Big Changes Coming at HN...

**NexDog** · 08-10-2006, 08:02 AM

Been a while since I posted regarding updates and info rather than issues and an update is long overdue so here it is.

As you all know the New Jersey data center (FortressITX) has been going through a rough patch these past few months. The main problems have been an aging UPS unit and overloaded aggregate routers. Being one of their largest customers I talk with the upper management there almost daily and I know they have been working on huge changes. They have purchased a new UPS unit and are rewiring the whole data center. They are also redoing the whole internal network and each rack will have its own mini router rather than having thousands of server on one large router that can get overloaded.

This work will take a while but I expressed a wish to expedite the work on our servers and as we have so many the data center have offered to move all our servers into private racks. These racks have their own mini router and are also wired into the new UPS unit. So this move will consolidate all our servers and free ourselves of the issues the data center has been experiencing.

Another plus is that all the servers will finally have remote reboot ports so in 90% of cases we won't need to contact the data center if a server needs a reboot. We are also purchasing a KVM unit which will allow us to troubleshoot a server that won't boot rather than relying on data center techs that are not familiar with our server configurations. So on the infrastructure side, alot of things are happening to shore things up and improve service and I'm quite pleased with how things are developing.

All the above is necessary because we have other big things happening at HN and we need to make sure we are in a solid position in order to continue with this next phase of HostNexus. We have been working on a new site for a few months and I'm hoping we can launch it by October 1st at the latest. The current site has served us well in the last 3+ years but it's time for a change. We'll be updating all plans with more space and transfer etc and also we'll be launching VPS hosting and super-fast Ruby on Rails hosting. We're going to put out a proper HTML newsletter (probably quarterly) and there's going to be a blog that is sure to stir things up. I'll be posting more on all these things as they happen.

Weavers · 08-19-2006, 02:03 PM

Hi Nexdog

When will these very welcomed changes be completed?

Have you been moved to your own private racks while this work takes place?

**NexDog** · 08-20-2006, 09:41 PM

Move is still to take place. We are still arranging everything so not sure exactly when the move will take place.

WaterDog · 10-04-2006, 12:45 PM

Hi Laurence,

Anxiously awaiting the "changes". October 1st came and went. Do you have a new date?

Peace,

waterdog

**NexDog** · 10-05-2006, 10:01 AM

Still waiting for the new racks to get wired up right. We did a few test runs but I'm not satisfied yet. It should be getting done this month at some point but I don't have a firm date.

WaterDog · 10-05-2006, 01:19 PM

Hi Laurence,

The changes I was most interested in are those related to changes in plans and the forthcoming VPS hosting. I've had lots of problems recently related to other clients on my server (eta) behaving badly and taking my service or in some cases, taking all my sites down. While I'm not certain that I'm technically proficient ennough for VPS, I do know that I can't continue with other clients on the server doing things that take me down. Looking forward to the new plans and exploring the VPS option further.

**NexDog** · 10-05-2006, 10:55 PM

Linux VPS accounts will definitely be ready by the end of the month whether the new site is up or not. I'll email everyone at that time and put up a page with info if the new site is not up then (probably won't be). Also, we'll be offering management plans with VPS so you still don't need to be a linux geek in order to run it.

aztc2 · 10-23-2006, 01:35 PM

Any news on this or did I miss something?

**NexDog** · 10-25-2006, 11:19 PM

We are very close now - within a few days. The new racks are ready and now we are just auditting everything in preparation for the move. One hold-up is something new we are planning. At the moment all our servers backup to a monster central backup server over multiple public switches and the whole setup is becoming rather unstable. As traffic and usage increases the rate of backup (it runs 24/7) is not running quick enough to catch all data and is causing gaps and some domains not be backed up. This all becaime very apparent when Omikron had a meltdown a few weeks ago and some domains had 2 or 3 week old backups. Therefore Bogdan and I are developing a new system. All shared/reseller servers will have extra private network cards in them when moved to the new rack. All these servers will be connected to backup servers on a private network with 100mbit into switch and then a gigbit line out of switch to backup server. We will also be using commercial backup software (a Windows program with a nice management interface). Basically I want the most kick-ass backup system in the industry as I believe it's a foundation from which we can continue to build HN.

All the Windows servers are going to be moved first (around 20 servers) and this will happen in the next few daysl. Then we'll move the linux shared/reseller servers (another 25 or so) and after that we'll move all the managed linux boxes in two batches. In the future I plan to set up a third backup server, third switch and third network for all our managed linux servers put this will obviously be an add-on service.

JohnM · 11-06-2006, 07:51 AM

UP-DATE Please.