Tenths down time - 2nd-4th of December

EvilPumpkin · 1 Dec 2004, 08:11 (Ref:1168665)

Hi folks,

The long awaiting upgrade will be happening this weekend. However, due to the extremely large size of the database, it's going to involve some significant downtime.

The site will be unavailable from approximately 22:00GMT on Thursday 2nd of December to 22:00GMT on Saturday 4th of December.

Note: this has changed from the original scheduled time in order to accommodate the last championship round of the V8s.

During this period, Tenths will not be available. A holder page will be in place informing visitors of this.

It is possible that the upgrade will take less time than this, so you can pop back from time to time to see if we're back up earlier than scheduled! If we encounter any problems, we'll update the holder page with any new information.

Our Chat Moderators have asked us to remind you that the upgrade does not affect the chat room, so if you really need to get that motorsport chatting "fix" you can still do so!

If you are new to the chat, please take the time to visit the Chat Site for information on how to access, rules of chat, etc.

We thought you might have some questions and we've tried to answer as much as possible below. If you have any other questions relating to the upgrade, please post them to this thread and we'll do our best to answer them.

Why do we need an upgrade?
Technology moves onwards and so does software. The software that Tenths runs on has reached the end of its life for a number of reasons.

Product enhancements are no longer being produced for this version
Any known "bugs" and security issues with this version are fixed in the new version. It's no longer really possible to "patch" this version.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to get support for this version.

For all of these reasons, it was decided that we would need to do the upgrade if we wanted Tenths to continue to grow and thrive. We're not just upgrading for the sake of it - this needs to be done.

Why is it going to take so long?
The reason for the long outage is that we have well over a million posts to recompile!

It didn't take this long the last time changes were made!
No, but we did encounter a lot of problems. We do try to learn from our mistakes!

Whilst it is technically possible to keep the site running while the recompile is ongoing, it would be extremely slow and subject to timeouts. It would also extend the time it takes to complete the process. After much discussion, we've decided it's better to take the site down for this period than have a partially functional site which would cause frustration, double posts and much hair tearing!

Why now?
December is the quietest time of the year for Tenths. Weekends are the quietest time of the week. We narrowed it down to 3 weekends in December. We've decided to do it this weekend because that gives us 3 weeks until Christmas in order to "bed" the system in and address any problems we may encounter. We're sure you appreciate that none of us want to spend our Christmas break fixing software problems!We also believe that those of you who are going to have time off for the holidays would prefer a nice fully-functional Tenths for when you've had enough of crackers and turkey!

Are you expecting problems?
No....and yes! We've had the new software on test for 5 weeks now and have modified the system to meet our requirements. However, the real test is always going to be how the software performs with real traffic. We're hoping that we're not going to have any problems, but we have to be realistic and expect that there may be some.

EvilPumpkin · 1 Dec 2004, 10:34 (Ref:1168822)

Ok having revisited this, we're going to start the update at 22:00GMT on Thursday 2nd of December with a view to the board being back by Saturday 4th December 22:00GMT.

This should mean that, while we won't be available for practice and qualifying, we're back online before the V8 racing starts.

I'm going to update the inital post in this thread and also the announcements so don't be surprised when the info changes!

This is an informational thread, so can we please take the banter elsewhere - thanks

DanFlag · 1 Dec 2004, 11:52 (Ref:1168888)

Good luck to techs!

R59 · 1 Dec 2004, 12:17 (Ref:1168909)

Cor, does this mean you're upgrading to a 486 with a 40Mb hard disk?

Best of luck (I hate software upgrades on servers, I do I do I do!

Rob.

***MagnetON*** · 1 Dec 2004, 12:52 (Ref:1168938)

Quote:

Originally posted by racing59
Cor, does this mean you're upgrading to a 486 with a 40Mb hard disk?

The October 6th changeover was the hardware upgrade, site was moved to a dedicated Celeron 2.4Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 80Gb HD

**FIRE** · 1 Dec 2004, 17:33 (Ref:1169153)

Good luck

Knowlesy · 1 Dec 2004, 17:53 (Ref:1169171)

Hope all goes well!

mmciau · 1 Dec 2004, 19:34 (Ref:1169254)

Oh dear!!!!!

