Buying new servers to host the SRRP site and my other sites.

Questions, comments, issues, and suggestions about the new SRRP website.

Buying new servers to host the SRRP site and my other sites.

Postby Gen.Jersey » Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:49 am

My hosting provider has a great promotion right now -- 25% off all VPS plans until July 31st. A VPS is a virtual private server, which is what this site runs on.

Unfortunately, the discount can only be applied to new servers. So over the next few days, I will be purchasing enough new VPS's to replace the ones I already have, and setting them up exactly the same. I hope to have this done by July 20th.

When everything is working on the new servers, I will point all of the DNS records to go to the new server. It can take a few days for this change to propagate, so for around 5 days I will keep the old servers active. This will allow you to keep accessing the site even if the change in IP address hasn't yet propagated to your ISP.

And it won't matter if you post a new thread or reply when you are connecting to the old server or the new server -- both will point to the same database server.

So if everything goes as planned, there will be zero downtime and you won't notice a thing.

I could save about 15% on my hosting bills if I replace one-for-one with the current servers (some I purchased using a recurring coupon code, others are full price), but instead I decided to upgrade -- about only $20 per month extra for faster servers with more memory and disk space, which will give this site and all my other sites a lot of room to grow.

I will keep you informed throughout the process. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know by replying to this post.

Thank you!
-Justin (Gen. Jersey)
General Jersey
SRRP Website Designer and Administrator
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Please let me know if you have any issues, questions,
or comments about the SRRP website and server.

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Re: Buying new servers to host the SRRP site and my other si

Postby Col.Hydra » Wed Jul 10, 2013 8:36 am

Sounds good. Which hosting company do you use btw? The true professional ones are quite pricey.
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Re: Buying new servers to host the SRRP site and my other si

Postby Gen.Jersey » Mon Jul 15, 2013 9:05 pm

Yes, they can be pricey, but those are for fully-managed servers. They are just like shared hosting, where you upload your website but the hosting provider takes care of OS installation, configuration, maintenance, backups, security updates, and monitoring.

Since I am a Linux server administrator by profession, I can save a lot of money by ordering unmanaged VPS's and doing everything myself. I use BurstNET for my servers since they are cheap but reliable. They do have a number of bad reviews but 99% of these are because the client doesn't know what they are doing. When BurstNET says "unmanaged" they really mean it -- basically, if your server can be pinged, you're on your own to fix it if something goes wrong. So while they are great for someone like me, they certainly aren't for everyone.

I use a pair of their standard OpenVZ Linux VPS's for my DNS and email servers, a pair of Xen Linux VPS's for webservers with a second pair identically configured as backup and development/testing servers, and a pair of OpenVZ Linux VPS's with SSD storage for database servers (one production and one backup).

DNS and email servers don't require a powerful CPU or lots of memory unless the server sends more than ~250,000 emails each day, so for these 2 servers I only need 512 MB of RAM. I'm not upgrading either of these since 512 MB of RAM is more than adequate.

The 2 live webservers are currently running on servers with 1 GB of RAM each, and I will be upgrading these to 1.5 GB of RAM each.

The 2 backup/development/testing webservers are currently running on 1 GB of RAM each, and I will be upgrading these to 1.5 GB of RAM each.

The 2 database servers (1 live / 1 backup) are currently running on 1 GB of RAM each, and I will be upgrading these to 1.5 GB of RAM each.

Right now I am paying about $95 per month, and for the faster servers I am upgrading to with the 25% off coupon, my costs will only increase to about $120 per month -- just $25 more.

Of course, the SRRP site is small enough that I could easily run it on just a single $12.95/month server, but I own several other websites, a few of which are quite busy (>50,000 visitors per month each), so it makes more sense to just add the SRRP website to the servers running all my other sites.

If you are interested in getting a server from BurstNET please let me know since I get a discount for referrals.
General Jersey
SRRP Website Designer and Administrator
____________________________________________________________

Please let me know if you have any issues, questions,
or comments about the SRRP website and server.

____________________________________________________________

Add me on Steam @ [SRRP]Gen.Jersey

PM me here:
Image

____________________________________________________________

Looking to buy a real gun?

Check out WhichGun.com, my firearms reference site and buying guide.
User avatar
Gen.Jersey
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Location: New Jersey

Re: Buying new servers to host the SRRP site and my other si

Postby Gen.Jersey » Mon Jul 22, 2013 2:49 pm

All the new servers have been purchased, OS's have been installed, and some initial setup and configuration has been done (all the stuff that is common to all of the servers, regardless of whether it will be a web server, database server, mail server, etc.).

There's still a lot of work to be done, but hopefully I'll have everything ready by this weekend to make the switchover to the new servers.
General Jersey
SRRP Website Designer and Administrator
____________________________________________________________

Please let me know if you have any issues, questions,
or comments about the SRRP website and server.

____________________________________________________________

Add me on Steam @ [SRRP]Gen.Jersey

PM me here:
Image

____________________________________________________________

Looking to buy a real gun?

Check out WhichGun.com, my firearms reference site and buying guide.
User avatar
Gen.Jersey
SRRP Senior General
 
Posts: 681
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2011 8:57 am
Location: New Jersey


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