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Database Server Migrations

Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 11:47 pm
by Williams
Hi everyone

As I mentioned in January's monthly meeting, I'll be gradually migrating the fleet services over to new infrastructure, starting with the databases. I'll be in touch with COs hosted with us to arrange the best times for this, but this thread will keep track of the dates for each migration, as well as when each has been completed. Bear in mind that whenever a migration is in progress, anything that gets added to that particular site may not be saved if it happens to get caught after the backup and before the switch over to the new server.

I'll make an announcement on Discord at the times that the main fleet sites are migrated as well as posting updates here.

Fleet Sites
[D] - Main Website (IFS) - 14/02/2018
[D] - Fleet Forums - 11/02/2018
[D] - Fleet Wiki - 04/02/2018
[D] - Academy Training Nova Sites - 25/05/2018

Sim Sites
[D] - USS Gladiator - 04/03/2018
[D] - USS Highlander - 27/10/2017
[D] - Starbase 332 - 11/02/2018
[D] - USS Thames - 04/03/2018
[D] - USS Tomcat - 04/03/2018
[D] - USS Victory - 04/03/2018
[D] - USS Virgil - 04/03/2018

Legacy Sim Sites
[D] - NX Discovery - 04/02/2018
[D] - USS Endeavour - 04/02/2018
[D] - USS Farragut - 04/02/2018
[D] - USS Manoora - 04/02/2018

Uncertain Status Sites
[D] - USS Lexington - 15/07/2018
[N] - USS Melbourne - Current status TBD

Key:
N - Not Scheduled/Migrated
S - Scheduled for Migration
D - Migration Complete
Dates are in DD/MM/YYYY format

As a reminder, this round of migrations are purely in relation to the databases. Site files will be migrated at a later date, and I'll make the relevant announcements when that starts to happen.

Re: Database Server Migrations

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 12:10 am
by Williams
Migration FAQs

Why is this being done?
The main reason for the move is cost-saving; Pegasus Fleet's current hosting infrastructure costs a decent amount of money each month, and the cost can and has gone up. The new servers will cut the hosting bill for the fleet's sites significantly.
The secondary reason is one of ensuring resiliency. Currenty all the fleet sites, databases, admiralty emails, and everything else is all hosted on a single server; that means that if anything catastrophic ever happened to the server, everything would be affected. On the new infrastructure, the databases will be on a separate server to the sites, and the fleet sites will be on a separate server to the sim sites, and emails will be on a different service all-together; if anything were to go wrong with a single one of the servers, the others should not be affected. This also means that each can be backed up individually, and restored from backup that much quicker. It should also mean that the PFA remain contactable by their fleet email addresses even if the web servers go down.

If the main reason for the move is cost, will we have poorer quality servers after the move?
No. The main factor behind the cost of our current infrastructure is that a lot of the work of managing a server is taken away and made easy for those who are not necessarily tech-savvy. We don't use most of those features, and those that do we sometimes need work-arounds to get them to work the way that we want. The new infrastructure is very bare-bones, which means that we have complete control over it; but the versions of the OS running on the servers is actually more up-to-date than our current ones, and is easier to keep updated as a result of the simpler setup.

Will I notice any difference on my site after its database has been migrated?
Hopefully no. All that will change from your site's point of view is that it will be talking to a different server to pull in your data, but the connection between the two servers is a decent speed, so you shouldn't notice any difference. If you do have issues you think are related to the database after the migration, do let the webmaster know and provide as much detail as possible.

Will I notice any difference on my site after its files have been migrated?
The main difference that you will see once your site's files have been migrated is you will have to access a different server to upload or modify files for your site. The exact way that file management will be handled hasn't been decided yet, but the aim is to ensure that COs of hosted sims have as much control over the files for their sites as they do currently. More detail will be sent out about exactly how this will work when a solution has been decided upon.

Will I need to do anything when my site gets migrated?
I'll arrange a suitable day and (as much as possible with differing time zones) time with you to migrate your site's database, but other than that you shouldn't need to do anything other than inform your crew when the migration will be happening. I'll place your site into maintenance mode to prevent any non-admins on the sim from logging in to reduce the chance of something getting lost in the migration, and deactivate maintenance mode again once the migration is complete.

If the fleet emails are being migrated to another server, does that mean the PFA's email addresses will change?
No. The emails should hopefully be a 'lift-and-shift' change, and as far as contacting anyone with a fleet email address goes, you shouldn't notice any difference. Depending on how they access their emails, members with a fleet email address will need to either reconfigure their email client or log in to a different site to access their emails, but more information will be sent to those with fleet email addresses when the time comes to look at the options there.

Will it take longer for a new hosted site to be set up after the migration?
Hopefully not. It's already a fairly manual process as it is now, but I have a few different ideas for how to streamline the process of adding new sites to servers, so it may end up being a quicker process than it is today.

What does this mean for Nova 3?
For those of you in the know, the next version of the Nova software that runs most of our sim's sites will require PHP version 7+; all existing fleet sites are currently incompatible with this version of PHP and run on PHP 5.6. With the new server infrastructure of multiple, single-purpose servers, this means that it should be quite simple to fire up a new server running PHP7 for sims that migrate to Nova 3 when it comes out.