Sometimes, things just don't work out...

Greebo

Greebo

N9017H - C172M (1976)
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
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10,976
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Baltimore, MD
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Retired Evil Overlord
Four months ago, Pilots of America opted to switch hosts from GoDaddy to MediaTemple. Performance and cost were the primary reasons for this move. And, at the time, it seemed to be working out well.

However, it hasn't been perfect - we've had issues with time, and some freezes. And of course, while cheaper, it isn't free.

And of course, moving to MT didn't give me any more time to support the server properly.

So - in order to address all three factors at once, the Pilots of America Management Council has accepted Jesse Angell's generous offer to take over hosting of the POA Servers, and designated him the official PoA Technical Administrator.

Jesse will be assuming the duties of our hosting provider, and assuming all costs of operation (and since they are his servers, that means not only does hosting PoA become free for us, its no added cost to him).

Most of you know Jesse - he's a long time active contributor to the community. His technical experience, and his unquestionable dedication to the Pilots of America Community, led us to the conclusion that nobody else would be better suited for taking on the role of ensuring that the hardware behind PoA is running smoothly, continuously, and with proper maintenance.

Please join us in welcoming Jesse Angell officially to the PoA Operations Team, and wishing him luck in his new responsibilities with us!

Welcome, Jesse, and THANK YOU!

The Pilots of America Management Council
 
Here here! :)

as your first trouble ticket, I need root ... :)
 
Congratulations, Jesse, and THANKS!

Remember, we're all counting on you! :yes:
 
gprellwitz said:
Congratulations, Jesse, and THANKS!

Remember, we're all counting on you! :yes:
Click to expand...
Yes we are. :D

The aliens are lying in wait for their next victim...
1a.gif


Thanks Jesse!
 
Thank You for your support and hosting. It is appreciated..

Bill in Cypress, Texas
 
So, it's official... we switch from dumping on Chuck to dumping on Jesse? :D

Congratulations on being accepted for the job.
med3d-bravo.gif


I have great confidence it's going to be a much smoother operation when the move is complete.
Thumbs_Up.gif


We know there won't be any of this going on...
Asleep_at_Desk.gif


And, us grateful users will no longer be doing...
med3d-virus.gif


It's gonna be...
med3d-deltaplane.gif
 
Atta Boy Jesse !

Thanks

Tom D.
 
Greebo said:
Jesse will be assuming the duties of our hosting provider, and assuming all costs of operation (and since they are his servers, that means not only does hosting PoA become free for us, its no added cost to him).
Click to expand...

TANSTAAFL

Good luck Jessie!
 
AND thanks Nick, for all you have done
 
BZ Jessie! Thanks for taking this on and lets hope it doesn't go to his head... ; )
 
We're sending you a brand new Ducatti.
 
. . . and PoA will continue to be the best of the aviation forums.
Thanks, Jesse.

HR
 
NC19143 said:
AND thanks Nick, for all you have done
Click to expand...

Ummm....unless you mean giving Chuck and Ron a hard time for policy decisions, I can't think of anything I've done for PoA....

But I'll take the thanks anyways! hehe.
 
SkyHog said:
Ummm....unless you mean giving Chuck and Ron a hard time for policy decisions, I can't think of anything I've done for PoA....

But I'll take the thanks anyways! hehe.
Click to expand...

OOPs probably got you mixed up with some one important.
 
Thanks for the kind words everyone. I have gained a lot from this community and I feel it is important to give back. The website is still running on the old server right now pending migration.

What is Migration:
Migration is essentially the process of moving Pilots Of America from the current home to the new server environment.

​
Why:
As you know there have been intermittent performance problems over the last couple months. The most common problem was an unresponsive website. Our chat is very sensitive to server performance. If the server quits responding you can count on being disconnected. The Management Council recognized that there were problems and decided to let me help.
​

When:
The migration is scheduled for 11AM CST on Friday February 15th. The website will be unavailable during migration. We'll try and get service restored as fast as possible but don't be surprised if it exceeds one hour.
​

How will this help:
There are dramatic differences between the current environment and the new environment. The current provider places all their clients on a 'grid' of servers that process all the requests. Pilots of America is just an account number to them. If we're the only one complaining they aren't likely to care.
​
The new environment is different. The capability of the equipment by far exceeds the load of this website. My goal is a smooth running PoA. The goal of the current host is to make money.
​
I monitor the infrastructure 24x7x365. If something exceeds a defined threshold my cell phone is paged, no matter the time. This may sound extreme but it's really not. Essentially this means if there is a problem I should be the first to know. Don't worry--this is the life I'm used to :)
​

Help! Something is not working:
If you experience a technical issue please let us know by posting in the 'Site Feedback and Support' forum.
​

For the geeks:
I will be running Pilots Of America on two physical servers. They both run CentOS 5 (Linux). The servers are geographically diverse in case of natural disaster.
​
The primary server will be running the actual forum and database. The secondary server is a slave to the first. The database is instantly replicated to the slave database. If the data center housing the primary server exploded we wouldn't lose a single post :)

It is important that the data that supports this website is well protected. The database traffic between the servers is encrypted. The data is always in three different locations. I will not lose Pilots of America. I pinky promise :)

As Pilots of America grows and we gain members there may come a day where we need more performance. When this day comes we can load balance between the two servers. I'm going to do whatever it takes to keep this site fast.
​
Everskyward said:
The aliens are lying in wait for their next victim...
1a.gif
Click to expand...
The aliens will soon be the victim.
 
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Good for you, Jesse. I knpw you'll do a great job.....

Now what we need is someone who can fly a plane......

And didn't eat the fish for dinner.......:)
 
Thanks Jesse, As you know from my requests for assistance with other things, most of the technospeake I didn't understand;) However, This:

jesse said:
I monitor the infrastructure 24x7x365. If something exceeds a defined threshold my cell phone is paged, no matter the time. This may sound extreme but it's really not. Essentially this means if there is a problem I should be the first to know. Don't worry--this is the life I'm used to :).
Click to expand...

I understood all to well. I'd be all to willing to kick into your coffee fund.:D
 
Jesse, you'd best be careful! We may deem you a Very Important Person and forbid you from riding your motorcycle. You're going to become to valuable to this organization, and we can't risk you being incapacitated! In fact, you won't be allowed to fly. Not because it's dangerous, but because that would impinge on your 24x7 service agreement! :)
 
jesse said:

When:
The migration is scheduled for 11AM CST on Friday February 15th. The website will be unavailable during migration. We'll try and get service restored as fast as possible but don't be surprised if it exceeds one hour.
​
Click to expand...
How come in the middle of day? Why not 11pm?
 
smigaldi said:
How come in the middle of day? Why not 11pm?
Click to expand...

Cause this way we can insure with the final cutover during the day when we're not supposed to be sleeping that we don't accidentally do something like delete all accounts starting with the letters smigald

Don't push your luck!
 
I can definitely say he has a lot of hard work and dedication put into this website and he knows what he's doing.

Keep up the great work jess! :)

Tristan
 
jesse said:
I monitor the infrastructure 24x7x365. If something exceeds a defined threshold my cell phone is paged, no matter the time. This may sound extreme but it's really not. Essentially this means if there is a problem I should be the first to know. Don't worry--this is the life I'm used to :)
Click to expand...

Been there and don't miss it but we all appreciate the commitment.
:yes:

Besides being wide awake and answering the phone at 0300 before the second ring is a great skill to have.
:D
 
Should Jesse take on so much before first earning an Instrument Rating? We don't want him going into it blindly.
 
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