I am planning on moving to a new host for GPL coming up in December. Something that is better for WordPress hosting than my current setup and cheaper. When I saw the renewal for my current host at $399, I feel that is just too much to ask donations from the users. So I decided that it was time to move the site.
I am going to be moving from "A Small Orange" (ASO) as a host over to GoDaddy (GD) Managed WordPress hosting. This will make GPL faster and less prone to crashing on busy nights during the season. I have worked with GD quite a bit in the past with my previous job. So I am fairly confident on their hosting. I am mostly concerned with speed and being able to handle the load. ASO just cannot do what I need anymore. Yes we are on a more powerful server with ASO, but it is just not optimized in anyway for Word Press.
I think I will just get 1 year of hosting from GD for now. The plan I want will be $228 (WP Ultimate) that first year which is certainly better than $399 from ASO.
So what is going to happen here?
Step 1: Moving the domain. (DONE)
I have started the process of moving the domain over to being hosted by GD. This process will take 5-7 days. (Announcement on the Portal page) Once the domain has been moved over, I will need to add some settings so the domain still points to the hosting that is still currently on ASO. So it is very likely that GPL could be down for a few days or so while the DNS settings propagate. So I am guessing that this will happen next week at some point. Just not sure when.
Step 2: Moving ASO server over to GD. (Mid December)
This process is a a bit tricky. Once the "winter break" starts for the team, that will be a good time to move the content from the old host to the new host. I will give you guys a heads up on when this happens. But essentially what will happen is that I will locked down the message board. This means that no one will be able to post on it for a few days. Then I will move all of the site content over to the new server. Once I get that up and running, I will have the domain point to the new server and we should be good to go.
I will keep you update on how everything is going. But changes are coming!
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Step 1: Moving the domain. (Next 5-7 days)
I have a feeling that this may come through on Friday. Not ideal on game day, but it is out of my control. Hopefully I an get the domain pointing to the correct server with minimal downtime.
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Step 1: Moving the domain. (Next 5-7 days)
Domain moved.
BUT
I have changed how the DNS works and I am not sure how it needs to be set. So if GPL disappears, that will the the reason why.
Basically I have to set up the DNS to point to where the GPL Server is currently hosted. It is confusing and I HOPE that I did it correctly. If I did, nothing will happen. If I didn't, GPL could be down for a few days. This is one of the pains of moving and this is the first part. But hopefully it goes smoothly. We'll see.
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I think it worked Jup, your post shows.
What have I got? I got no snacks and I got no respect.
Travis-age 6
I think it worked Jup, your post shows.
Not quite how it works... DNS changes can take up to 48 hours for changes to propagate the internet. but I did have the new host verify that I set it up correctly. So I think we are good. But I will know for sure in a few days.
Now I plan to wait until the December break for the team until moving to a new server.
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Looks like we are good to go with DNS settings for now... So now I'll wait until after the Wisconsin series when the team goes on break before I start the process of moving to a new host.
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Step 2: Moving ASO server over to GD. (Mid December)
This process is a a bit tricky. Once the "winter break" starts for the team, that will be a good time to move the content from the old host to the new host. I will give you guys a heads up on when this happens. But essentially what will happen is that I will locked down the message board. This means that no one will be able to post on it for a few days. Then I will move all of the site content over to the new server. Once I get that up and running, I will have the domain point to the new server and we should be good to go.
I am going to make this change starting on Monday, December 19th. The site will still be up and running while I make the changes, but the message board will be locked down since I need to keep all of the data synched from the old server to the new one.
Once I get everything moved over and I am happy with the results, I will point the domain to the new host. This is where it will take 24-48 hours for the DNS changes to be picked up across the internet. Some could get access quickly, while others may not. But you know it will be good for you once you see the message board up and running again.
So... more to come.
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GPL withdrawal symptoms already setting in...
Thanks for the heads up and hope the transition is smooth!
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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I wonder if my current host knows that I plan to switch away from them in a few weeks? GPL has been quite slow to load the last 12 hours or so. Yet there is very little "load" on the server. Under 2 for server load right now which is pretty decent compared to 10 when we are busy. So it is not traffic causing it to be slow.
I cannot get away from them fast enough...
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Glad it’s not me.? Nowadays I just assume everything is due to my aging phone hanging on for dear life.
Good luck with the switch Jup, thanks for working to keep us up to date!
Glad it’s not me.? Nowadays I just assume everything is due to my aging phone hanging on for dear life.
Well... That is most of it for you. Brent's flip phone works better than your iPhone 7.
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One minute the site loads instantaneously, the next minute, it takes a bit. Very hit or miss right now.Glad it’s not me.? Nowadays I just assume everything is due to my aging phone hanging on for dear life.
Well... That is most of it for you. Brent's flip phone works better than your iPhone 7.
When you tell somebody somethin', it depends on what part of the United States you're standin' in... as to just how dumb you are.
Whoa… Just saw what the hosting cost increase would have been if we stayed with the current host. It was going from $399/yr to $479/yr. Yikes!
So glad we are leaving!!!
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Especially with as sketchy as the server has been the past week or so. At times just this morning it's either taken 5 seconds or 10 minutes to refresh a page. Very glad you're already prepped and lined up to move somewhere better.
Keep up the good work.
B1G refs... corrupt, or just incompetent?
I thought it was just my connection this morning. Apparently not. The current host could not find any issues. (Shocking)
I may try to move up the switch to next week. We’ll see
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I couldn't get into any of the "Unread Posts", on my android phone ( was able to access "Schedule", etc). I was able to access them all, on my desktop. Sure hope the move to the new server helps my phone access.
