Warning: This gets more boring as it goes unless you're a computer or web server geek.
Hey guys (and girls),
Most of you probably have not noticed this, but there have been several times in the last few weeks that the site has temporarily gone down for a few minutes.
This has been because of server overload. If you ever experienced your PC locking up or being sluggish because you were running too many programs, this is kind of the same thing.
The good news is that the site is doing great. Our traffic is phenomenal for a site with such a focused niche. The pipe smoker / collector market is really growing and so is PipesMagazine.com. There will be 2 more advertisers joining us in May too, and a third new one on the horizon for June.
Whenever the site goes down, I completely freak and start virtually screaming at a server tech on chat to re-start MySQL and Web Services, and then we come back up.
Ironically, the overload happens when the server can't handle the load of the automatic back-up system making copies of all the files and database, while serving up web pages and site functionality. The entire site is constantly being backed-up so we can recover from any catastrophic failures.
This was a new service I added a couple of months ago, which of course cost more $$.
Several months back I also added database caching to get the site running a little faster.
Later this week we will be upgrading the ram from 2 GB to 4 GB. That's as much as the current server can handle. There will be some down time, but hopefully not too much. I'm trying to get the guy to do it between 4 and 5 am, which is our slowest time.
Hey guys (and girls),
Most of you probably have not noticed this, but there have been several times in the last few weeks that the site has temporarily gone down for a few minutes.
This has been because of server overload. If you ever experienced your PC locking up or being sluggish because you were running too many programs, this is kind of the same thing.
The good news is that the site is doing great. Our traffic is phenomenal for a site with such a focused niche. The pipe smoker / collector market is really growing and so is PipesMagazine.com. There will be 2 more advertisers joining us in May too, and a third new one on the horizon for June.
Whenever the site goes down, I completely freak and start virtually screaming at a server tech on chat to re-start MySQL and Web Services, and then we come back up.
Ironically, the overload happens when the server can't handle the load of the automatic back-up system making copies of all the files and database, while serving up web pages and site functionality. The entire site is constantly being backed-up so we can recover from any catastrophic failures.
This was a new service I added a couple of months ago, which of course cost more $$.
Several months back I also added database caching to get the site running a little faster.
Later this week we will be upgrading the ram from 2 GB to 4 GB. That's as much as the current server can handle. There will be some down time, but hopefully not too much. I'm trying to get the guy to do it between 4 and 5 am, which is our slowest time.