[Chad]

Since 2007 MacInsiders has grown leaps and bounds, now with over 12,700 members and well over 500,000 pageviews a month, we've reached the limits of our existing server. While the next step of moving to a dedicated server comes at a steep price, it is definitely needed to take MacInsiders to the next level as our community continues to grow. This will be our third server upgrade since MacInsiders first began, and we're really excited.

What does this mean for you? Well, a dedicated server. That's what. Blazing fast speed, power, flexibility, and oh.. did I say speed? Plus we'll be able to run chat scripts again, meaning full-featured MI Chat will be back. We're happy to be working with a Canadian company running out of Montreal who will be hosting the new site, and having a dedicated server in Canada instead of the US is a great benefit.

The Great MacInsiders Blackout
What has been coined the great blackout already by some, MacInsiders will need to go down for 24-48 hours during the transition from one server to the other (update: The forums are what will be closed to new posts while databases are transitioned, the site will most likely still be up during the transition but in a 'frozen' state). We will be posting updates and a schedule for this in the days to come. While the site transitions, a temporary chatroom will continue to run for those who want to stay connected to the MI community during the transition.

A big thanks to the folks over at ThisWebHost have treated us well these past years!

Stay tuned for updates as they are announced.

First!...12 characters 12 characters (sofa/couch...water water)

Nice, the improvements to chat are much needed, soo much lag at some points
The chat bot is pleased

Why the 48 hour downtime? If it's because of DNS, there are ways around it..

Any downtime is bad for a site. Even scheduled downtimes..

I guess I'll have to try and survive 48 hours without being tempted to check MI :(.

48 hours? What the hell do you expect me to do with my life?

Originally Posted by lawleypop

48 hours? What the hell do you expect me to do with my life?

Eat, sleep, shit, fap, repeat.

Originally Posted by SilentWalker

Eat, sleep, shit, fap, repeat.

I don't do 3 of those.

Originally Posted by lawleypop

I don't do 3 of those.

Well I guess you better start now.

Originally Posted by lawleypop

I don't do 3 of those.

Damn, you must be really constipated.

The domain's DNS can take 24-48 hours, usually only 24. The site may be up and running so you can search and find posts, but forum posting will be disabled since we can't have members posting new posts on the old server, as we need to download a copy of the database and move it over to the new server which takes time, requires testing, etc. We don't want members to be posting threads and replies only to lose them all when the new server is up.

Thus, while the DNS propagation occurs, the forum will be closed to posting, but the site will STILL be up.

Originally Posted by Chad

The domain's DNS can take 24-48 hours, usually only 24. The site may be up and running so you can search and find posts, but forum posting will be disabled since we can't have members posting new posts on the old server, as we need to download a copy of the database and move it over to the new server which takes time, requires testing, etc. We don't want members to be posting threads and replies only to lose them all when the new server is up.

Thus, while the DNS propagation occurs, the forum will be closed to posting, but the site will STILL be up.

What you do is on both servers, you run the site from one DB. Do the DNS change and have no down time.. Then what you do is you slowly replicate your DB over to your new DB and when in sync, you failover. It's a hassle to do, but there is no downtime..

Thanks snaps, greatly appreciate the suggestions.

"when in sync". Sounds much easier than it really is. The vbulletin database MacInsiders is running off is HUGE, and being able to do the replication and such you're mentioning is near impossible on shared hosting we're on now.. we don't have the type of access needed other than the ability to do a full download of the database at once. Luckily we're going to be able to do a full cpanel to cpanel transfer with help from our current host, but in order for the forums not to have overlap, we need to close off posts and 'freeze' the forums while the database is downloaded and moved over.

Luckily we're hoping to have a working version of the site up on the new server while the DNS transfer takes place so visitors will definitely see SOMETHING and not a 404 while the domain transitions, so there shouldn't technically be any 'downtime', but the forums will be closed off temporarily for a short period of time.

Hey, we'll live right? Anyways, 2 days without MI is probably gonna be a good thing for most of us.

Originally Posted by Chad

Thanks snaps, greatly appreciate the suggestions.

"when in sync". Sounds much easier than it really is. The vbulletin database MacInsiders is running off is HUGE, and being able to do the replication and such you're mentioning is near impossible on shared hosting we're on now.. we don't have the type of access needed other than the ability to do a full download of the database at once. Luckily we're going to be able to do a full cpanel to cpanel transfer with help from our current host, but in order for the forums not to have overlap, we need to close off posts and 'freeze' the forums while the database is downloaded and moved over.

Luckily we're hoping to have a working version of the site up on the new server while the DNS transfer takes place so visitors will definitely see SOMETHING and not a 404 while the domain transitions, so there shouldn't technically be any 'downtime', but the forums will be closed off temporarily for a short period of time.

thiswebhost.com says you have SSH access. Do they not give you access to the MySQL server configuration? That would be all that you need to set up replication.

/Edit
Maybe try contacting them. Let them know your situation and see what they can do for you..

//Edit
What you can also do is at some point, take a dump of the db, put it on the new server, then make the site read only, and transfer only the changes since you have taken the dump. Down time will be a couple of hours instead of two days.

Im sorry.. i really get into things like this.. im gonna shut up now.. lol