UMSF - Server Switch 10th & 11th May Options

[djellison]

After the great 'server drive' fund raising by UMSF members, we have our dual 3ghz server up and running. I have another domain hosted on it already. It has been fast, and 100% stable ( touch wood ) for 2 months.

Thus, the intention is to move UMSF to the new server this weekend.

At approx 1200UT ( 1300 my time ) UMSF will be 'turned off'. The database is rather large, and can not be moved in an instant - nor can the 4Gb of attachments.

After the forum is switched off, a full backup will begin, sending the entire forum content to the new server ( this has been tested just now - and takes 2-3 hours )

Only once the full backup is successfully completed, will the DNS settings be changed, pointing the domain to the new server.

Once the backup is completed, the database must be repopulated on the new server, the attachments moved to the right place, the settings updated and checked - and only once the forum itself is up and running will it be turned 'on' again. At that point, it will take a couple of hours ( potentially significantly less ) for the domain-name shift to propagate across the web to your own ISP.

The move is scheduled for what is the quietest days of the week, and the quietest hours of that day for UMSF - to minimize withdrawal symptoms. Things might not go perfectly, so you'll just have to hold tight.

To keep everyone up to date - I will use a new external blog ( http://umsf.blogspot.com/ ) with news of the transfer - once UMSF is down, check there for details!

[dvandorn]

Yes, good luck to you, Doug on the transfer. I have fingers and toes crossed that nothing will go wrong. I'm sure your by-now-vast experience with the Invision software will let you bring UMSF back online with no ill effects. (However, I'm already beginning the trembles, the first symptoms of the deliriens tremens that will pile on me full force in the tenth or eleventh hour without UMSF...)

And my heart goes out to you, Dan. I moved about 18 months ago, and while it was an urban move (from one city location to another), about 80% of it was accomplished over a period of six weeks, consisting of load upon load of boxes, transported a dozen miles in a truly tiny Subaru Justy. We had to have made more than a hundred runs before we ever even thought about renting the truck for the major furniture on Moving Day.

Sorry to hear that you're going to have to downgrade to DSL. It's better than dial-up, to be sure, but the speed you get is so dependent on your distance from the "central office" that it's truly a crapshoot whether or not you'll get tolerable service. I wouldn't recommend satellite internet yet, though -- last I heard, most of them still require you to upload via a dedicated dial-up telephone line, with only downloads available through the dish at broadband speeds.

As for rural areas being covered with poo -- in the U.S., that's sort of variable. Major livestock farming over here tends to be concentrated into blocks. You can have hundreds of square km with nothing but plant farming (corn, wheat, soybeans, sorghum) anywhere in site. Some farms will maintain a small amount of livestock on a primarily agricultural farm, but that livestock doesn't amount to much in comparison to the cornfields. (Of course, a relatively modest-sized pig farm, no matter how small a percentage of its county it may take up, is still going to make a very strong impression on anyone who happens to be downwind of it on any given day. Trust me, I know. I grew up in central Illinois.)

So, while you can *always* find poo out in the country, here in the States you can usually avoid it pretty easily -- if you watch where you're walking.



-the other Doug