Site News & Announcements

Server Upgrades Completed! ;-)

Greetings Folks!

As of last night, we completed the final phase in migrating two of our web/database servers as well as our "master" database server to new hardware. The summary of the result is zoom. We're seeing much faster and more consistent page load times across the site.

We managed to do the entire upgrade process with just an hour of downtime late last night to complete the final master database upgrade... and we only took the WdC down because it's something that is just far too scary to do while people can at the site.

(Anyone interested in the "Technically speaking" side: The 3 machines were all dual core procs with a combined 48 gigs ram... and they are now six core (higher speed) procs with a combined 64 gigs. The master database server gained the extra RAM, now having 32 gigs all to itself.)

I don't plug many (any?) companies personally, but the folks at INetU have been an amazing help throughout this process.
They term themselves a "managed hosting provider" and they manage quite well. I say "we" above because it was them and me working through the project. Writing.Com has 5 full time servers, so this upgrade covered more than half. INetU was there every step of the way and made the whole process smooth. If you or anyone you know ever have the need for hosting services, please contact me. I'd love to tell you (or them) about our experiences with INetU over the past 10+ years and hook you up with one of the guys I work with on a regular basis.

Best wishes,
~~SM