# Notice: Site Downtime Saturday



## Andy R

This Saturday we will be moving TSF to a new server setup. The move will take place early in the morning EST (UTC/GMT -5 hours) and we will make every effort to keep the downtime to a minimum. Although we have already practiced this migration, there is always the chance something unexpected could come up. In the event the move takes longer then anticipated we will post updates along the way.

Sorry for the short notice and thanks for your patience.


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## Coolfreak

Thanks for the notice.


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## Jonathan_King

Thanks for the heads up. 

Just out of curiosity, what are the specs on the new server?


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## Andy R

We are moving from a multiple server setup that's cumbersome, difficult to manage and hard to isolate issues to a monster single server setup. This has various advantageous including faster I/O, less points of failure and much easier to manage and keep secure. The new server will probably be more powerful then all 5 of the current servers combined.

The specs are:
- Dual Intel Xeon-Westmere 5670-Hexcore @ 2.93GHz (that's 12 cores)
- 12GB of RAM
- Multiple sets of RAID drives (each one serves a different function to allow faster IO with the drives). For example one is dedicated to the database and another to files. This way if someone is uploading an attachment and server is writing the photo to the drive it will not get in the way of MySQL read/writes.

We have developed some advanced caching solutions for vBulletin so we plan to put as much as possible in RAM. This allows us to not only not hit the database each time we need something but also not have to execute PHP as much either. For example, the template system is a bunch of HTML stored in the database. We can render that to RAM and then request it from RAM instead of asking PHP to request the info from MySQL and then process the info into.

We will also be offloading most of the static content requests to a Content Deliver Network (link to Wikipedia article n CDN). This will reduce the amount of requests that hit the web server for things such as images, JavaScript and cascading style sheets. Not only will this save server resources but it will also speed up the delivery of these files to our users since they will be called from a nearby server. Someone in Australia will be downloading the files from a server in Australia, someone in Europe will be getting them from a server in Europe.

One the new server goes online we will start collecting real stats and then continue to optimize it. We should know by this time next week how it's going to hold up.

Along with the above changes we will also be optimizing the database and tweaking various software setting to make sure things are as efficient as possible.

Andy


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## Jonathan_King

Thanks for the detailed info Andy. Good luck with the move!


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## lfcgeorge

Sounds promising!


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## james.hot82

wow !! we are waiting....


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## -WOLF-

Very interesting, I can't wait to see all the improvements! Great work!


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## Midnight Tech

Andy R said:


> The specs are:
> - Dual Intel Xeon-Westmere 5670-Hexcore @ 2.93GHz (that's 12 cores)
> - 12GB of RAM
> - Multiple sets of RAID drives (each one serves a different function to allow faster IO with the drives).


:3drooling
'Nuff said!
Gonna have to upgrade MY machine to keep up with the site!


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## greenbrucelee

I have noticed of late that there seems to be a bit of blip in forum where as around 6-630ish GMT there is a lockup where I can't connect. I have tried on different PCs just to make sure it wasn't me. So I guess your hardware is struggling now.

Hopefully the new setup should work and looking by the specs of it then there should be no issues.


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## Redeye3323

Wow, that is some awesome server 

One semi-related question

Is the site changing it's VB version anytime soon or will it stay on this current version?


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## DT Roberts

Great news, hope it all goes well!


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## Zealex

Good luck with the move Andy! Hope all goes well. :smile:


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## Andy R

OK, we are live on the new server setup. If you see this message, you are seeing the new server. If you experience any issues, please post them here so we can make a punch list of items to take care of.


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## DT Roberts

Excellent, it seems faster already!


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## Andy R

greenbrucelee said:


> I have noticed of late that there seems to be a bit of blip in forum where as around 6-630ish GMT there is a lockup where I can't connect. I have tried on different PCs just to make sure it wasn't me. So I guess your hardware is struggling now.


That is most likely when the backups were being made. We will be changing the backup routing to streamline the process. Although we will close the site for a few minutes each day we estimate that to be less then 5 minutes instead of 30 minutes. We will also display a message that regular maintenance is being performed instead of just timing out. Also, on Friday mornings (UTC/GMT -5 hours) we will perform some regular maintenance and security scans to make sure the site continues to run optimally.


Redeye3323 said:


> Is the site changing it's VB version anytime soon or will it stay on this current version?


We will be upgrading all the software that runs the community (including vBulletin) in the weeks ahead. We will not be doing the version upgrade to vBulletin 4.0 however. Although it's been out for a year and is getting better, it's still choked full of issues. At this point our plan is to remain on the 3.8.x series for the foreseeable future.


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## james.hot82

has the layout of home page changed slightly? Cause i am not seeing the spaces between the sections becoming it somewhat narrow layout from up to down.


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## Old Rich

Site is noticably faster today


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## Old Rich

I have noticed one glitch . . not sure if it is related to the change. Most of the time when I click on the "Go Back" arrow in IE, I get a "page not found" error . . a second click seems to do the trick


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## shotgn

Much faster than before.....I have no problems so far in Firefox


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## ebackhus

Incredibly fast now! I applaud the consolidation of hardware for this new setup.


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## Coolfreak

I am loving it already!


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## -WOLF-

I defiantly notice the site running excellent, I haven't noticed any problems thus far.


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## Redeye3323

Thank you for answering my question Andy and thank you for making TSF run far better 

Just out of curiosity, will the upgrades be noticeable (i.e. changes in theme or addons) or are they optimization upgrades.

Also, are you talking about security issues or issues with high-volume/use forums?

