Author Topic: Moving to a dedicated server!!  (Read 9863 times)

Offline Brass_Machine

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Moving to a dedicated server!!
« on: August 05, 2009, 03:30:17 PM »
Well, I went ahead and purchased a dedicated server to host this board, my wifes board and a few other websites I own. I will let you all know in advanced what the down time will be to transfer to the new server.

WooHoo!

Eric
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Offline Darren

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #1 on: August 05, 2009, 03:32:07 PM »
Just make sure it's your time and not ours...... :lol:
You will find it a distinct help… if you know and look as if you know what you are doing. (IRS training manual)

Offline Stefan Pynappels

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #2 on: August 05, 2009, 04:03:25 PM »
Hey Eric,

What hardware did you get? What OS will you be using? Finally, something I can talk about with a little more authority! Go on, tell all......

Fairly standard LAMP setup with sub domains? What sort of network setup do you have, multiple NICs and FibreOptic broadband connection, dedicated broadband to the server?

NERD ALERT! NERD ALERT! NERD ALERT!

(Crawls back into little cave.....)

Seriously though, what is your setup?

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2009, 04:10:44 PM »
Hey Eric,

What hardware did you get? What OS will you be using? Finally, something I can talk about with a little more authority! Go on, tell all......

Fairly standard LAMP setup with sub domains? What sort of network setup do you have, multiple NICs and FibreOptic broadband connection, dedicated broadband to the server?

NERD ALERT! NERD ALERT! NERD ALERT!

(Crawls back into little cave.....)

Seriously though, what is your setup?
Went with what is cheap. I have to foot the bill for this... Through my hosting provider I am going with a MS2k3 R2 server running as a VMware instance. The ESX hosts are xeon 5500's (optimized for VMware), 4GB HBAs for storage, backbone is 10GE. We will have 1TB of bandwidth a month (for now). Being on VMware, downtime should be minimal.

Nerd alert? What do you do?

Eric
« Last Edit: August 05, 2009, 07:57:26 PM by Brass_Machine »
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Offline Stefan Pynappels

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #4 on: August 05, 2009, 06:39:29 PM »
I normally get a Nerd Alert from my missus when I start talking about servers etc for work, so being apologetic about putting people to sleep is now second nature.

Will you be administering the server yourself or is that included in the hosting? Server2k3 is about the friendliest of the MS offerings IMHO, we work with Linux servers as a rule, easier for remote admin. Are you using IIS or Apache to serve web content?

VMWare is a nice stable virtualisation platform anyway, downtime will not be as a result of that anyway.

Not trying to teach a granny to suck eggs, but if any help is required, shout and I'll do my best to assist.

Stefan.

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #5 on: August 05, 2009, 08:10:07 PM »
Thanks for the offer Stefan...

This is basically a rented server at my ISP. I will admin it, they will do the operations side.

I am a VMware engineer for a well known ivy league college (in the top 8 of the US). Came there after doing the same gig for a major pharmicutical (think 200+ hosts) and a major financial firm (think 400+ hosts, 2k+ windows & 600+ RH guests). Been in the IT game for a long time. Been working with VMware for 6+ years... yup, I am a VMware gangsta.

It will be running IIS. I admit, it is not my strongest point. I tend to work with both Windows and Linux (we are a college)... Hell, my laptop is a Mac. I haven't been application or server support in a long time. My forte is VMware. If I have issues, I will ask you. You have experience in migrating a mySQL database or with IIS?

Eric
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We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.

Offline Divided he ad

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #6 on: August 06, 2009, 03:03:58 AM »
Erm..... Woohoo, I think?

What? Erm.... So?.... Erm....


As you were!?

Well out of my league  :smart:   :lol:




Sounds like it's a good thing anyway :thumbup:
Hope it all goes smoothly.... Should I start backing up my posts?  ::)







Ralph.
I know what I know and need to know more!!!

Offline Stefan Pynappels

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #7 on: August 06, 2009, 05:04:42 AM »
I'm a network and support engineer for a medical software company in Ireland. We run a web app on LAMP servers which include very large MySQL databases.

When we have had to use MS OSes, we have still steered away from IIS, prefering to use Apache2 instead.

