Over the course of the past week or so, you may have noticed some performance issuses with your server. We’ve been monitoring the machine closely in an attempt to determine the exact cause of the problem.. We concluded that the hardware was faulty and a drive replacement was required. Initially, we had attempted to simply replace the hardware on the server and restore it in place. After several failed attempts, we decided the best course of action was to simply migrate this server and its accounts to brand new hardware.
Here’s the new server’s specs:
- Dual Intel Xeon 2.33Ghz Quad-Core Processors (8 CPUs)
- 16GB Kingston DDR2-667 ECC Fully Buffered RAM
- 3Ware 9650SE RAID Controller
- 3Ware Battery Backup Unit
- 8 x Seagate Barracuda Enterprise Storage Hard Drives
(The server will use RAID-10 for optimal performance and reliability.)
We have already performed the bulk of the data migration to the new server. We are currently configuring the new machine with our default settings and will be performing a second pass later today. If possible, I recommend that you hold off on making any major changes to your site. The second pass will bring everything up to date on the new machine, but once this copy is finished, your files will be inconsistent if they are uploaded to the new machine. Regardless, the old (current) box will remain online for a few weeks after the transfer just in case anyone needs anything off of it.
This is going to mean great things for your site(s). This server is more powerful than your current one, MUCH more powerful. In addition to the increased processing resources and large amount of RAM, our performance testing has shown RAID-10 to deliver high data speeds while maintaining redundancy. Since the server is located on our new network, remote backups are thrown in to boot.
This blog will be updated as we have details.