Major server upgrade; can you tell?
 

Everyone - You should now notice some improvement on the message board, and various other non-msgboard pages on both MustangWorks.com and FunFord.com also (More so on FFW than MW). Last night I finished building a box to replace the machine that had been running as our secondary server (a Win2K box); hosting our MS SQL and MySQL databases, MW & FFW MsgBoard files, as well as various other things.

Although, our Unix server still runs most of the web site pages and applications for MW at this time, the Win2K box does run the entire MW MsgBoard. The old machine was only a PII-300Mhz box with 128 megs of ram and it was getting the hurt put on it during peak usuage hours by the message board. However, the new machine that I've just replaced it with is a 1.6 Ghz AMD Athlon XP server with 784 Megs of 266Mhz 2100 DDR ECC Ram and has twin 7200 RPM ATA 100 40 GB drives running RAID 0. Can you say, big difference?

On this end (physically using the machine) it was like going from a 4-cylinder Mustang to a Mustang drag car! I hope that this serious upgrade improves life for everyone...

Re: Major server upgrade; can you tell?
 

Dan, those are some mega specs. Thanks though for breaking it down to us stangers.. :)

COOL!
Will have to give it a thumbs up!

Yeah, those are some impressive specs.

More Power is Always a Good Thing!

Is there any question as to the best stang site online??

NICE JOB DAN!

Thanks for upgrading!

Very impressive upgrade! Is that why the time is off? It's probably just my ISP, but it almost seems a hair slower. I'm sure it's just my end.

Take care,
-Chris

Beautiful! That old Pent. III served us well for a long time! :)

Hehe, nope, not PIII. We had a PII to work with. :)

I think response has improved, too bad I'm now on dialup...

For us computer geeks who understand all this, nice choice in upgrades. Too bad u didn't get the 10,000 RPM scuzzi drives (I think thats u spell it). Thats the only thing I would have done differently. Although that should be fast enough as is. It just would complemet the 784 megs of ram better.

Whoops I read that wrong!!

Well, I can't say I've notice much diff, but don't listen to me because I'm not here durring peak times, so I don't know how slow it is. It does seem a little faster, but again, not here durring the day. Also at work, I think the speed is something like 120, not sure.

good job dan, thanks for helping us out.:)

:D even if i am on dial up i see it a tad bit faster...thanks Dan;)

mustangman65_79 - I definitely agree. Using Ultra Wide SCSI III drives, regardless of drive RPM, would be much better. That's because SCSI drives have their own CPU built-in and do not utilize any CPU usuage from your systems processor. IDE drives have no CPU of their own, and therefore, rely totally on your systems CPU to handle all data transfer. This is why SCSI drives are much more expensive than IDE drives.

However, the new box I just built was just the first of four new servers I plan to add throughout this year for the sites. The next system in my grand plan is a twin processor 1.6 Ghz Athlon MP system based on a Tyan server motherboard with 1 Gb of DDR Ram and using twin 10,000 RPM Ultra Wide III SCSI drives running in RAID 0 mode. After this is completed, it will become our database server. At that point the databases will be moved off the new single processor 1.4 Ghz box I just built onto the twin processor machine. The single processor box will then just host servers.

After that, I will later build another twin MP system (just like the first) and at that point the Web server and application servers will move to it, freeing up the single processor box I just built to run just our FTP server, Email server, and reporting software.

The fourth box (another single processor IDE system) will be a simple Web server that serves all the images, media files (video, sound, and photos) for the sites, and run our advertising system. This box will replace the current Unix server.


Think all that will be good enough? :rolleyes:

Sounds like you have a lot of horsepower to play with :) I'm envious. Nice to hear the site will be gaining a bunch of speed!

Wow, Dan, you run all this from your house? Take a pic so we can see how cluttered that room is!! There must be a ton of wires going everywhere! I just have one computer in here with 50,000 wires! :eek:

jonnyk - Not yet really. I've just built the one new system so far, the other three I described will come throughout the next 6 to 12 months most likely.

JL1314 - I do not totally run everything from my house. Although I do have a home office where the Win2K server lives (now on the new box), which runs through a 1.1 Mb business SDSL circuit, the main server is co-located at a hosting company. That server is a Cobalt RaQ Linux box and sits behind the hosting company's multiple OC3 / 1 Gb network backbone. The main server hosts most of the applications and pages for the sites, as well as the main Email system and media files. All the sites images, and the videos and photos, are served from there because I have virtually unlimited bandwidth behind that box.

Eventually, when all the new boxes are built, I will dump that box, the hosting company :), and also the SDSL circuit I have and convert over to two T1 lines dropped directly into my home office. At that point I actually will be running everything locally.

