Western Railroad Discussion > System Maintenance Saturday Morning

Saturday morning we will be installing a new server into our equipment rack and the site may be shutdown for up to one hour while we rearrange equipment to free up space. Every three years we replace our hardware as preventative measure to ensure we maintain reliability. This will be the first of two new servers that we will install during the next couple of months. These servers will be staged and prepped for launch in early 2015.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

Take some pics of the install.

santoro2020 Wrote:
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> Thank you for the continuing upgrades for this
> website, I feel like they are starting to get much
> needed real soon so I hope these new servers
> help.


There is nothing wrong with our system now. Most of time our servers are 90% idle.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

santoro2020 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thank you for the continuing upgrades for this
> website, I feel like they are starting to get much
> needed real soon so I hope these new servers
> help.
>
> Nick

I never see any slow pages from Trainorders. If you do, it is a problem with your internet provider, or your computer. Todd does a great job running the site.

Our machines are plenty fast, it is just that when they age I worry about unexpected failure. Traditionally, I keep Dell Service contracts with four hour response times 24/7 in the event of a hardware failure. The contracts are expiring in 2015 and that is when the servers become worthless to me. Our database server contract is up in March, and the web server in October. I have never had to use it, but I know it is there if I need it.

This time around Dell wanted $6000 for the extended service contract. That makes for a cost of almost $13,000 per server. Instead, I am foregoing the fast response contract and am opting for a next business day response. With the $6000 in savings I am putting it towards purchasing an identical server as a backup. These new machines have about 25% more power than the previous boxes, but it really isn't going to be needed as I come nowhere near using its resources fully.

One thing I don't do is cheapen out on our hardware. I buy high end machines and don't keep them kicking around for a long time. I throw stuff away even though it is still working fine. I just don't trust aging infrastructure. One funny story. A few years ago I retired our database server when its contract was up in March. I hated throwing away a perfectly working machine so installed some new hard drives and pressed it into service as a data backup machine. Six months later its main board burned out and the machine was out of warranty. I was able to buy a complete exact replacement server on Ebay for $150. I put my drives in and the machine worked fine. That was rather sobering that the machine I had bought 3.5 years earlier for $4500 is now worth $150.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

I appreciate the "under the hood" work that goes into keeping TO going. This site ALWAYS works flawlessly, & refreshes quickly. The same can't be said for Facebook, Weather.com, The Press Democrat (my local "rag") & even You Tube. You truly get what you pay for ;) Thanks for all the time put into keeping Train Orders service first-class.

Desmond Praetzel, "4451 Puff"

I agree with syscom3, , , , take lots of photos Todd and show us what you deal with daily!

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

Hey Todd I have always felt that THIS site is the "8th wonder of the world" you and your staff have always been a very good source for being there for us and it just keeps getting better and better...tanks...... MJ

webmaster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> santoro2020 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Thank you for the continuing upgrades for this
> > website, I feel like they are starting to get
> much
> > needed real soon so I hope these new servers
> > help.
>
>
> There is nothing wrong with our system now. Most
> of time our servers are 90% idle.


That was worded the wrong way, my apologize if it was interpreted like that.

Nick

radar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> santoro2020 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Thank you for the continuing upgrades for this
> > website, I feel like they are starting to get
> much
> > needed real soon so I hope these new servers
> > help.
> >
> > Nick
>
> I never see any slow pages from Trainorders. If
> you do, it is a problem with your internet
> provider, or your computer. Todd does a great job
> running the site.


I don't either, I'd say the slowest thing would be the webcams, but I don't know how those work regarding the servers and coding.

Nick

If your gonna upgrade anything the board software is where you should look. This board software is very outdated hard to follow threads and all..

jethat Wrote:
> This board software is
> very outdated hard to follow threads and all.


Not sure I agree. I like the simplicity of the software. It refreshes FAST. I have no problem searching for whatever I'm looking for (even stuff I vaguely recall from 10 years ago). I can change discussion views if needed.

When I was in charge of a computer room and the purchasing of all equipment in the company, I was told we were going to Oracle and *had* to purchase the Sun servers. "Why?" Just do it. I told them I could purchase about 5 Dells with the same horsepower as one Sun - and save money. Instant replacement, etc. Nope, HAD to go Sun. I showed them an article on the Stock Exchange - they purchased over 100 Dell servers and said basically "we can throw away a server and replace it for small costs compared to Sun.:. Nope, HAVE to go Sun.

