Forum host upgrade - proposal

[Ted Hess]

On 8/16/2024 2:37:31 PM, "Koen Vandeputte" 
<koen.vandeputte at citymesh.com> wrote:

>
>
>Op do 15 aug. 2024 01:06 schreef Hauke Mehrtens <hauke at hauke-m.de>:
>>On 8/12/24 22:11, Stijn Tintel wrote:
>> >
>> > On 8/12/24 15:33, Robert Marko wrote:
>> >> On Sat, 10 Aug 2024 at 17:54, Ted Hess <thess at kitschensync.net> 
>>wrote:
>> >>> Hi all -
>> >>>
>> >>> Those of you who visit the forum have probably noticed its, 
>>sometimes
>> >>> extreme, sluggishness over the last several months. Since April, I 
>>have
>> >>> worked on and applied a number of attempts at tuning, cleanup and
>> >>> storage re-arrangement to try and alleviate these issues. As best 
>>as I
>> >>> can determine, we have have just simply exceeded the capacity of 
>>the
>> >>> current Droplet CPU and RAM. To upgrade to a system with 2X 
>>CPU/RAM
>> >>> (4vCPU/8GB -> 8vCPU/16GB) will increase cost from $48/mo to 
>>$96-112/mo.
>> >>> The difference in cost is a "Regular Intel" vs "Premium Intel"
>> >>> processors. The Premium (latest Xeon) option will provide enhanced 
>>NVMe
>> >>> SSDs which would improve DB performance (a bit). I think it would 
>>be
>> >>> worth $112/mo for maximal impact on the responsiveness of the 
>>forum. AMD
>> >>> vs Intel - cost is the same. AMD may be slightly higher GHz.
>> >>>
>> >>> Are there any objections / reasons why we shouldn't go ahead and 
>>do the
>> >>> upgrade. There are a couple of methods available however, the 
>>down-time
>> >>> will probably be 1-3hrs. if no problems. This isn't the first 
>>system
>> >>> upgrade we have done, so I expect no issues.
>> >>>
>> >>> If any of you wish to see some of the forum performance stats, I 
>>can
>> >>> post another message with numbers and personal observations. A 
>>quick
>> >>> overview of what our daily forum activity looks like:
>> >>>
>> >>> * Serving 120-160K page views. (about 25% attributed to crawlers - 
>>a
>> >>> different discussion)
>> >>> * 6-8K mail messages generated
>> >>> * ~1100 User visits (signed-in)
>> >>> * ~200 engaged users (liked or posted)
>> >>> * ~500 new posts
>> >>>
>> >>> Footnote on bandwidth usage... (DO charges bandwidth on aggregate
>> >>> Droplet use)
>> >>> Proposed Droplet upgrade will add 3TB to our total.
>> >>> I don't have per-Droplet stats, but last month we transmitted 
>>~29TB of
>> >>> our 25TB allowance. A $40 overage cost.
>> >> Hi Ted,
>> >> I am for upgrading the droplet as forum is probably the main point 
>>of
>> >> interaction
>> >> in the OpenWrt community.
>> >>
>> >> But, like others pointed out, we maybe should look for a more
>> >> affordable host
>> >> then DO as they are quite expensive.
>> >
>> > We use DO because they sponsor us USD 5000 to use their services. If 
>>you
>> > look at the current costs, upgrading another droplet will cause us 
>>to
>> > use up the USD 5000 before they expire. Please keep that in mind 
>>before
>> > doing anything that will increase cost.
>> >
>> > Stijn
>>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I think it is fine if we invest some money into the server for the
>>forum. From my point of view it is fine to upgrade the server from
>>4vCPU/8GB -> 8vCPU/16GB for an additional ~70$ per month.
>>
>>We should consider to move some resources to other providers like
>>Hetzner, but we can do this later.
>>
>>
>>Hauke
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>openwrt-adm mailing list
>>openwrt-adm at lists.openwrt.org
>>https://lists.openwrt.org/mailman/listinfo/openwrt-adm
>
>Hi all,
>
>Is there any interest in my proposal for hosting the forum at Citymesh? 
>(Free of charge)
>Datacenter team has given a Green Light internally.
>
Koen -

Thanks for the offer. From what I can tell, this is not Citymesh's core 
business. And, as Stijn pointed out, we exist at DO essentially for 
free. What we have at DO for services beyond just a system + network are 
backups, monitoring, easy (re-)configuring, local private network 
access, hard console access (for when it don't startup). fixed IP 
addresses and DNS management. They also host our mailer (MTA, SMTP & 
POP3) which is integral with the forum.

I would prefer not to move out of DO unless we have to for reasons of 
cost and/or performance - not fun.

/ted