Making sure that you see this. TGO Moving to new web server on Sunday 9/25

[TGO David]

Just making sure you all see this...

 

On Sunday, September 25, 2016 I will be moving the TGO web site to a newer web server.  When I do this, there will be a complete service interruption of a few hours.  This move will change our site's IP address which means that you all will slowly begin regaining access to the site as your Internet provider's DNS servers update with the new address.

If that sounds like Greek to you, just know that it could take anywhere from 1 to 24 hours or so depending on how aggressively your Internet provider updates its records.  We have zero control over this, unfortunately, so there is no way for me to speed up that process.

 

Why is this happening?

Web servers, much like your computer at home, run an operating system that eventually becomes "end of life" and requires replacement.  Think about when Microsoft retired Windows XP and told everyone that it was time to upgrade to Windows 7, otherwise they would stop supporting you.  Well, very similar in this case also.

Our current web server has taken care of us since 2011, but it is time to move to a new one.  I have already moved a few other web sites to the new server and it is doing fine, so I predict no problems with moving TGO.  However, TGO is undoubtedly the largest horse in the stable so I am going to be taking extra care to move it.

While some performance improvements are possible as a result of this move, that is not the primary motivation.  The real improvements for performance are planned for after I get us moved.  More on that is to come.

 

I'm going to go through withdrawals!

A lot of us will.   Be sure to keep tabs on our Facebook page and our Twitter feed while the move is underway.  I will post updates on both of those places as I can while I work.  If you don't already follow us on those two social media outlets, you can click below and then add them to your bookmarks.

• TGO Facebook Page
• TGO Twitter Feed

 

So when exactly does this start?

I am not sure of the exact start time yet.  You'll know when you see the site go offline and our maintenance notice go up. Just check back in a little while after that happens and you'll eventually be able to sign back into TGO and participate in the forums.

 

Thanks for your patience!

[RED333]

that pretty much covers it for me

[Raoul]

Have fun with the transition....

[DaveTN]

Monday the 26th is the first debate. That should certainly test the capability of the new server.  

 

[Just2Honor]

As a guy who can only identify a computer 2 out of 3 times (an electric typewriter by a TV gets me everytime) I appreciate your work to keep this site top-notch.    Thanks for your work

[Garufa]

37 minutes ago, DaveTN said:

Monday the 26th is the first debate. That should certainly test the capability of the new server.  

 

Good point.  May want to put off a week.  There's gonna be a lot of people that need to vent. 

[gregintenn]

Looks the same in here, but do you smell that??!!?

[TGO David]

Just now, gregintenn said:

Looks the same in here, but do you smell that??!!?

Taco night.  Sorry.

 

[TGO David]

Update 9/26/2016...

I completed the migration to the new server yesterday at around 7:00PM.  It undoubtedly took a few hours longer than I had anticipated, but delayed arrival beats never arriving, in my book at least.

Performance tuning of the new server is ongoing.  I have quite a few things that I intend to change over the days ahead, including moving a lot of our graphics and files over to Amazon S3 cloud-based storage to take advantage of their Content Delivery Network.  Basically this means things should speed up even more for us.

I also have an upgrade for the forum software that will likely happen sometime today (Monday).  If you notice us offline for a while today, that is why.

I again want to thank everyone for being patient while I got things moved over to the new server and for your continued patience while I keep tweaking and tuning the new server for the best possible performance.  Hopefully the work over the next few days will make TGO an even more enjoyable place to visit.

[jughead]

dont  want to be the only one to complain but looks like i will. it sure is slower than it was. hopefully it will be corrected shortly

[TGO David]

1 hour ago, jughead said:

dont  want to be the only one to complain but looks like i will. it sure is slower than it was. hopefully it will be corrected shortly

Yeah I am still fighting gremlins.  Sorry for the trouble.

 

[TripleGGG]

Pages are loading the fastest right now since the changeover.  

[TGO David]

3 minutes ago, ggwilde said:

Pages are loading the fastest right now since the changeover.  

I've still got a couple more tricks up my sleeve but I need to dole them out slowly with some time in between them to gauge what the results are.

Thanks for remaining patient with me.

 

[TGO David]

[rugerla1]

3 hours ago, TGO David said:

I'm literally watching this movie right now haha!