FQuest Upgrades: Server Move and scheduled downtime

[Terra]

Tonight will begin a series of steps in our continuing effort to upgrade our network...

At 2:00am 1/29/99, the server will go offline for approximately 4 hours... We are moving into the Gainsville, FL NOC which will remove our slowest Gainsville -> Ocala hop...

This particular move should be 'unplug -> jet to gainsville -> plugin', and everything should work as before...

Over the course of the next 2 weeks, we will be renumbering our '205.244.185.20[0-8]' IP range to a full 256 Class C IP range... http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif We are also dumping our SprintLink connection and going with the *much* faster ITCDeltaCom uplinks (which rides on UUnet)... Initial results have shaved almost 7 hops average from our entire route... SprintLink is quickly becoming an aging dinosaur that is destined for extinction (too much downtime, too slow, and morons for technical support)...

Things will be touch-and-go as the DNS servers on the Internet catch up to us... I don't forsee any major problems, as I am working very hard to make this as transparent as possible...

I have also received confirmation that our last move will be to the OC-12'd NOC in Orlando, tentative in 3 - 4 months... Note: That is some ***serious*** bandwidth!

We are also working non-stop to get the 2nd Server online by Febuary 1st - as I am building the new Linux 2.2 kernel on it now...

January has been a very rough month for us as growing pains started to rear it's ugly head... We have also credited accounts for all our downtime in an effort to show you we are very serious about our business... I'd like to know of another host that refunds for downtime! (if you know - let us know)...

Many improvements to our operations are coming about, and we are quickly learning from our operating history as to what works and what doesn't...

I would like to say thanks to everyone that has stuck with us through the trying month of January...

--
Andrew Gillespie
Systems Administrator
FutureQuest.net

--And so it begins... 'Kosh'

[Deb]

I'd like to know of another host that refunds for downtime! (if you know - let us know)...

In all fairness (Andrew's a bit excited) other hosts will refund for downtime.... Many wont, and many make you ask for it etc.. but they do offer refunds. I never have liked clumping thousands of hosts into one general assumption.

Now that that's said http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

WOOHOO!!!! This is a good move guys/gals... I hope the bumps to accomplish the move are minute in comparison to the great things this move is going to accomplish http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Deb

[Benson]

Like we say here in the South,

"yall kick @ss!" http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif

[Jacob Stetser]

Does this mean we may have problems accessing our sites over the next few days as the IPs catch up?

[Deb]

We are not changing IPs right NOW, when it does happen.....

1st -- The big sites and SSL sites will be moved onto their new IPs and emailed accordingly with details.

From there we will have a good idea of how the rest will proceed and you all will be made aware as we are....

We are holding the intial 9 IPs for a couple of weeks in an attempt to make the whole thing as transparent as possible. We, of course, are going to try to make this as smooth and un-noticable as we can.. take one step at a time, moving blocks of sites at a time rather then just 'dumping them all at once, and keeping you as informed as we can through it all.

Tonight there is no way of preventing downtime as we have to PHYSICALLY unplug the systems, put them in the car, and drive them to the next city, set them up and plug them into the new noc.

No IPs are changing tonight etc.. we are just moving the systems as they are. The first sites to change IPs are the big resource users... (tis the reward they get and the price they pay hehe)... we'll be able to give you more a more accurate account of how it will take place once we are able to see how they fair through it all.

Deb

[MikeA]

So how far is Gainsville from you guys?

------------------
www.webauthorities.com (http://www.webauthorities.com)
"To continue press any key"...Where's the anykey?

[Deb]

It's about a 35 mile move.

No fear we are also aware of remote reboots http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif

Deb

[Terra]

Update: I just finished building the new Linux 2.2.0 kernel, and I must say it is **very sweet**...

Much more information and fine tuning is available to me... It also looks like they took care of several resource problems that I bump into sometimes, like the filehandle problem that plagued me last month...

This is also upto Unix98 spec and it's performance increase is breathtaking... I can't wait to take this SMP w/ dual 450 CPU's...

I have also procured some watchdog timers, that interface directly into the kernel, that will reset the system if it should lock up... http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif (5 min timer)

The first set of cluster systems is going online - and I'm using a buddy method server watching... One watches the other...

All in all, the new 2.2.x Linux kernel is sweeeeeet... I will know more after it goes into full production use...

For more info, you can visit:
www.linuxhq.com

--
Terra
--rooma zoom zoom--
FutureQuest

-->Whoooo, new toys -- I love my job!

[meikel]

... we have to PHYSICALLY unplug the systems, put them in the car, and drive them to the next city, set them up and plug them into the new noc.

PLEASE drive carefully.

Greetings from someone just reading the great news http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif
[nbsp][nbsp]Meikel Weber

[Deb]

I'll refrain from talking about Andrew on the ZX11 or any other driving techniques of his... I'll also refrain from stating that driving is his first passion and computing is his second....

What I wont refrain from saying is that we will do our best to make sure our bodies and the systems that we will be carting over there arrive safely http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif

Thanks Meikel http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Deb

[Tom]

I really enjoy your notes on what you're doing. Thank you.

I don't know diddly about Linux, but can spin a pretty mean Novell...

[Terra]

Due to some last minute issues, this will be rescheduled for tomorrow night...

Sorry for the false alarm...

--
Andrew Gillespie
Systems Adminstrator
FutureQuest.net

[Terra]

Tonight at 1:15am EST, 1/30/99 - the FuturQuest server will be going offline for our NOC move... It looks like we have everything coordinated and ready to roll...

--
Andrew Gillespie
Systems Administrator
FutureQuest.net