Phone access has nothing to do with it. This is all on the current host being up and down.
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The strange thing for me is that I can access via cell, but not via my home network. Yet my home network is accessing everything else just fine.
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It's all over the board for me. One minute it loads quickly on the laptop, then it doesn't. You made the correct call to jump off this ship and move to a new server.
I'm 50% factual and 50% sarcastic. When you get to know me, you will know which is which.
The strange thing for me is that I can access via cell, but not via my home network. Yet my home network is accessing everything else just fine.
I’m having the same issue at work. Phone works on data but not work network. Similar issue I had a couple weeks ago
I am the official Iowa Hawkeye football fan of GPL!
Looks like we are back to normal.
Apparently the DNS server needed to be restarted. Just rebooting the main server didn't fix anything. The problem was that I could not get to the main control panel to restart that service.
DNS issues is why it would load at time and not at other times.
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The reddit.com/r/sysadmin mantra: It's always DNS. Even when it's not DNS, it's probably DNS
Definitely looks like it's back to normal now.
B1G refs... corrupt, or just incompetent?
The reddit.com/r/sysadmin mantra: It's always DNS. Even when it's not DNS, it's probably DNS
Definitely looks like it's back to normal now.
The problem is that I have never seen this kind of behavior to diagnose the problem. Even if I did, I could not get to the main server control panel to restart it anyway. The guy in chat needed admin assistance to figure it out too.
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The reddit.com/r/sysadmin mantra: It's always DNS. Even when it's not DNS, it's probably DNS
Definitely looks like it's back to normal now.
The problem is that I have never seen this kind of behavior to diagnose the problem. Even if I did, I could not get to the main server control panel to restart it anyway. The guy in chat needed admin assistance to figure it out too.
That's what makes it so painful. Without fairly low-level access to the systems, it can be almost impossible to diagnose properly.
I certainly wasn't saying that as a dig at you, I know from long experience how intermittent issues with DNS, or even just slow response from DNS are a nightmare to figure out.
I'd guess it was slow response from DNS causing the issue due to overload/memory leak/something like that. When that happens, you'll see most connections failing or taking an extreme amount of time, but every now and then, you get one that slips through the cracks, catches DNS at exactly the right moment when it just got done dropping a bunch of connections, and can answer, then 10 seconds later, it's busy again. (Please note, even with my experience with this, I sure didn't figure it out, I can just see it in retrospect, and it all fits)
B1G refs... corrupt, or just incompetent?
Looks like we are back to normal.
Apparently the DNS server needed to be restarted. Just rebooting the main server didn't fix anything. The problem was that I could not get to the main control panel to restart that service.
DNS issues is why it would load at time and not at other times.
When I first couldn't get on earlier today I figured the Mother Ship had blocked the site.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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When I first couldn't get on earlier today I figured the Mother Ship had blocked the site.
That is the 1st thing I thought as well.
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Nice to have things back to normal again, no problems this morning here at work. There were lingering issues before the end of work yesterday, long loading issues.
I am the official Iowa Hawkeye football fan of GPL!
Step 2: Moving ASO server over to GD. (Mid December)
This process is a a bit tricky. Once the "winter break" starts for the team, that will be a good time to move the content from the old host to the new host. I will give you guys a heads up on when this happens. But essentially what will happen is that I will locked down the message board. This means that no one will be able to post on it for a few days. Then I will move all of the site content over to the new server. Once I get that up and running, I will have the domain point to the new server and we should be good to go.
I am going to make this change starting on Monday, December 19th. The site will still be up and running while I make the changes, but the message board will be locked down since I need to keep all of the data synched from the old server to the new one.
Once I get everything moved over and I am happy with the results, I will point the domain to the new host. This is where it will take 24-48 hours for the DNS changes to be picked up across the internet. Some could get access quickly, while others may not. But you know it will be good for you once you see the message board up and running again.
So... more to come.
Moving this up to Monday, December 12th
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Good luck, hope it goes well.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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Some of you may have seen an offline message in the last few minutes or so. Was just doing some testing of what the messaging is when the board is offline during the move.
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Saw it, preparing for Defcon 1. 😉
When you tell somebody somethin', it depends on what part of the United States you're standin' in... as to just how dumb you are.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saw it, preparing for Defcon 1. 😉
One thing that is nice is that the site will still be up and running. Just the message board will be offline. I will use the top of the Portal Page to post the progress on the move. After the move is done and the domain is pointing to the new host, it will take 24-48hrs for the change to take effect.
But basically... If you see the message board is back up and running, you will know that you are on the updated host site.
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Appreciate all the work you do. Damn, it's incredible. Not brown-nosing, but that's a lot to do for basically free.
When you tell somebody somethin', it depends on what part of the United States you're standin' in... as to just how dumb you are.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue
The message board will be shut down sometime around noon today. Not sure when it will be back up, it will all depend on the transfer to the new host and the domain updates. But probably at least a few days.
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NOOOOOOO!!!
rabble rabble rabble
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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It will be tough, but I think I can survive.The message board will be shut down sometime around noon today. Not sure when it will be back up, it will all depend on the transfer to the new host and the domain updates. But probably at least a few days.
I just want to say... Good Luck, we're all counting on you 
B1G refs... corrupt, or just incompetent?
After checking the clock...
B1G refs... corrupt, or just incompetent?
I'm 50% factual and 50% sarcastic. When you get to know me, you will know which is which.
@jupiter Well done, Jup. It was as if you had never left.
(My shaking from withdrawal can stop now....)
That was fast
It will take a few days for the site caching to catch up, but it will slowly get faster and faster as the cache gets more active.
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That was fast