New Server Upgrades and other tasks – the blog!

[Marc]

I'm setting up a new server to replace my aging AMD Athlon 64 3200+ system. It's been a reasonable setup, but I want something newer and fancier. At the same time, I'm also upgrading the software. For those geeks who may be interested in a behind the scenes view of Main Square, I'm starting this blog thread to document what's going on, as well as a bit of a peek into where the kind donations go.

The old server was one that I built about three years ago from parts picked up at PC Club for the short while that they were here in the Pittsburgh area. Sadly, PC Club didn't survive here very long, and for that matter, they didn't survive anywhere as the company went out of business last year.

The system started off with 1 GB RAM and 120 GB disk. It was later upgraded to 2 GB RAM and a pair of 250 GB drives (thanks to a great price at a Thanksgiving day sale on CompUSA.com back in 2007), set up as a mirrored pair using software mirroring in Solaris. On the system, I've been running:

• Solaris 10
• Apache 2.0
• MySQL 5
• vBulletin 3.7
• Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.3
• Sun Java System Web Server 6.1
• Sun Java Enterprise System Directory Server 6
• SIMH VAX emulator

The new system is an HP Pavilion M7750n, but moved into a Thermaltake SopranoRS case to make room for two internal hard drives. I also upgraded the power supply to a newer model with many more SATA power connections. The computer includes an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ processor, giving about a 150% improvement in overall performance. In addition, the dual-core processor should improve responsiveness among multiple HTTP threads serving the forum. The RAM was upgraded to 4 GB, and the system has a pair of Western Digital 1 TB drives.

Instead of running the operating system directly on the computer, it is running the ESXi 3.5 Update 3 hypervisor which will allow me to use the computer for multiple purposes in a more efficient way. The main virtual machine running will be the old system's replacement, running:

• OpenSolaris 11/08
• Apache 2.2
• MySQL 5
• vBulletin 3.8
• Sun Java System Messaging Server 7 Update 2
• Sun Java System Convergence 1
• Sun Java Enterprise System Application Server 9.2
• Sun Java Enterprise System Directory Server 6.3

Data is mirrored across the two drives using ZFS.

In addition, the VAX emulator has been moved to a separate virtual machine running ubuntu 8.10 JeOS. I can control its CPU usage much better in a Linux environment, plus the JeOS setup is a minimal footprint Linux that has just enough installed to support the VAX emulator. The VAX emulator is connected by VLAN through ESXi to a separate network so that I will at some point in the future be able to allow some public access for those who may be interested in playing some (very) old-school games.

I also have an ubuntu 8.10 Desktop virtual machine, primarily to support the emulator systems.

At this point, much of the general infrastructure work has been done, and now there is an effort to move some of the data. The next couple posts in this thread will be used to detail the current activities.

[Marc]

Color key:

BLACK - Task not yet started
GREEN - Task is complete
BLUE - Task is in progress
ORANGE - Problems have been encountered
RED - Problems have been encountered, impeding other tasks

• Move Pavilion m7750n system into Thermaltake case
• Upgrade RAM to 4 GB
  
• Install pair of 1 TB hard drives
  
• Install and set up ESXi 3.5 Update 3
  
• Install and configure OpenSolaris virtual machine
• Install and configure ubuntu 8.10 JeOS virtual machines
• Install and configure ubuntu 8.10 Desktop virtual machine
• Set up VAX emulator in ubuntu JeOS system
• Set up PDP-10 (TOPS-20) emulator in ubuntu JeOS system
• Set up Hercules-390 (S/370, VM/CMS) emulator
• Install OpenSolaris with latest patches
• Set up ZFS mirroring
• Set up DNS server
• Switch to using new DNS server locally
• Switch to using new DNS server externally
• Set up DHCP server
• Switch to using new DHCP server
• Copy filesystems from old system to new one for reference
• Install and set up Directory Server
• Install and set up Application Server
• Install and set up Messaging Server
• Install and set up PreciseMail
  
• Install and set up Delegated Administrator
• Install and set up Convergence
• Switch to using new Messaging Server for home domain
• Migrate other domains of Messaging Server
• Install and set up Apache
• Install and set up MySQL
• Copy MySQL databases from old system
• Install latest vBulletin
• Reinstall all local customizations and mods
• Test new vBulletin
• Switch to new vBulletin server

[Marc]

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