Okay, what's this server migration?

What the heck is a server migration and why is this happening now when it never has happened that I am aware of in the 7 odd years I have been a member. Someone please tell me what this means.

Probably they are transferring all the info and stuff (the guts of DG) to a new (larger?) server. Kinda like a more efficient and powerful hard-drive. Servers do wear out or become obsolete for the purposes. I would think the new owner's probably have an improved model. (???)

Hi Gourd, This is from Michael at IB last week.

Actually the current, all consuming project is to move DGs from its existing servers over to the Internet Brands infrastructure. This is currently planned for next week. This effort has included a lot of work by both Dave and our team to get the site ready and over the next week we'll be QA'ing a version of the site on the new infrastructure to try to catch as much as possible before we really hit the switch.


This message was edited Mar 3, 2010 7:53 PM

(she holds her breath in an all consuming fear of the unknown)

i think this has actually occurred before, maybe a couple of years ago. i remember when dave got new servers and we had to be off-line for a little while. i have severe memory lapses though, so maybe i'm dreaming it! lol

Hey folks, you all are fast. I was hoping to post before the questions started to arrive.

Yes, we are moving all of DavesGarden over to the Internet Brands serving infrastructure. This has never happened before because Dave had always run the site independently from the previous owners.

There are a number of methods of doing this, but the one we chose to follow (and we've proven works over the course of hundreds of these) is this:

1) A few weeks back we took a 'snapshot' of Dave's Garden and all the data associated with it and brought it over to IB
2) We then got it up and running on our own servers and have been working with Dave and our development team to make sure it runs properly.
3) Tomorrow we have to re-synch all the data so that when we bring the site up live to all of you on our platform it is completely up-to-date. Because there is A LOT of data (think all the posts, photos, etc), it takes us a couple of hours to get that all updated.
4) Before we turn on the site on the new servers will do as much QAing as possible to hopefully find any glaring issues
5) Then we turn the site back live and you'll all see the site working again.

However (BIG NOTE HERE) - there are always little things that don't seem to work exactly as they did before when we do this. And given that we don't (and can't) completely QA all the functionality by ourselves, we're going to have to rely on all of you to help us out.

I will start a separate thread tomorrow that helps you to log issues that you're seeing. We'll have developers here on standby making sure we fix things as they come up.

I hope that helps to explain stuff.

I also hope that between 10 and 1 pacific time that it's not raining or snowing too much where you are so you can get outside and get some early gardening done while we're doing the big move.

BTW, Gourdbearer, I hope you don't mind but I changed the subject of the thread so that not only will people continue to think you're brilliant, but that they'll know this is the place to look for answers about what the server migration is all about.

Hey Miguell...You couldn't have picked a better time for us here in Arizona...GREAT gardening weather...plus I have an early morning meeting...then on to the car wash....and the Targets for some shopping....Now...back home and my DG will be up and running again!! Good luck...and may you not encounter too many "bugs" Jo

We're hoping for few bugs - and hopefully those few will be cute and polite ;o)

(she holds her breath in an all consuming fear of the unknown)

Ditto

Not a problem here... work calls around that time of day.

But why the heck is it operating slow and giving me "bad dog" messages tonight!?!!
pod ~ the bad dog

Wouldn't it be the least impact to subscriber to do the migration during the least activity on DG, say at 1am - 4am pst?

its hard to get on and when i do the [page blanks out really fustrating

7 am eastern time here and the site and a lot of threads are taking forever to load. Took 4 minutes to see my post to a thread.

same problem here Imzadi, very frustrating

...and it seems every time I send a post I get that blessed time out message which deletes the lengthy (but eloquent) post I just made. Hard to keep my sense of humor.

no problems here so far. i plan on doing other things today and when i come back this evening-all will be well!

It was timing out a few minutes ago - and may still be slow from time to time this morning. (I've sent an email to alert some folks ;o)

its fustrating you get to your home page and once you leave it all kinds of things happen. its slow and timing out and other things. i hope it all goes well but now i am holding my breath

i think we should all do other things today and not worry about it.......all will be well; you'll see........

They are working on things right now, and there will be slow downs and time outs. Bear with us.

Let's try this thread for now:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1079436/

Miguel, that link just leads me to the forums homepage.

Are the times right on these posts? I was set for EST and your last post shows that you posted it at 8:50 PM on March 4th. Currently in EST it is only 5:57 pm. Since 8:50 PM hasn't occurred in EST, it certainly wouldn't have occurred yet in your time zone.

I'm expecting things like that but just wanted to let you know.

Here's a link to a new thread I started: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1079424/

Thanks, Melody. Server migration is something to be expected with new owners and
not a cause for panic. Of course it may be slow or erratic for a short while but we can
deal with it. It's like you occasionally have to do without your car for a day if it needs
a major tune-up. Makes you realize how important what you are doing without for a
short while really is to you. A few withdrawal symptoms and things will get back to normal.

MiguellB and Terry, Everything okay here at 7:14 am Pacific Time. I will be gone from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm so all should be okay by then. Thanks for the explanation.

Donna

Wow, it amazes me that so much info can be transferred over in such a short period of time. It seems almost impossible that in just 3 hours all of the thousands of posts/photo's and all information here can go from one server to another so quickly! The world of technology is awesome!

Hoping there will be few if any bugs but I'm sure if any are found, they will be exterminated quickly! ^_^

It is working better for me now. :-)

Coooolll! Looking at the times on my posts ~ I got me an alibi for today. lol

Please note that I've started a thread here to capture all server migration issues:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1079424/

thanks

The thread posted goes to the forums listings

A thread went missing ;o)

Here's a link to the thread I started as soon as the system was back up: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1079436/