction idea