Database Upgrade Complete

[slug]

PBase.com is now running on a Sun V890 ( http://www.pbase.com/slug/sun_install) as the main database server. There are rougly 40 smaller Dell boxes running web servers and miscellaneous other jobs.

The upgrade went fairly smoothly and took about 14 hours. I was predicting 24 and thought it might take as much as 36. Most of this time was waiting for the the data to be copied from one machine to another and for the index rebuilds.

There were some performance problems for the first couple of hours since Oracle (the database software) hadn't yet collected statistics on the data and was making some bad guesses at query optimization.

It will be easier to measure on Monday or Tuesday when traffic is higher, but it seems like this machine is easily going to handle the load.
Right now it has four dual-core CPUs, 32GB RAM, and is attached to 24disks. We originally ordered 36disks, but due to some limitations of the disk arrays, we ordered another 12 which should be here next week.
When we attach the second group of 24 disks, I'm guessing the I/O capacity of these disks will be at least 6 times that of the previous machine. Even better is the fact that because of the increased memory, the disk I/O will be less than half of the old machine.
So this machine should be able to handle far more traffic than we do now.

And if we run into performance problems later, this server still has room for another 4 dual-core CPUs, and another 32GB RAM. Even more disks are easy too add as well.

We're really glad to finally have a serious machine in place. Instead of struggling with overloaded equipment, we'll be able to concentrate on improving the software. We still have lots of smaller servers to fix up to improve reliability, but this new Sun will be a solid foundation for everything else.

For the last several months, my phone has been ringing all day. The database is configured to message my phone when ever it's having trouble which has been far too often. I'm looking forward to the silence.

-slug

[luc_vn]

Let me be the first to reply to this good news...

Congratulations Slug, Emily and the rest of the gang.
I am really happy to see that Pbase is having the foundations it deserves.

Keep the good work up and enjoy... as we, the users, do...

Kind Regards,

Luc VN

[jachurch]

And it's fast - very fast . Congratulations on an upgrade well done.

[jmphotography]

Job well done to the PBase team, your hard work will be appreciated by everyone.

Kind reguards
Josh, Sonny, and Cher

[srijith]

Let us drink to 'silence'

[wiggims]

Thanks Sounds Good!

[hansaplast26]

Thanks Sounds Good!

It is indeed fast; but as of today some out of my pictures are gone (there is nothing more then a red cross)!
For some pictures only the thumb is gone, I can help myself with that one by regenerate thumb, but some images are totally gone.

Not sure if this has to do with the update, just reporting it. Yesterday (11-Feb it was still allright)

[earthling]

Blistering performance! Well done and thanks.

[all_sports_pics]

congrats, it's realy fast.
but strange, after your update I had a Trinity and an Agnieszka gallery in the populars, now, 8 hours later, you put them on the blacklist again. and this galleries dont contain any nudity!

[erichmangl]

congrats, it's realy fast.
but strange, after your update I had a Trinity and an Agnieszka gallery in the populars, now, 8 hours later, you put them on the blacklist again. and this galleries dont contain any nudity!

there is no user LYNN24 !?

[dougj]

Congrats to the PBase team!

As srijith said, I too am looking forward to a particular type of silence

[all_sports_pics]

hi erich,
this is an other problem with pbase!
lynn24 is all_sports_pics!
here is one of the galleries they put on the blacklist:
http://www.pbase.com/all_sports_pics/aga6
best regards.
Jean-Claude

[all_sports_pics]

and here is the other blacklisted:
http://www.pbase.com/all_sports_pics/triny6

all_sports_pics (lynn24)

[janschiphorst]

Congratulations Slug & Emily,

Thanks,

Jan

[mamazmeilor]

definitely faster! Hopefully this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship with pbase for the grumpier users:)
Thanks,
Crina