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Posted by: Imhotep Dec 27 08, 14:15

This is MM's 90,000th post

Guess I'll use it to let y'all know that the system monitoring tools have alerted me that one of the fans on the server's motherboard has failed and so needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, the motherboard we've now been running on since (as far as I can remember) late 04 early 05 is no longer made, and the new fans don't have the same size (won't clip on to this motherboard), and the only fans out there that will fit are refurbished (refurbished fans, that have the same bad service history of failing...) Luckily the computer right now is down in a cool area so the fan isn't really needed, but as we know, things running hotter than they should for longer than they should eventually do fail. I don't see it as being something that will fail in the next week or so but if it does I do have a temporary system I can use to bring things back up. So, for the time being I've set up an automated image program which copies the entire system to a backup every 12 hours (12:30 AM and 12:30 PM) so if the server does go offline the most data that could be lost is 12 hours worth.

On the bright side though, figuring it's a good excuse for building a new box and retiring this 5 year old one, I'm going to be building a new server over the next week or so (depending on how long it takes all the parts to show up). It's going to be a proper industrial-class server (rather than the retired desktop computer we had been using) with 8gigs of RAM, two CPUs, and two 300GB hard drives (set up as a RAID mirror again). If anyone's interested I'll post pictures of the assembly process. Once I've finished building and burning it in I'll set up a window to move the websites and databases over to the new box. Shouldn't take more than an hour at that point.

Take care!
I

Posted by: Eisa Dec 27 08, 14:38

Peter - you are so clever!!

Thank goodness we have you here with your expertise.

Snow

Posted by: Cleo_Serapis Jan 2 09, 07:08

Yeah -thanks I!

Wouldn't and couldn't have done this without you!

Much hugs - knowing Peter, the new server will be a "smoking hot commodity".

Best of luck with it when all the bits arrive!

~C

Posted by: Cleo_Serapis Jan 2 09, 07:09

Please refer to Peter's new post in this forum for the scheduled window of opportunity:

http://forums.mosaicmusings.net/index.php?showtopic=12906

He writes in the link above:

Greetings.

Looking at the tracking numbers it appears that all the parts for the new server will be arriving over the next week and that I should be able to deploy and configure the system so that I can move the final bits of data over on Saturday, Jan 10 2009. This shouldn't take more than 1 hour to do and the work should start around 08:00 EST (13:00 GMT).

I'll update this thread as things progress. For those interested I'll also have a thread with pictures documenting the assembly and installation of the new server posted soon.

Posted by: ohsteve Jan 2 09, 19:59

Can I have the old one, I don't mind putting a refurbed fan in place....just recovered mine from a nasty virus that got past all my protection and corru[ted almost everything, I think I finally wiped it out but had to replace my whole windows Xp pro software and a lot of other things, am glad I had things backed up on line and on DVD and CD. Still trying to get computer back to full optimization... what a pain.
Steve

Posted by: Cleo_Serapis Jan 3 09, 10:04

As promised, here are the phase 1 pics of Peter putting together the bits (not all parts in yet) for our new server.

I'll label them below.

Cheers
~Cleo and Imhotep



New case shipping box


New Processors (CPUs) in box


Side view of new case


Front view of new case


Case cable and screw kit


Drive bay Door open showing 8 slots for hard drives


Drive bay with one tray removed (shows hard drive connector for SAS drives)


Drive tray itself (lets drives be hot swappable otherwise known as remove while system is ON)


Inside the case with nothing installed except cooling fans and drive bays


Shipping box for motherboard


Motherboard screw, cable, and accessory kit


Motherboard


Motherboard installed in case

Posted by: Cleo_Serapis Jan 3 09, 10:09

Processor, heat sink, and cooling fan


Motherboard with processors and heat sink installed


Assembled case with motherboard, processors, cooling fans, and airduct for fans installed.

This type of case does not use the fans that came with the CPUs since the big green fans on the right blow more air on them through the duct. All that's left is memory, SCSI controller, and two hard drives then we can install the software and start burn in.


Pics below of Peter fitting the motherboard and trimming the cooling air duct.








The case is so HUGE, Pete could fit his head in it!

Posted by: Peterpan Jan 4 09, 13:58

QUOTE (Imhotep @ Dec 27 08, 21:15 )

This is MM's 90,000th post

Guess I'll use it to let y'all know that the system monitoring tools have alerted me that one of the fans on the server's motherboard has failed and so needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, the motherboard we've now been running on since (as far as I can remember) late 04 early 05 is no longer made, and the new fans don't have the same size (won't clip on to this motherboard), and the only fans out there that will fit are refurbished (refurbished fans, that have the same bad service history of failing...) Luckily the computer right now is down in a cool area so the fan isn't really needed, but as we know, things running hotter than they should for longer than they should eventually do fail. I don't see it as being something that will fail in the next week or so but if it does I do have a temporary system I can use to bring things back up. So, for the time being I've set up an automated image program which copies the entire system to a backup every 12 hours (12:30 AM and 12:30 PM) so if the server does go offline the most data that could be lost is 12 hours worth.

On the bright side though, figuring it's a good excuse for building a new box and retiring this 5 year old one, I'm going to be building a new server over the next week or so (depending on how long it takes all the parts to show up). It's going to be a proper industrial-class server (rather than the retired desktop computer we had been using) with 8gigs of RAM, two CPUs, and two 300GB hard drives (set up as a RAID mirror again). If anyone's interested I'll post pictures of the assembly process. Once I've finished building and burning it in I'll set up a window to move the websites and databases over to the new box. Shouldn't take more than an hour at that point.