While my experience is mostly in the networking end of things, if you have MySQL migration queries, I'll talk to one of my technicians and see if I can get answers for you.

Stefan

bogstandard

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #8 on: August 06, 2009, 07:23:40 AM »
We've even got a nerd pi**ing contest now, this site gets better and better.

Glad we are in very good hands, with people who know what they are doing.


Bogs

Offline Darren

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #9 on: August 06, 2009, 07:31:16 AM »
Pissing contests are good....

Gives you something to aim for....... :lol:
You will find it a distinct help… if you know and look as if you know what you are doing. (IRS training manual)

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #10 on: August 06, 2009, 09:41:30 AM »
We've even got a nerd pi**ing contest now, this site gets better and better.

Glad we are in very good hands, with people who know what they are doing.


Bogs

Nah not pissing contests! Stefan and I are having a Nerd style 'tool gloat'. It gives us each an idea of what the other does/knows. This way if I do need help, I will comfortable calling on him. See because what I do, I am very specialized. And from the sounds of it, he has a wider knowledge base. All very good.

:mmr:
Eric
Science is fun.

We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.

bogstandard

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #11 on: August 06, 2009, 01:45:56 PM »
Just a bit of leg pulling Eric, so no explanations needed.

As long as we are in your capable hands, that'll do.

Bogs

Offline Stefan Pynappels

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #12 on: August 06, 2009, 04:58:48 PM »
A Pis***g contest? In my nice clean airconditioned server room? Not blummin likely!

Although a virtual contest on the virtual server might be ok............

Offline SPiN Racing

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #13 on: September 23, 2009, 08:07:13 PM »
<Cheers at nerdspeak>

Went from the financial firm I streamlined things at (Job Eliminated... thanks kickass backup software, and reporting servers I put together) to a different company that has been around for 30 years.
Im now the director of IT. (twirls finger)
I went from a minnow with a sea having 1700+ servers inclucing several ESX farms, and over 25K users.... to a overly large bloated fish in a pond with 4 servers. And 20 users.... :scratch:
And Im making the same money.


erm.

One of the servers is ESX... with no virtuals.

And actually the network and servers are all newish dell servers. and a backup changer.. but all badly badly badly mis-configured, and the network configuration is um... wildly cobbled together. HOWEVER.... they are at that fun point of growth, that they need things smoothed out first..... and they know that. Hence why Im there.  :clap:


Should be fun :)

GOing to likely get ESX4 going next MKonday.
SPiN Racing

Offline Darren

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #14 on: September 23, 2009, 08:10:30 PM »
Absolutely Spin, absolutely...... :scratch:

You just watch you don't make too good a job of it ....... :bang:
You will find it a distinct help… if you know and look as if you know what you are doing. (IRS training manual)

Offline Bernd

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #15 on: September 23, 2009, 08:20:29 PM »
Ya, what Darren said. Don't make it perfect for a long time, like to retirement time.  :lol:

Did that even make sense.  :scratch:  :scratch:

Bernd
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Offline SPiN Racing

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #16 on: September 23, 2009, 08:31:14 PM »
HA HA HA HA Yeah thats the thing...

I am still going to do my best. I cant live with myself to do a half A$$ job of things. I figure I would rather KNOW I did a good job, and now need another, than do a bad job, and get replaced.

Either way.. I get to play with some fun toys, and build things as I see they need to be done. And at the very least, I can improve the network and servers for a company with a lot of really good people. :)
SPiN Racing

Offline Stefan Pynappels

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Re: Moving to a dedicated server!!
« Reply #17 on: September 24, 2009, 10:02:44 AM »
Isn't it great getting paid to mess with stuff you're interested in anyway? :headbang:

Sorting out networks and finding out why client X cannot access the web content on server Y but client Z can is a lot of my work, and on the small scale networks I work on, misconfiguration is the norm rather than the exception. They all think they can just plug stuff in and it works, that might work just to get internet on your computer but is not so good when you are trying to set up VPNs and SSL encryption etc.

And I could write a (smallish) book about the stupid questions I've been asked.......

Problems with access seem to have been sorted out here anyway, Go Eric!