CIC Gets a Big Server Upgrade (August 22, 2021)

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator



One of the less visible - but perhaps most important - updates we have this year is a massive server upgrade. The previously dedicated hardware and connection date back to early 2014 and were starting to show their age. KrisV has been laboring nonstop over the past couple weeks to get the CIC moved over to a brand new host and system. Individual elements have been briefly brought down and restored nightly, and the disruption has probably gone unnoticed by almost everyone.

The highlights are listed below, but the net effect is that the end user capability is some ten times as powerful in the areas that count hardware-wise. The operating system side has also seen a nice boost, which supports general web browsing plus services like the Forums and Wiki. It's hard to convey just how critical this kind of maintenance is, but we couldn't keep the CIC going without all of Kris' technical expertise in this area!


  • Hardware:
  • NVMe storage (was SATA HDD)
  • 32GB memory (was 4GB)
  • 1Gb/s uplink (was 100Mbit/s)
  • Improved CPU

  • Software:
  • A fresh OS install with a long support horizon
  • HTTP/2 should make for faster pageloads
  • IPv6 (soon)

--
Original update published on August 22, 2021
 
Out of curiosity, is the server run privately or being hosted by a third party somewhere? Is it okay to mention what specific OS is being used?

Indeed, most of these improvements will (and probably should) be transparent to the average user. Eventually we'll all have to use IPv6 but my ISP doesn't run on it yet.
 
Wow, that really is some long in the tooth hardware well beyond its expiry date. The upgrade was much needed to more modern equipment. I'm surprised the old server lasted that long.
 
Wow, that really is some long in the tooth hardware well beyond its expiry date. The upgrade was much needed to more modern equipment. I'm surprised the old server lasted that long.

Oh, not only was it obsolete, but we were still paying top 2014 dollar for it! :) The new gear is also slightly cheaper.
 
Back
Top