Steven P. Administrators Posted June 22, 2013 Administrators Share Posted June 22, 2013 Many of our long term visitors will know that we've had some slowdowns recently on the site, also without the obvious issues of upgrading the forums. We've determined that we need to replace at least one database server that we bought five years ago, so we'll be ordering a new one next week. It will be a new 128GB server. Costing $5400 before any additional discount from Dell (typically another 10%) and includes 2 6 core Xeons (vs the 1 4 core in the current db machine) we're also going with an additional two SSD drives (as well as two sata drives) and may need to replace at least one or two Apache servers, although the old db server could be repurposed for this too. The Apache servers are even older than the db server that will be replaced :p I want to give thanks to Kris Kwilas at Stardock for organising this, and Brad Wardell for pushing through this much needed upgrade as well as Dave and Marcel for endlessly tweaking our current setup to allow Neowin to run as smoothly as it can despite the obvious need for the upgrade. Without going into too many details, we've had to turn a few things off (mostly just for staff, not our members) in order to keep the site up and running for our visitors. As with any site, we have outgrown our current hardware and well, we're doing something about that. So I want to give thanks to our loyal visitors for whitelisting Neowin or buying a Tier 2 subscription, this is where your money goes, to make your visit here more worthwhile in the long run. Also thanks to our staff who have been very patient throughout the upgrades, and things breaking/going missing in the background. Elliot B., cyoung1616, yes i'm here and 17 others 20 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n_K Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 You've been running the entire neowin db off a single 4 core server? The fact it's had only a few slowdowns is pretty remarkable!Congrats. LaP, cyoung1616, benbuffone and 6 others 9 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V-Tech Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 You are doing a great job guy's and replacing one server to make things better is great news.... Thank you.... Happy to contribute as much as I can :) Steven P. and Yusuf M. 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Frank B. Subscriber² Posted June 22, 2013 Subscriber² Share Posted June 22, 2013 If any of you have thought about buying a subscription before: Now would be the perfect time. cyoung1616, Yusuf M., Steven P. and 1 other 4 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven P. Administrators Posted June 22, 2013 Author Administrators Share Posted June 22, 2013 You've been running the entire neowin db off a single 4 core server? The fact it's had only a few slowdowns is pretty remarkable! Congrats. No mate, we have two db servers, the newest one is something like two and a half years old, one does the forums and the other one does the news although i'm not sure which db the oldest server does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phouchg Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Consider another 10% off - send the bill to Rappeh :p Roger H., Steven P., Yusuf M. and 1 other 4 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theyarecomingforyou Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Consider another 10% off - send the bill to Rappeh :p Well, he probably does account for 50% of Neowin's forum posts and bandwidth usage. :laugh: Yusuf M. 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cryton Subscriber² Posted June 22, 2013 Subscriber² Share Posted June 22, 2013 If any of you have thought about buying a subscription before: Now would be the perfect time. Link? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+John Teacake MVC Posted June 22, 2013 MVC Share Posted June 22, 2013 Honestly I have never experienced Site Slowdowns at all. But good work guys keep it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Frank B. Subscriber² Posted June 22, 2013 Subscriber² Share Posted June 22, 2013 Link? https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?app=subscriptions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven P. Administrators Posted June 22, 2013 Author Administrators Share Posted June 22, 2013 Link? Hidden in the "more" menu :p https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?app=subscriptions Ah beaten to it, thanks Meph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystic Mungis Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Link? https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?app=subscriptions EDIT: Ohh whoops, looks like we have a convoy on our hands :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cryton Subscriber² Posted June 22, 2013 Subscriber² Share Posted June 22, 2013 Thanks all :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleNeutrino Veteran Posted June 22, 2013 Veteran Share Posted June 22, 2013 always good to see the hardware behind the story get an update as well, also if you get me the specs of the server you want i might be able to work with my contact at dell and see if i can get you any further discounts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Anarkii Subscriber² Posted June 22, 2013 Subscriber² Share Posted June 22, 2013 And you better take my money again when my current sub ends Mr Steven or there will be hell to pay! *shakes fists*:POn a serious note, im glad that my sub money is going to a worthy cause :) Steven P. and Yusuf M. 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperKid Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Apache is so power hungry, if you dumped Apache and used an alternative like Nginx you would get so much more out of the current hardware for the web server. Obviously the database is usually what causes the most slow downs to a website so the upgrade on the database server is probably going to increase the site speed loads! :) TSP 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshall Veteran Posted June 22, 2013 Veteran Share Posted June 22, 2013 I'll sub again Steve, gimme a couple days (Y) Steven P. 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Callaham Reporter Posted June 22, 2013 Reporter Share Posted June 22, 2013 It's always fascinating to read about the inner workings on a site like this, even if you work for it :) Steven P., djdanster and Yusuf M. 3 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V-Tech Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Somewhere deep deep Inside me i was hoping/wishing i was paying for :pint: :pint: for the staff here......... I guess upgrading the servers is o.k as well :rofl: :rofl: Steven P. 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan R. Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Happy to contribute to a site like Neowin :) Steven P. 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dead.cell Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Subscribed. You guys took care of me when I literally had $10 in the bank, as I had won a free subscription through a contest. :P That being said, yes, I'm broke again, but that's because I've got a good job and just dropped money on a new car. So thank you to all the staff out there who bust their butts and keep this site operational. Much love. :beer: Steven P. and Yusuf M. 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djdanster Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Fantastic! So what's the downtime expected? :P. Seriously great news though! Glad I've subscribed for a number of years, and thanks to Stardock! Steven P. 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeerFan Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 So nice to see updates like this... thank you!!! I've resubscribed. Steven P. 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharpGreen Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 Can I have the old server? :P Phouchg 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 I need to buy again, Will do the Tier 2 this time. I've brought Tier 1 - Enhanced Service twice now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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