Hi all,

Well, from what I can see on the management side, it looks like we are in need of a new server. Our current server is a hand-me-down and is about 4-5 years old. Although it has been a great server, the technology is limited and we need to make a move to an enterprise-class machine.

There are various reasons for something in the enterprise-level, but, most of the reasons have to do with manageability and disaster recovery. The enterprise machines will support things like remote management, redundant power, redundant operating system (RAID), lower profile, lower power consumption, etc. While I am sure you will see a small performance upgrade, my BIGGEST reason for the new server is reliability.

Most of you have seen the website go down every so often. While I can't say that a new machine will fix all of the problems, it will allow me to start with a fresh operating system and some new supporting services. Simply put, not all of our issues with crashing are hardware related, but, I really want to start with a machine that has absolutely ZERO hardware problems.

That said, our new machine is set to arrive next week. Here's what we are installing:

HP ProLiant DL360 G5 Entry

Rack - 2-way - 1 x Dual-Core Xeon 5130 / 2 GHz - RAM 1 GB - SAS - hot-swap 2.5" - no HDD - ATI ES1000 - Gigabit Ethernet - Monitor : none - 1U

I've added two 72GB hot-swap 2.5" SAS disks that will be used for our operating system. They will be installed in a RAID1 or hardware mirror. If we have a drive failure... the site will NOT crash in this configuration.

I also have a need for more memory. But, I am tapped out. It would be nice to have at least 4GB of memory (it comes with 1GB) and two more hard disks to hold our backups.

If any of you feel inclined to help with this cause, we could use the donations. Or, if you would rather purchase some memory, hard disks, or whatever... we'd appreciate the donations. You can use the "Support Us" button from the top menu.

I don't plan to move the club over to the new server for a few weeks, but, please let me know if you have questions or concerns.

-- Mike

Just a quick 'bump' on this thread.... Things are a bit tight for most of us at this stage in the game, and for sure 'uncertain' for the future. Let's consider a quick donation during this season of thanksgiving to help preserve one of the things that we all enjoy and benefit from.

Mike, thanks for all that you do for us.

Mike, I know this is a little late to ask but why dont you host your site with godaddy or something. Then you would have less to worry about with hardware, wouldn't have to worry about redundancy or bandwith and could focus the donations on your hosting services.

Just curious if you've looked into it.

John

Hope that helps Mike

Love this forum so helpful saved me endless frustration and kept her running despite my fiddling

Mike' date=' I know this is a little late to ask but why dont you host your site with godaddy or something. Then you would have less to worry about with hardware, wouldn't have to worry about redundancy or bandwith and could focus the donations on your hosting services.

Just curious if you've looked into it.[/quote']

Hi John,

Good questions... I actually had this site hosted at Rackshack a few years ago. But, I found that server fees kept creeping up and we were outgrowing the small server we had at the time. Due to the increase in membership, site activity, and bandwidth requirements, I decided to use a real server instead of a virtualized server. One thing led to another and I found a good machine to use. After a few years using that one, the 'hand-me-down' computer started to show signs of too much age. One of my long time vendors saw the need and donated a brand new machine to our cause. We paid for a few upgrades such as hard drive redundancy and memory increases just to be safe. The server is now doing very well and we have an awesome set of engineers helping it stay that way..

Long story shortened, a server like ours would cost too much money to rent from another provider. I have thought about co-locating (moving the server to a rack located at an ISP), but, that will have to wait until after the new year.

Thanks!

m

Mike,

How do I cancel my monthly support. I hate to cancel but need every dollar for the next few months. Just retired and had a couple of expenses that were not anticipated.

Thanks, Wally

If on LINUX, FTK? LinuX Firewall Tool Kit?

PIX?

Anti-virus?

Am a security geek and former FRB/Federal Reserve IT examiner

Errm... :paranoid:

As someone who does system administration and security for a living, and also as someone who has helped Mike with the config of this server and helps a bit now and then to keep it running, it would seem to be rather imprudent to post the security methods used on it here in public. Call me paranoid, but the less known about that stuff the better, in my book.