AfterDawn.com servers upgraded, timezones implemented

Discussion in 'Forum announcements' started by Ketola, Oct 12, 2007.

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  1. Ketola

    Ketola Turned ninja Staff Member

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    The day that we all (well at least many of us.. or some) have been waiting for ages has arrived -- the AfterDawn.com servers have been upgraded. Our old servers had been running at peak capacity for over six months now, and there was very little left to optimize. The new server setup that we switched over to today should dramatically improve response times across the site.

    The switch may cause some oddities until DNS updates propagate to everyone. You might want to clear your browser cache and restart the browser to help speed up the change.

    Along with the new servers we introduced individual timezone settings for the users. You can access the new user settings page at http://login.afterdawn.com/settings/. The timezone is set under Edit settings. Under the settings page you can also define whether or not you want to 1) subscribe to discussion threads by default and 2) use your signature in forum posts or news comments.

    The server switch and timezone implementation may cause some weirdness during the transit period (e.g. forum posts showing up in wrong places).

    For those interested in tech specs, here's a rough outline of our current setup:

    Database backends: 2* Dell PowerEdge 1900 Dual Intel Xeon 5130, 8GB RAM, SAS RAID 10 array
    Web backends: 4* Dell PowerEdge 840 Conroe 3040, 1GB RAM, SATA
    Statistics and static data: 1* Dell PowerEdge 840 Conroe 3060, 4GB RAM, SATA discs
    Advertisements: 1* Dell PowerEdge 840 Conroe 3060, 4GB RAM, SATA RAID-1
    Load balancing: Foundry ServerIron XL
    Download servers: 6* various configurations with various specifications
    Off-site development servers

    If you encounter any problems with the new servers please let me know by posting to this thread.

    --AfterDawn.com staff
     
    Ketola, Oct 12, 2007
    #1
  2. Dela

    Dela Administrator Staff Member

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    Saaaaaaawwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetttt!!! :)
     
    Dela, Oct 12, 2007
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  3. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    Very nice indeed. However one thing i've just noticed is the 'Email notify' section is missing something. In the previous system we had the subscribed threads broken down into pages ie we could delete individually, or a page at a time. In the new system there's only 1 page of threads listed, which means i'm 24000+ threads amiss.
    Also the total of subscribed threads is about 3000 out compared to how many i was subscribed to previously. Only reason that concerns me is that there's potentially 3000 threads that i will no longer receive emails from..

    (a night or 2 i could access the old and the new links to the profile setup so i was able to see the discrepancy for subscribed threads so i know there's thousands gone missing)... I can see the post count is correct, i don't worry about post count, just mentioning it for completeness ie it seems that just the subscribed threads feature isn't quite right...

    edit- just a few minutes browsing the forums and what a difference a few new servers makes, pages load much more quickly than normal
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2007
    creaky, Oct 12, 2007
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  4. Ketola

    Ketola Turned ninja Staff Member

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    Thanks for reporting the problem, creaky. It seems that the template was not properly copied to the new system.
     
    Ketola, Oct 12, 2007
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  5. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    No problem Boss, i'll keep my eyes peeled for anything else; but for now am too busy enjoying the speedy responses from the new setup :)
     
    creaky, Oct 12, 2007
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  6. DEVINRL

    DEVINRL Regular member

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    very nice, i like the idea of the individual time zones. Speed improvement is very nice too. Good stuff.
     
    DEVINRL, Oct 12, 2007
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  7. smokyrain

    smokyrain Senior member

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    Thats a nice setup ... I agree. I also like the Afterdawn/My account Page, it looks great. I have never had any problems on Afterdawn anyway but I like your upgrades and improvements. Good job to all you and thanks for all your hard work in this site.
     
    smokyrain, Oct 12, 2007
    #7
  8. Phlax

    Phlax Guest

    Nice one :)

    Edit: Something I've noticed...

    http://login.afterdawn.com/settings/my_settings.cfm

    Code:
    Newsletter
Do you wish to receive our weekly newsletter?
Yes  No
    When you click "yes" and save settings, if you go back into it, it has reverted back to "no". Well, it's happening to me anyway :-X
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 13, 2007
    Phlax, Oct 13, 2007
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  9. attar

    attar Senior member

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    Not getting any notification of thread updates!!
     
    attar, Oct 13, 2007
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  10. Phlax

    Phlax Guest

    Have you changed your settings yet?
     
    Phlax, Oct 13, 2007
    #10
  11. attar

    attar Senior member

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    In my profile, this is set and wasn't changed.


    "by default "Check this box, if you want to get email notifications when new messages are added to this thread." - is checked."

    NB this thread is on My "Subscribed to" list.
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2007
    attar, Oct 13, 2007
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  12. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    Haven't been able to access the forums or home page of AD for a while now, been getting this - [​IMG]
     
    creaky, Oct 13, 2007
    #12
  13. attar

    attar Senior member

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    I was getting the same screen - also, even though I subscribed to this thread, I never got email notification that the thread was updated.
     
    attar, Oct 13, 2007
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  14. ChrisC586

    ChrisC586 Regular member

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    Same error I was getting all night long but cleared up about an hour ago, working fine now. Chris
    When I tried using feedback it either gave me a blank page or the error again
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2007
    ChrisC586, Oct 13, 2007
    #14
  15. svtstang

    svtstang Regular member

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    I am encountering problems similar to some other people....new threads that I subscribe to are not showing up under "My Account." If I click "See list of your forum posts" they show up though.
     
    svtstang, Oct 13, 2007
    #15
  16. ChrisC586

    ChrisC586 Regular member

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    Everything seems right now. Pages are loading right up and updates coming through. Chris
     
    ChrisC586, Oct 13, 2007
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  17. svtstang

    svtstang Regular member

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    Really Chris? I am still having issues.

    According to My Account

    [​IMG]

    Actual subscribed threads found in my forum posts

    [​IMG]
     
    svtstang, Oct 13, 2007
    #17
  18. ChrisC586

    ChrisC586 Regular member

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    Yes my subscribed and posted to are showing up all okay.Everythings working right as far as I can tell, I'm getting email updates,one thing I couldn't do is get on AD last night or this morning. But right now this is running like a champ. The only thing I haven't checked was the newsletter links that were way off in left field this morning. Chris
     
    ChrisC586, Oct 13, 2007
    #18
  19. attar

    attar Senior member

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    I'm still not getting email updates.
     
    attar, Oct 15, 2007
    #19
  20. ChrisC586

    ChrisC586 Regular member

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    I've got email updates and site is loading the quickest it ever has. Chris
     
    ChrisC586, Oct 15, 2007
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