Turned out, it was because the consultants we had didn't know anything about Dells and just knew Sun. They were partners with Sun & Oracle, so that's the way we went. Disaster. They ended up scrapping all the Sun servers and moving the data center to Atlanta. I had the system up with a DB2 emulator and transparent interface, they wanted nothing to do with it. "Has to be Sun & Oracle".

But...yeah - had 2 of the SCSI disk racks in my basement for years - we had bought them (with the huge 70gb drives) for over $10k a piece. It felt very bad to dump them for nothing a few months ago! That was basically the policy I had in place - replace every 3 years. All servers and desktops/laptops. Saved money in rentals (used the new ones first at conventions & seminars then sent them to branches) and maintenance. Never had to use the warranty service from Dell. Sun however had to come in constantly.

As a long-time member of TO I can never say enough about the great job Todd, Chris and others do in keeping this site maintained and ad-free! Thank You!!

Too bad the almighty dollar dictates how other sites are run.

The new machine is installed. In the photo it is the one just above the network switch on the bottom. I am going to be retiring our database server "Pacific" shortly to make room for the second server. American on top is the web server that will be replaced by the next server that I will install later this month. Cascade is a backup machine that is used as a data backup for the entire operation. It also runs my other Internet project known as touring.com. It doesn't have enough power to run the web site, but it functions as a good place to store data.

As for changing the software, not on my watch. This is not an off the shelf software package. It is a heavily customized system that is based on Phorum that we have been using since 2000. We have changed it to our liking and is one of the reasons the site is so popular. Over the years I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to create what we have today. There is a reason it doesn't have cute smiley faces, stupid animated graphics, half page signatures, and counts indicating how much drivel the user has posted. I hate those things, and most people do too.

There will be some tweaks with the next release that will include a smarter message authoring interface that will feel more like a word processor. I am also planning some social media connections, but not much beyond that. It isn't because I am being cheap, it is because just want to keep the system simple, and easy to use for our membership.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

---

---

I love you and I don't even know you! TO downloads so much more quickly than any other website I look at, I believe due to the antiquated Internet service my husband has. I had quit for a few years, due to not having Internet access and a computer. I sure missed it. I am glad I am back. Thank you for all you do for us.

It isn't
> because I am being cheap, it is because just want
> to keep the system simple, and easy to use for our
> membership.
I sure hope you keep it simple. When you're in my age group (75), all that extra stuff is worthless to me.

Frank, in Tennessee

jethat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If your gonna upgrade anything the board software
> is where you should look. This board software is
> very outdated hard to follow threads and all..

I totally disagree. This forum has the nicest, easiest, cleanest forum sites I have ever used. Don't fix what isn't broken.

Todd and Chris -- and everyone else:
THANK you VERY VERY much for all the very hard
and time-consuming work you all do for this great
site! I am beyond impressed! This site is THE MOST
reliable and trustworthy site on the web -- IMO.
It always loads very fast. And NO ads, either.

Thanks for the look "under the hood". And you made
the right decision in response to Dell's demand for much
more money for that fast response time. As long as you
have the hardware and back it up really often, why
wold you need their 4-hour max response time?

I COMPLETELY agree with "radar"! It AIN'T broke --
so I am VERY glad you are NOT gonna "fix" it. Whew!!

radar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> jethat Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > If your gonna upgrade anything the board
> software
> > is where you should look. This board software
> is
> > very outdated hard to follow threads and all..
>
> I totally disagree. This forum has the nicest,
> easiest, cleanest forum sites I have ever used.
> Don't fix what isn't broken.

Margaret
Very satisfied member since almost the beginning

radar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> jethat Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > If your gonna upgrade anything the board
> software
> > is where you should look. This board software
> is
> > very outdated hard to follow threads and all..
>
> I totally disagree. This forum has the nicest,
> easiest, cleanest forum sites I have ever used.
> Don't fix what isn't broken.

Totally agree with radar, totally disagree with jethat. The site is terrific. I appreciate its clean, effective design and responsive easy-to-use quality.

I saw your previous post, Todd, on what you have done to build and maintain the site. Your incremental approach to updates and revisions, always toward core issues and performance rather than appearance-oriented fluff, are all to the good. Thank goodness you and Chris have never fallen prey to Web Designer Ego Disease, and an incessant need to twiddle and fiddle with and constantly revise and update design. I appreciate the consistency of the site that lets me read and contribute without a need to relearn where everything is and how it works every few months. I can do that, of course, but why should I have to? It is such a pleasure to log in and know where everything is and how it will work with consistency. Agree -- no need to fix what most certainly is not broken.

MC
Columbia, Missouri



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/14 10:35 by ironmtn.