Upcoming website downtime for major update

[Jason Denzel]

Hi everyone, 

 

Dragonmount is about to undergo some major server infrastructure changes in the very near future. 

 

Most notably, I'm moving the ENTIRE WEBSITE to a cloud-hosting service. This means that Dragonmount will “live in the cloud” using virtual servers and will no longer exist on the computers running in my closet. This will be the first time in our 24-year history that we won’t be running on hardware that I (or a friend) owned.

 

How it'll work:

 

1. I haven’t decided when, but the website will be offline for several hours someday soon. Probably at night. Maybe as soon as this evening.
2. Stage 1 will be that I will put the site into “Offline Mode” so that any visitors who come to the site see a maintenance page.
3. I’ll then copy all data from the existing servers to the new servers. 
4. After that, I will “flip the switch” so that all new incoming traffic will go to the cloud version of DM. Visitors to the site will either see a dead “Cannot find page” or will see the temporary offline page. Or maybe some other error page. Who knows.
5. I will run a million tests to make sure everything works.
6. I will fix the broken stuff. Hopefully. 
7. If things break badly after several hours, I will revert back to the old DM. Then we’ll try again later. 
8. But if things work great, then I’ll open the gates back up and DM will live on forever in the clouds. YAY!

 

I will update this post and/or reply to it when that task is complete.  I will also make a Twitter announcement when I bring the site down.

 

Best case scenario:  DM is offline for a few hours and works great after that. 

 

Why am I doing this?

• The site will exist in the cloud and not just my closet at home. 
• No need for me to manage hardware issues (like dead or degraded hard drives). 
• Lightning fast networking
• Even stronger firewall protection (although our current setup is awesome)
• Better load balancing
• If my house blows up, the site will live on. 
• If I ever decide to move to a new house, I won’t have to limit my search to places with ultra-fast fiber. 
• Because it’s 2022 and who the hell runs a website from their CLOSET?

 

Let me know if you have questions. 

 

Jason

[Jason Denzel]

Evening update (May 13): Made significant progress. But not ready to switch over. For the Jedi, it is time to eat (and sleep) as well. 

 

I will update this thread again when I resume another day. 

 

Goodnight!

[Elgee]

On 5/13/2022 at 10:00 PM, Jason Denzel said:

Because it’s 2022 and who the hell runs a website from their CLOSET?

 

You would have been unique if you kept on doing it! March to your own drummer, Jason! ?

[Arie]

On 5/15/2022 at 6:52 AM, Elgee said:

 

You would have been unique if you kept on doing it! March to your own drummer, Jason! ?

Doesn't he always? XD

[Jason Denzel]

AND WE'RE LIVE IN THE CLOUD. Please don't break anything.  

 

(email problems to webmaster@dragonmount.com)

[Arie]

Woo hoo!! 😄 

Thanks Jason!

[Elgee]

On 5/31/2022 at 1:42 AM, Jason Denzel said:

AND WE'RE LIVE IN THE CLOUD. Please don't break anything.  

 

(email problems to webmaster@dragonmount.com)

 

Fantastico!

If anything breaks, it's Arie's fault.

[Arie]

... since i live in the clouds.. that's legit.

[CaddySedai]

Thank you for always being such a good steward of our fandom @Jason Denzel