server questions

[7thsage]

ok, I just had a few quick questions. I just signed up for hosting here(it takes time I know, but that's not my question). At my previous host, I had some issues with downtime. I understand that some will probably be expected. but the problem I had was that the host was on the same server, and any time the server was down, I was left completely in the dark. sure the forums talked about the downtime, but I couldn't get to them until the problem was fixed. Is that a similar case here? or are the forums on a different host? If they are on the same host, is there some outside method of getting updates like twitter?

[Guest Geoff]

but the problem I had was that the host was on the same server, and any time the server was down, I was left completely in the dark.

 

This will be the case here until approximately January 1. After that, the new server, charlie will be up that will be using VPS.

 

Already, djbob just purchased unlimited bandwidth, which is a brand new feature, however 'fair use terms' do apply. (Eg: No file hosting, sites with 1000 simultaneous visitors, ect.)

 

Also, we are trying to get a stack exchange site up so that we can have a support site thats not dependent on heliohost itself. I would recommend that you commit there. (Link in my signature).

[Wizard]

Read the Support FAQ.

[7thsage]

Read the Support FAQ.

where does the support faq answer any of my questions? I could see nothing about how to obtain information when the server as a whole goes down, which I just reread, and read before I posted. like I said, my main concern is when the server goes down, where can I go to get info that at least tells me the problem is being worked on, and if its something thats been down a couple days, an estimate of when it might be back would be helpful.

 

from what geoff said, it sounds like my guess was correct, and the forums will go down along with the rest of the server, making them useless for sitewide outages, however its at least useful to know if its just my site. I'll look into the stack exchange thing geoff mentioned.

[Guest Geoff]

the forums will go down along with the rest of the server

 

This will be the case here until approximately January 1.

 

In case you didn't understand, this won't happen any more after a few months. The downtime rarely happens any more, usually it only happens for a few hours. Heliohost is getting better and better.

 

Also, if you want to look at the downtime stats: here is a dedicated monitoring server.

[Vladimir90]

I also have question about server downtime... After moving the server to another location or whatever (if I got it right from your comment), how often will we experience the server downtime, and why is this happening?Also, I don't know too much about server technology. And in recent days, I really got disappointed with getting message like "Establishing connection with database failed"... Is this happening because of server being down? And will it be really constant or only during some period in a day... Maybe sounds stupid, but I'm newbie

[Guest Geoff]

Sorry about the confusion. Let me explain.

 

Heliohost (including helionet, and all the sites hosted by heliohost) run on one (1) server named Stevie. The total number of accounts running on stevie is around 1000.

 

Now, you are probably running windows, so Imagine if you had 1000 user accounts on your computer. I bet that your computer wouldn't even make it that far. By the time you got to 100, your computer would be completely frozen/locked/crashed.

 

However, since stevie is a server, he/she/it handles the number of user accounts quite well most of the time. But, things happen, and sometimes stevie gets overwhelmed.

 

Now that you (hopefully) understand our current situation, lets move on.

 

Heliohost recently bought a new server named charlie. This server will half the number of accounts running on stevie, so instead of running 1000 on 1 server, there will only be 500 on one server. However, charlie is not set up yet.

 

(With me so far)

 

The server will also do some things, like prevent other users from crashing your account through a process called virtualization. This will further reduce downtime.

 

Now, djbob, the admin promised us he would have charlie configured and setup by the first part of january. However, there are no guarantees, and djbob is really busy, so we will hope that he finds the time to fulfill this promise. You have to remember that he is a college student (at least I think he is), so he is busy with that also.

 

(Read again if you don't understand)

 

Hopefully you got that all.

 

EDIT:

 

I thought I had read somewhere that there was about 1000 accounts, but that information must have been out of date.

[Vladimir90]

Thank you, everything is understood. Sorry for the inconvenience, I had to ask, and I'm glad I did... Thanks for being the best host ever...

[Ashoat]

Actually, the total number of accounts on Stevie is currently closer to 25,000. But perfectly accurate on all the other points.