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New Server/Planned Upgrade on 2/19/2016 3pm EST

Mike Labbe

Forum Administrator
Forum Help Team
Messages
4,201
Location
Lincoln, RI
Company
Get The Picture
Service Outage Alert:
construction.jpg


PPFA Framer's Corner (and several chapter websites, which are hosted on the same server) will be moving to a new data center and server on Friday, February 19th. We are moving from Texas to Colorado. :)

We expect this change to happen after 3pm on Friday, with about 2-4 hours of downtime for the forum. The forum will be turned off/locked after 3pm on Friday, so new posts don't accidentally go to the old server. The chapter websites should stay up through the conversion process, without interruption.

We have been having some ongoing technical issues with the current data center, and the result has been a forum that is slow during peak hours. The data center was bought out by a larger company, and the quality of service went downhill with this sale. We are switching to a privately owned company, that takes pride in the quality of their service. The new server is using a RAID 10 array of multiple SSD (Solid State) drives, which are lightning fast. It also uses a software platform which claims to be 9 times faster. The result should be a MUCH faster and reliable forum.

When this change happens, it can take individual internet service providers from 1-72 hours to process the new address change and update their servers. For most large ISPs, the change will happen in about 1-2 hours. If you don't see the new forum (back online) by Saturday morning, hang in there because it will be back soon after.

Best regards,
The moderator team
 
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We are still on schedule to lock the server today at ~2:45pm EST, and move the contents to a new data center in Colorado.

Once this happens, the domains will be re-pointed to the new server and the system will go online.

A message will display on the old server to explain this, because not everyone will see this change immediately. (it depends how long it takes your internet provider to pass along our address change/dns) For most, it should take about 2-3 hours, but in extreme cases it can take as long as 72 hours.

Sorry for the down time, but it will be worth it. The new server promises to be 10-20 times faster, and should make browsing the forum much more enjoyable.

-Mods
 
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Thanks to you Mike and your team.

Thanks for all of your help. Many of us don't realize how much 'free time' you [and others in the moderator group]spend in helping maintain the sight. :smile-new:
 
The conversion completed at 8:45pm on Friday. We ran into some problems and it took longer than expected.

The new server seems very fast!
 
Many thanks for all the work you do to make a great place where we can share thoughts, ideas and struggles. Your efforts are truly appreciated!
 
It's a team effort, and we enjoy it.

What we need is more people posting new topics and making this THE PLACE TO BE for the framing industry. Don't be shy :)

Chapter Leaders exchange
is open to current board members from every chapter, to share ideas. Committee chairs each have a private sub forum set up for their committee business, to save the need for inefficient and expensive conference calls. Exchange can be ongoing and fluid, by using the forums. Chairs should email committees@ (this domain) to have folks added or removed from your 2016-2017 roster. We will adjust their access accordingly, once we receive your email.

We're also very open to suggestions, for how to improve the forum. Are there any new public sub forums that would be useful? How can we improve this resource?
 
Thanks, Mike and the crew! :first:

As a suggestion, I think that sometimes the "Corner" can be a little rigid.
Do I want the political cr#p and "Facebook" stuff on the other site, NO!

I wish that the Framers' Corner could reach out to other people, not just PPFA people talking to PPFA people.
It's kind of like "preaching to the choir".
We get it, but what about the design companies that we deal with and even our walk-in customers?
 
The migration has been finished, and the old server was turned off today. (we switched last Friday, but it was standing by in case of trouble)

The only pending issue is that we're having a problem with the forum sending out emails when someone registers, or when they try to contact us with the CONTACT US link. A trouble ticket is in with the software vendor to work this small issue out.

Now let's get posting and increase participation, to make this a daily visit for all framers! :)
 
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