various news 05-Aug-2004
Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2004 5:37 am
Faster deletions/updates.
just finished rewriting various programs that manage where all the image files live. there are 70+ millions files, and at least two or three copies of them. (not including copies on backup tapes)
some of these files are served from servers that didn't update immediately.
the effect of these improvements will be that when you delete/rotate/re-upload/recompress or in any way alter one of your images, the changes should show up within 30 minutes or less.
previously, someone would delete or modify and image, but direct links to the old image would continue to work which was often undesirable.
this problem should be solved now.
an invisible but important side-effect is that this new method, aside from being better and faster, will consume much less bandwidth as the servers communicate with each other.
New hardware.
we've ordered a new database server which should improve performance and provide more capacity. this one will have four 3.0Ghz Xeon MP processors and 32GB RAM. it will be be a while before it's configured, tested, and ready to go. when we do switchover, there will be a period of between 12-24hours during which no editing or uploads will be possible, but viewing will be as usual.
we also have another 4terabytes of storage ready to install as well more webservers and a new load balancer.
software in progress.
emily is finishing up the password protection feature to allow upload and edit permissions on a per gallery basis. this means you can put an upload privilege on a passkey, which would allow people with the password to upload to your gallery without having full access to your account.
it all seems to work, but we're doing a little more testing.
we've been rewriting a bunch of code to make it easier to add new features. for example there are several miscellaneous gallery options that have been fully or partially implemented for a while now. they aren't available yet, simply because i haven't wanted to make the gallery edit page any more confusing than it already is. after this rewrite, we'll have different sections of the gallery edit page so the less used options can be in their own place.
-slug
just finished rewriting various programs that manage where all the image files live. there are 70+ millions files, and at least two or three copies of them. (not including copies on backup tapes)
some of these files are served from servers that didn't update immediately.
the effect of these improvements will be that when you delete/rotate/re-upload/recompress or in any way alter one of your images, the changes should show up within 30 minutes or less.
previously, someone would delete or modify and image, but direct links to the old image would continue to work which was often undesirable.
this problem should be solved now.
an invisible but important side-effect is that this new method, aside from being better and faster, will consume much less bandwidth as the servers communicate with each other.
New hardware.
we've ordered a new database server which should improve performance and provide more capacity. this one will have four 3.0Ghz Xeon MP processors and 32GB RAM. it will be be a while before it's configured, tested, and ready to go. when we do switchover, there will be a period of between 12-24hours during which no editing or uploads will be possible, but viewing will be as usual.
we also have another 4terabytes of storage ready to install as well more webservers and a new load balancer.
software in progress.
emily is finishing up the password protection feature to allow upload and edit permissions on a per gallery basis. this means you can put an upload privilege on a passkey, which would allow people with the password to upload to your gallery without having full access to your account.
it all seems to work, but we're doing a little more testing.
we've been rewriting a bunch of code to make it easier to add new features. for example there are several miscellaneous gallery options that have been fully or partially implemented for a while now. they aren't available yet, simply because i haven't wanted to make the gallery edit page any more confusing than it already is. after this rewrite, we'll have different sections of the gallery edit page so the less used options can be in their own place.
-slug