But, beyond the one server I have sitting her next to me, I also have my own personal system that I do all my work (and play!) on. My system is an AMD Athlon 1 Ghz Thunderbird box with 384 Megs of PC133 RAM. It has an ATA100 40 Gb HD, an ATA100 100 Gb HD, a DVD-ROM, CD-RW, 250 Mb ZIP, GeForce2 Ultra card, a TV Tuner / Video Capture card, a digital Creative sound card with 3D audio, Firewire ports for digital video editing, a hi-end flat bed scanner, a and LexMark Z-95 1200 Dpi color printer. I use a 21" trinitron monitor and have a Boston Acoustics surround sound multimedia theater speaker system hooked to it.

Besides that, I also have my laptop sitting next to me on the desk that is a PIII-600 with 200 Mb of RAM. Then I have another system in my office on the other side of the room that is an older Pentium II-466 w/128 Mb of SDRAM on a 19" monitor that my Fiancee uses. Then we have an older Pentium 200 Mhz system with 48 Mb of RAM that is in my soon to be step-daugher's room.

All of which is connected on a LAN at 100 Mbits and jacked into the SDSL router & Firewall, which gives every system broadband Internet access.

Yeah, I guess I'm pretty wired these days... But, you have to understand this is what I do for a living (my regular career) and for my own business (Mustang Works). :D

Nice Job, that sounds like a nice server to me. Only thing is the internet in general gets faster, and my isp slows me down. I'm on cable I havn't noticed a real difference but I havn't been on to much and my browser/computer is messed. I think it's time for a format.

Take it easy,
§am

She's got a little more zip to her...although it's nice to have a cable modem that loads obscenely fast with a DSL or Cable will agree that we are corrupted...I couldn't use dialup again if I tried...would be too darn frustrating.

Good Job and Thanks, Dan. You're hard work really shows. I think everyone will agree that we appreciate it. :)

Dan, reading your last post reminds me of the rush I get going through the Snap-on truck. You are quite passionate with your work, and we are all the better for it! I'm jealous of your 21"! I just recently upgraded to a 19", but I love OS X and it's graphics so much, 19" quickly became insufficient. I want the Mac LCD 22" widescreen, but I haven't robbed any banks lately, so instead I spent 5 bucks on a twin turbo video card, and am using both my 19" and 17" right next to each other. I'm happy, but I could always be happier!:D

I've got a question for you. I live in a 3 story condo, and my office is in the basement, adjacent to the garage. That is where I keep my G4. I want to move my G3 up two flights to the master bedroom, and want to be able to use my DSL on both computers. Right now, my DSL enters in the garage, and goes to a DSL modem in the basement. From there, it's Ethernet to the G4. What would be the easiest way to run DSL to both computers? I only have one phoneline active, so I presume I could use some of the others in the cluster. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Take care,
-Chris

Wow, Dan, I'm impressed. Sounds like u really know what u are doing. More then me. I have a few friends around here that would drool over that kind of power.

I was wondering about how u make money off this site. I've always wanted to make my own, but not yet have I done it. I can't even think of a good idea to start one with.

About that T1 line. Have u looked into a T3 line. I heard they are like three times that speed. But not too sure if u can get one to your house. A T1 is really fast though.

SilverPoet - Thanks man! I greatly appreciate your compliments!

PKRWUD - Yeah, I'm a techno dude. Always have been. Technology gets me excited (shhh, don't tell my Fiancee! ;)). Any ways, yes - you can use your one DSL connection for as many computers as you want. There are two ways to accomplish this. You either have to use a DSL router that has a hub built into it or you have to use a stand alone hub, a proxy server, and one of your computers must have two network cards in it. The first way is much easier, but unless you have SDSL (business class DSL) you probably only have a DSL modem, with no hub, the plugs directly into your computers lan card/adapter. You could also purchase your own DSL router and configure it yourself, but that might be difficult for you to do if you don't know what you're doing and have no networking experience. For the later option, you just need to purchase/get a good proxy server program to run on one machine and install a second network card. Then you connect your DSL modem to one card, the second to a hub, all your other computers to that hub also, and then configure the proxy software to allow all the computers connecting your second nics (network cards) IP address to use the internet connection on your first nics IP. This will allow all your other systems to use your first system DSL connection utilizing NAT (Network Address Translation).

mustangman65_79 - Yeah, I'm drooling myself! :D If I can accomplish my goals for building the new servers and changing things over like I want all the sites will be set-up for LOTS of capability for expansion.

On the making money front, Good luck! It's hard dude. I barely keep the site afloat now from advertising, and I stick a sizeable amount of money out of my own pocket into it each year too. But, I'm looking to diversify into other ways of generating revenue beyond just advertising, so we're looking for a better outlook over the next year. It's taken me seven years to get this site and six years to get FunFord.com where they are now. It's been a long road.

Well, a T1 is quick and runs at 1.55 Mbps (Megabits per second). However, a T3 is much more than twice that speed. A T3 (or OC3) is about 29x the bandwidth of a T1, at ~ 45 Mbps. A T1 will run you in the range of $1000 per month on average generally and a T3 is extremely expensive, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Dan-
Thanks for the advice!

Take care,
-Chris