sperry
2006-10-02, 10:45 AM
Well, it's looking like I should make a move on a major site update sooner rather than later. There's a new/improved version of vBulletin out there, and it's time to re-image the server to all the latest and greatest stuff.
What this means is that I'll be backing up the entire system, which will take several hours, and probably kill performance by 50% or so. Near the end of that process, I'll be locking the forums, so I can freeze the state of the threads during backup. Once that's done, I'll be triggering a remote re-image of the server. What that does is causes the ISP to format the hard drive on our server and automatically install all new software on the box. After that's done, I'll need to reinstall the vBulletin software, and restore our backed-up database.
I'm hoping to upgrade all the ancillary software as well, namely the frontpage, news, and gallery pages. If you're linking to images off the gallery, chances are when the site comes back up, your links will be invalid. Plus, it will probably take me a while to update all that code... sometime this winter, since it's the same code I'm writing for the new Reno SCCA website that we want up well before the next season starts.
I'm not sure when I'll have time to start this whole operation. Probably over a weekend sometime after the last autocross... maybe on the 14th/15th. So this isn't going to happen immediately, but just be aware that for a few days, hopefully this month, the site will be down for upgrades.
What this means is that I'll be backing up the entire system, which will take several hours, and probably kill performance by 50% or so. Near the end of that process, I'll be locking the forums, so I can freeze the state of the threads during backup. Once that's done, I'll be triggering a remote re-image of the server. What that does is causes the ISP to format the hard drive on our server and automatically install all new software on the box. After that's done, I'll need to reinstall the vBulletin software, and restore our backed-up database.
I'm hoping to upgrade all the ancillary software as well, namely the frontpage, news, and gallery pages. If you're linking to images off the gallery, chances are when the site comes back up, your links will be invalid. Plus, it will probably take me a while to update all that code... sometime this winter, since it's the same code I'm writing for the new Reno SCCA website that we want up well before the next season starts.
I'm not sure when I'll have time to start this whole operation. Probably over a weekend sometime after the last autocross... maybe on the 14th/15th. So this isn't going to happen immediately, but just be aware that for a few days, hopefully this month, the site will be down for upgrades.