Software: New Server A-Hoy

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      CommentAuthorSpode
    • CommentTimeApr 3rd 2008 edited
     

    Yesterday was supposed to be a very quick and easy server upgrade. It took longer than expected, but we had around 3 hours down time, which isn't bad considering I had to set things up from scratch. UK2 support was excellent, and installed Ubuntu Server to my exact specification (I tested it out beforehand in VirtualBox, so I knew what I was dealing with). The server previously had LVM partitions, which are a pain - so I made sure this wasn't the case the second time around. I went for a 128MB "/boot", 4GB swap partition and then the rest of the drive split 50/50. 50% for Ubuntu, and 50% unused, in case I want to dual boot. I also had an extra 512MB of RAM installed for good measure.

    Installing Ubuntu on VirtualBox, I was most impressed at how minimalistic the distribution is, and how quickly it boots. However, VirtualBox doesn't support the PAE kernel, so I had to boot in rescue mode, mount the drives and use apt-get to install the "linux-generic" package, before modifying grub to cope.

    Once I was up and running, I pulled down my backup and put the websites into their normal folders, copying over my apache configuration files and installing a few apache modules. MySQL was a bit of a pain, purely because I made the silly mistake of accidentally chowning the entire /var folder as apache:apache. It's a pity there is no way of restoring the correct ownership, short of a reinstall.

    As I am now using Google Apps for all my e-mail, and MyDNS takes care of the DNS, things were up and running very quickly indeed. I just have a few minor tweaks to do, which can wait until this evening, and I imagine there might be some file permission issues on a few of the websites that I'll have to check.

    If you see anything strange happening - please contact me! ({) (c)

    • CommentAuthorMike
    • CommentTimeApr 3rd 2008
     

    I think some of my posts dissapeared? I'm guessing that may have just been because of a minor issue with MySQL.
    But seems a lot quicker now... (y)

    • CommentAuthorMike
    • CommentTimeApr 3rd 2008 edited
     

    Eeek. Vanillas gone fubar. :(
    This happens when I post.

    Notice: Undefined variable: mComment in /var/www/vhosts/spode/spodesabode.com/extensions/Notify/default.php on line 291

    Notice: Undefined variable: mUser in /var/www/vhosts/spode/spodesabode.com/extensions/Notify/default.php on line 291
    A fatal, non-recoverable error has occurred
    Technical information (for support personel):
    Error Message
    An error occurred while sending the email.
    Affected Elements
    Email.Send();
    The error occurred on or near: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. Please use the date.timezone setting, the TZ environment variable or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'Europe/London' for 'BST/1.0/DST' instead

    For additional support documentation, visit the Lussumo Documentation website at: lussumo.com/docs

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      CommentAuthorSpode
    • CommentTimeApr 3rd 2008
     

    Your post was lost because I took the MySQL dump and then UK2 were supposed to pull the server. But some miscommunication occurred and there was a 2 hour wait until that happened :P

    I'll look into the errors - but the Notify error is likely because I no longer have an SMTP server running.

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      CommentAuthorSpode
    • CommentTimeApr 3rd 2008
     

    SMTP is running now, but only bound to localhost. Let me know if you get any more errors.

    My spodesabode.com e-mail is down temporarily. (an annoying Google issue).

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      CommentAuthorKrazyIvan
    • CommentTimeApr 4th 2008
     

    Wow, the speed is so much better now!

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      CommentAuthorSpode
    • CommentTimeApr 4th 2008
     

    Really?

    I wasn't expecting there to be a speed increase! I guess the extra RAM probably helps, but the hardware is the same. Yet another victory for Ubuntu, it would seem!

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      CommentAuthorKrazyIvan
    • CommentTimeApr 4th 2008 edited
     

    Yes, really! It would take roughly about 10-15 seconds to load a page before (on broadband no less.) Now it is about 2-3 seconds.

    Is the server in the UK? *EDIT* NVM, I see it is. :P

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      CommentAuthorLolly
    • CommentTimeApr 4th 2008
     

    Ahh American broadband. Otherwise known as "the slow lane"..

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      CommentAuthorKrazyIvan
    • CommentTimeApr 4th 2008
     

    No need to rub it in. :$

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      CommentAuthorLolly
    • CommentTimeApr 4th 2008
     

    Lalala :note:

    *uses Durham's JANET server which is so fast it's constrained by the 10Mbps ethernet connections in our rooms...*

    • CommentAuthorMike
    • CommentTimeApr 4th 2008
     

    I have a several hundred meg connection at University (not sure of its exact spec, I'd guess around 500Mbps) and Virgins fastest 20Mbps at home, which is soon going to be 50Mbps. :party:

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      CommentAuthorLolly
    • CommentTimeApr 4th 2008 edited
     

    Yes, you'll be on a JANET server too. In effect, the University is my ISP...

    edit: JANET is apparently 2.5Gbps...

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      CommentAuthorSpode
    • CommentTimeApr 5th 2008
     

    The only thing I can think of, is that Lussumo's modular nature means there are a lot of separate files - so there are quite a few http requests. Which means ANY speed improvement would be magnified amongst each request.

    On top of that, I'm not running a firewall any more, which in theory should speed things up. And there is no resource hungry spamassasin or IMAP running either :)

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Copyright Andrew Miller (Spode), 2008