Post by Truth on Jan 14, 2014 1:19:51 GMT -5
So here's the deal, everyone.
Remember how we had that data loss event a while back now? Sucked. I actually found out why that happened shortly before fixing it, so first I'll give you that story.
The situation was that the InnoDB instance on our server got corrupted. They tried to restore the daily backup but that was also corrupt. Upon retoring the weekly we were the one affected database on our shared server. Our host was extremely apologetic as this is honestly a very rare thing to happen even replacing an InnoDB instance.
So fast-forward to present day and I've gotten permission for a free upgrade to a Virtual Private Server. For those not in the know here's the difference between VPS and Shared hosting.
On a shared server we share the full environment with other services and fight for resources such as memory and CPU time with them. That's the cause of some of our spotty connection. This server we're on has a lot of issues with big, abusive accounts and it's not handling it well. So the server gets overwhelmed and can't handle requests for bleach-gotei.com when they come through.
A Virtual Private Server is an isolated, virtualized environment. Although we exist on the same physical box as other websites we are in all other ways independent. This means that we have guaranteed resources and don't fight for memory and CPU time. The resources we're given are also generous. Given that we run a database-oriented website here that's a good thing since databases use a lot of both memory, CPU time, and everything else. That's why, were you to get hosting for IPB through IPB, they'd host you on a VPS of their own. We work best in an isolated environment because of the high and repetitive activity.
Given our circumstances and the fact that this problem is 21 emails deep, countless live chats, and months old, Bluehost has agreed to upgrade me free of charge without complaint. They've also agreed that should this, for some reason, still result in an unstable environment they will be my personal bitches.
That said, I'd be baffled that a VPS environment isn't wildly more stable than our current one. Managing virutalization of my own I know that it works very well and is exactly what our kind of website needs whereas a shared environment was probably the worst sort. I have a lot of confidence that this will take care of everything we've been dealing with. It'd be hard for it not to. Like, I actually can't imagine what it would even take to fuck something like this up.
Given that I've got them by the balls over this I have a feeling that they'll be extra careful with their choice of server this time.
So what does this mean to you?
I plan to schedule the migration for RIGHT NOW. Not a lot of people are on in the middle of the day. We won't lose anything (they're effectively copying and pasting us elsewhere, to sacrifice accuracy for simplicity with my example) and the process shouldn't take long. We have back-ups anyway and they'll be taking snapshots right before they move us.
Just wanted to let you all know! I can't wait to get on VPS myself and see an end to this nightmare of shared servers.