The reason I ask is that I have used the new VB ok so far but I haven't used it with a high-use forum.

Thanks,
Redeye


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## Raylo

I can't mark my thread about Zinwell remotes in Home Theater "solved". Not sure if this is a result of the upgrade or what....

But the site is very much faster!


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## reventon

Site is running superbly. Thanks Andy.


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## WereBo

Yep, no problems with TSF in good ol' UK


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## Raylo

*This is odd....*

I just copied the below gobbledygook from my browser address window. This appeared when navigating "back" through threads here on TSF and the page reports " IE cannot connect to the web site...". Another "back" click got me back to the proper TSF page.

I have looged onto TSF from different computers this AM and they both did this (different threads, but not every time). Not sure if it is TSF or the computers but it hapens on 2 different computers so it's unlikely to be them. 

=========================================================
http://ad.targetingmarketplace.com/...52Fhome-support%252Fhome-diy-support%252F5129


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## Glaswegian

Hi

There does seem to be some issue with ads and using the 'back' button - Admin is aware of this and looking into it. Hopefully it will be resolved soon.


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## Andy R

I have emailed our Tech and the Ad Network to find a solution to resolve the back button 404 issue. I hope we can get that resolved in the first couple days of this next work week.

Redeye, you can look the bug tracker on vBulletin.com to get a sense for the issues. At this point we don't see anything compelling to upgrade so we are on a holding pattern letting v4.0 mature.

We do plan a new "skin" for the site in the next month or so. It will be a lot more polished and custom designed for TSF.


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## 2xg

Much appreciated. I'd ignore the error for now, no biggie. Thanks.


> I have emailed our Tech and the Ad Network to find a solution to resolve the back button 404 issue. I hope we can get that resolved in the first couple days of this next work week.


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## wolfen1086

the new server is running pretty good here in Va, faster than the old one, no problems with login or thread surfing, posting works, so far everything is totally operational.


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## joeten

Hi my connectivity to the site has been very patchy I had to run the flush dns instruction at least half a dozen times and have managed to get on twice this being the second


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## DT Roberts

Andy R said:


> I have emailed our Tech and the Ad Network to find a solution to resolve the back button 404 issue. I hope we can get that resolved in the first couple days of this next work week.
> 
> Redeye, you can look the bug tracker on vBulletin.com to get a sense for the issues. At this point we don't see anything compelling to upgrade so we are on a holding pattern letting v4.0 matur.
> 
> We do plan a new "skin" for the site in the next month or so. It will be a lot more polished and custom designed for TSF.


Now that's something to look forward to! The forum could definitely benefit from a more polished appearance.


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## vladimirb

Congratulations on fast moving


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## Poyol

Problems today?


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## WereBo

Well, I got on this morning and answered a few posts, when suddenly the email-link brought the 'Closed for Maintenance' notice.

I didn't even have time to put away all of yesterday's laundry (approx 10 shirts) before it was back working again - Nice one guys


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## Andy R

There might be minor periods of downtime as we upgrade software and do some optimization on the database. As you experienced, we will put up a site closed message and usually (hopefully) be done quite quickly.


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## Poyol

Thanks for the update Andy.
:smile:


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## kodi

Just tried to mark forum read and got this error message.


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## K-B

kodi said:


> Just tried to mark forum read and got this error message.


I came here to post about the same issue.

"Your submission could not be processed because a security token was invalid."


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## bruiser

In the "quick links" section, if the "mark forums read" is clicked, it doesn't work. You get a msg about a security token, and also to send a msg to the site administrator. Well, you can't send the msg to the administrator because you get the same security token msg. LOL


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## tetonbob

I have been able to mark forums read using the individual Forum Tools drop down, rather than the Quick Links.


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## 2xg

I try to modify my 'Edit your Details', and it's coming out with this message 'You have entered an invalid birthday'. FYI...I don't have my bday currently displayed. Just, whenever you may find time to look into this, no rush. Thanks.


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## tetonbob

kodi said:


> Just tried to mark forum read and got this error message.


This should be fixed now.


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## chezz 80

james.hot82 said:


> wow !! We are waiting....


could u help me please


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## chezz 80

do anyone know anything about burning issues


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## Old Rich

chezz 80 said:


> could u help me please










and welcome to the Forum


You need to post your question in the appropriate forum to get help . . posting in the middle of a non technical thread is likely to get lost. Be sure to state your problem


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## bruiser

Thanks for fixing the "mark forums read" problem.


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## dai

the server is not completing the reply again,it hanging on the last k/b having touse stop in the browser for completion


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## wolfen1086

Ok Maybe its me, or my lack to tech knowledge, but I have yet to even notice anything but faster speed out of TSF


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## Wrench97

Yep the speed is better, some of the backend has changed as far as search functions.


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## Raylo

And I haven't had a page not found DNS error yet since the maintenance. I would get these almost every day just prior and sometimes not be able to connect to TSF for hours. Whatever you guys did, you done good!


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## Poyol

It looks like the Edit Options page has changed as well... I remember there being a *random tick box* there that had no explanation what it would do if you clicked it...


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## Redeye3323

When I navigated to this forum (before logging in), I noticed two login bars...


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## TheOutcaste

Poyol said:


> It looks like the Edit Options page has changed as well... I remember there being a *random tick box* there that had no explanation what it would do if you clicked it...


They added the missing explanation, here's the Before shot and a picture of the text that was added:


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## WereBo

Aaahhh thank you ray:

I've been curious about that tick-box since I 1st joined, now I know - All good things come to those that wait :grin:


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