Take care!
I

Posted by: Imhotep Jan 10 09, 08:12

OK, so Cleo got to throw the switch this morning and viola, here we're on the new box. I'll be working on tweaks for speed and stuff over the next few days (every server is slightly different and needs to be prodded some once it's been deployed) but I don't think there's much to do here.

PM me with any strangeness - they go to my email and I see them faster than if something is posted on the forum.

Thanks.
I

Posted by: Imhotep Jan 10 09, 08:43

OK, done a little tweaking. Just to show the not-fully-finished raw data, here's a before and after;

before:
Benchmarking forums.mosaicmusings.net (be patient).....done


Server Software: Apache/2.2.10
Server Hostname: forums.mosaicmusings.net
Server Port: 80

Document Path: /index.php
Document Length: 123194 bytes

Concurrency Level: 10
Time taken for tests: 31.429 seconds
Complete requests: 10
Failed requests: 0
Write errors: 0
Total transferred: 1235810 bytes
HTML transferred: 1231940 bytes
Requests per second: 0.32 [#/sec] (mean)
Time per request: 31428.526 [ms] (mean)
Time per request: 3142.853 [ms] (mean, across all concurrent requests)
Transfer rate: 38.40 [Kbytes/sec] received

Connection Times (ms)
min mean[+/-sd] median max
Connect: 1 3 1.4 3 5
Processing: 31226 31367 69.2 31414 31424
Waiting: 6147 6325 90.3 6377 6412
Total: 31227 31370 69.9 31418 31427

Percentage of the requests served within a certain time (ms)
50% 31418
66% 31419
75% 31422
80% 31427
90% 31427
95% 31427
98% 31427
99% 31427
100% 31427 (longest request)
[pclark@c3po ~]$

after:
This is ApacheBench, Version 2.3 <$Revision: 655654 $>
Copyright 1996 Adam Twiss, Zeus Technology Ltd, http://www.zeustech.net/
Licensed to The Apache Software Foundation, http://www.apache.org/

Benchmarking forums.mosaicmusings.net (be patient).....done


Server Software: Apache/2.2.10
Server Hostname: forums.mosaicmusings.net
Server Port: 80

Document Path: /index.php
Document Length: 123620 bytes

Concurrency Level: 10
Time taken for tests: 2.252 seconds
Complete requests: 10
Failed requests: 0
Write errors: 0
Total transferred: 1240070 bytes
HTML transferred: 1236200 bytes
Requests per second: 4.44 [#/sec] (mean)
Time per request: 2251.860 [ms] (mean)
Time per request: 225.186 [ms] (mean, across all concurrent requests)
Transfer rate: 537.78 [Kbytes/sec] received

Connection Times (ms)
min mean[+/-sd] median max
Connect: 0 2 0.9 2 3
Processing: 2200 2225 23.2 2243 2249
Waiting: 202 223 20.9 240 246
Total: 2203 2226 23.8 2245 2252

Percentage of the requests served within a certain time (ms)
50% 2245
66% 2248
75% 2249
80% 2251
90% 2252
95% 2252
98% 2252
99% 2252
100% 2252 (longest request)
[pclark@c3po ~]$


So. What does it mean? From what I can see, taking the numbers from before and comparing them to after, this new server appears (without even getting to full optimization) to be running about 14x faster than the old. Hopefully it'll translate to a better experience for all with less time to load the pages.

Posted by: Cleo_Serapis Jan 10 09, 09:56

Cool!

Just looking at the Time taken for tests:
31.429 seconds before
and
2.252 seconds after

WOWOWOWOWOWWO!!!!!

Posted by: AMETHYST Jan 10 09, 12:00

Oh my good Lord - So that is what a motherboard looks like??? that thing is hugh and mind boggling. I have enough trouble figuring out the step by steps already paved, and to think there are those (PETER) who understand all this like I understand washing dishes...

To both Peter and Lori, we enjoy so much of MM - It is an extension of ourselves and I know I don't often say how much I appreciate it being there to participate and develop my self -sometimes it is the majority of my socialization these days and well, I want to say thank you for providing it for our use. I KNOW how expensive it must be (actually I don't know, I can only surmise) and how intricate it is to maintain it. However, you do so for all these years and never complain and are always willing to add new features and skins for our enjoyment and ease of use -

Thank you for all you provide and I am so sorry I had been away so long while everyone else held down the fort pulling my weight... I hope to be more vital to the site and one day be able to share the expense and other duties that will help make it pleasuable for you too!

Big hugs and much gratitude to Peter for all the work and support he extends to our poetry world - and thank you to you Lori, for your gift of poetry and this world we take pleasure in.

Love ya, Liz

Posted by: Peterpan Jan 10 09, 12:40

QUOTE (Cleo_Serapis @ Jan 10 09, 16:56 )

Cool!

Just looking at the Time taken for tests:
31.429 seconds before
and
2.252 seconds after

WOWOWOWOWOWWO!!!!!

Posted by: Cleo_Serapis Jan 10 09, 16:48

Hi everyone,

To finish out the pics of the new server, here we go...


Hard drive controller card


Hard drive controller card installed with data cables


Data and control cables plugged into back of hard drive trays - this is the other side of where the drives slide into the case (see picture above)


Wide view of hard drive set up


Close up view of powered up controller card


Close up view of powered up controller card - doing self-test


8 gigs of ram (memory cards)


New server set up (in basement)


Cover off - peek inside


without flash


with flash (side view)


Front view


The smaller one on the floor is the FORMER server, lol - we just powered it down.


Front view with the new DVD drive installed under the red power button top right.

As you guessed, the new server is too big to stand upright on the stand, so we re-configured it sideways. The former server fit upright on the stand previously !