Lot's of slashed wrists here in Australia because of the build up to the V8s is as cut-throat as the actual race! Some of us will beside ourselves!!

Mike

Number Juan · 1 Dec 2004, 19:40 (Ref:1169256)

if it makes the site better im all for it

but i have a sneaking suspicion that its all a conspiracy to give the mods and admins a weekend off from the riff-raff knocking about here usually

ralf fan · 1 Dec 2004, 19:50 (Ref:1169263)

Best of luck!!
i wonder if some unfavorable members will "accidentally" get deleted from the DB..

mad racer · 1 Dec 2004, 19:51 (Ref:1169266)

if it any thing like are up grade from vhf to tetra radio
sooner you than me are dam techs still can not get it right you might speak to open spaces the last cock up was when the computer sent six 999 cars to the m62 on a m.c.d major cival disaster thats when you relie on technology 6month down the line can not get it right at least the track radio work on the padock

Hugh Jarce · 1 Dec 2004, 19:55 (Ref:1169270)

Let's hope its not to do with MS Service Pack 2 or I'll see you in the New Year.

***MagnetON*** · 1 Dec 2004, 20:00 (Ref:1169279)

Quote:

Originally posted by Hugh Jarce
Let's hope its not to do with MS Service Pack 2 or I'll see you in the New Year.

I'd never use any MS operating system for a production internet server. :P

We're using CentOS.

Dixie Flatline · 2 Dec 2004, 06:06 (Ref:1169508)

Having fought with our ADSL modem for a week before getting our brand spanking new broadband service to work about a month ago, I wish you all the very best of luck in getting the upgrade done without a hitch!

Break a leg!

jjd · 2 Dec 2004, 07:09 (Ref:1169521)

Quote:

Originally posted by EvilPumpkin
Ok having revisited this, we're going to start the update at 22:00GMT on Thursday 2nd of December with a view to the board being back by Saturday 4th December 22:00GMT.

This should mean that, while we won't be available for practice and qualifying, we're back online before the V8 racing starts.

I'm going to update the inital post in this thread and also the announcements so don't be surprised when the info changes!

This is an informational thread, so can we please take the banter elsewhere - thanks

Thanks for that EP,might be a bit of a hassle for you guys but thanks from the NZ and OZ people.

rdmdog · 2 Dec 2004, 09:43 (Ref:1169609)

Does this mean that due to the time difference between us here and you guys suffering winter in the northern Hemisphere, not only are you going to be jealous of the great weather we have buit you will have to wait to hear the result of the final round of our V8Supercars?

alfa_centuri · 2 Dec 2004, 13:04 (Ref:1169790)

Good Luck with the Upgrade!! we recently had a major Server update at work over the weekend.. luckly this time it worked.. the last times we had major problems for weeks after due to having missing files that the company didnt even know we needed!!

**Peter Mallett** · 2 Dec 2004, 13:06 (Ref:1169794)

S'ok. EP knows just where the missing files are.

Kicking-back · 2 Dec 2004, 13:10 (Ref:1169800)

Quick question - should we save/clear out our PMs or will they remain intact on the new set-up?

***MagnetON*** · 2 Dec 2004, 13:16 (Ref:1169804)

Quote:

Originally posted by Kicking-back
Quick question - should we save/clear out our PMs or will they remain intact on the new set-up?

PMs are converted over and will remain intact.

vandijk · 2 Dec 2004, 17:46 (Ref:1170035)

Will there be any changes for the affiliates using ID's in the links to 'their' formum and showing the 10 latest posts on their websites?

Good luck this weekend!
Sander.

***MagnetON*** · 2 Dec 2004, 17:55 (Ref:1170068)

Quote:

Originally posted by vandijk
Will there be any changes for the affiliates using ID's in the links to 'their' formum and showing the 10 latest posts on their websites?

Good luck this weekend!
Sander.

I've replied in more detail to this in the Affilates Forum.

John Newman · 2 Dec 2004, 19:57 (Ref:1170157)

Sodemall & go for it!!!!

SALEEN S7R · 2 Dec 2004, 21:58 (Ref:1170313)

Good luck with everything guys! Its almost time!

Kicking-back · 2 Dec 2004, 21:59 (Ref:1170319)

Good luck - it deserves to go smoothly.

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