[matrix-announce] Upgrading matrix, and things of that nature.

[Ciaran Hamilton]

Hi all,

At some point in the near future, I'm going to need to do something about
matrix. It's crawling at a snail's pace right now, probably because I've
put so much stuff on it.

As I see it, I have three choices:

1. Get another Linode and move stuff onto it to relieve some of the load.
The problem with this is that I would still need to run many of the same
services on the new box, and it's possible that it may not help too much.

  * The IP addresses of the sites I move over would change. This wouldn't
    affect most people, however, as I would change the DNS that's under my
    control to point to the new IP. Anybody who controls their own DNS,
    however, would need to change the IP in their DNS entries. I'd keep
    everybody on this list up-to-date with these changes, including any new
    IP address, if applicable, and what sites it would apply to.

  * I would attempt to keep downtime to a minimum, and in fact downtime may
    not even be necessary at all. However, this method could take a while to
    actually implement, as many different factors would be involved.

2. Upgrade matrix's plan. Check out the Linode plans page at
http://www.linode.com/products/linodes.cfm - right now matrix is a Linode
150. I'm thinking, based on the memory usage currently, that it would be
best to move to a Linode 300. This would have several advantages, as you
can tell from the page - increased RAM, disk space, bandwidth, and a
better contention ratio.

  * If, in the course of the upgrade, the Linode was moved to another
    datacenter, everybody's IP address would change. Again, I don't see this
    as too much of a problem for most people (but see the first note on
    option 1 for more info on the consequences of DNS changes). It may be
    that no IP address change is necessary, however. As always, I'd keep
    everybody up to date via this list.

  * As this option requires the Linode to be moved to another host server,
    it would result in downtime of maybe up to half an hour as the transfer
    took place, during which matrix would be turned off. I would also need
    to distribute the additional disk space, but I'm including this in the
    half-hour estimate.

3. Upgrade matrix's RAM only. As I see it, there isn't any real advantage
to choosing this as the prices would be the same as if I was to choose a
new plan that had that amount of RAM, and I wouldn't get the other
benefits. However, it has the benefit of convenience.

  * No IP addresses would change, for anyone.
  * Downtime would be restricted to the time it takes to reboot matrix -
    about 5 minutes, if that.

I'm thinking that I'll probably go for option 2, personally. However, this
would cost me double what it used to cost me if I went for a Linode 300 -
an additional USD$30/month. Even option 1 would mean at least an
additional USD$20/month, and option 3 would again be USD$30/month, without
the extra benefits of option 2.

Any downtime will be announced on this list at least 3 days before it
actually happens, as I would be able to plan for it.

I don't normally do this, but if any of you are willing to donate, it
would be gratefully received. My PayPal address is paypal at theblob.org -
and please bear in mind that you are totally welcome not to donate if you
don't want to, or can't; I'm not going to think worse of you, and I'm not
going to take away anything from what I'm giving to you. Please only
donate if you want to, and if you can afford it yourself. Also bear in
mind that a donation won't get you anything that other people aren't
getting. It will, however, be used to fund this upgrade, which should
result in a boost for everyone. (Note that I won't be able to accept
donations funded using a credit card, as that needs a Premier PayPal
account - but see below.)

If by any chance you're willing to set up some sort of
subscription/recurring payment, please let me know. Right now my PayPal
account type won't let me receive these, but if anybody expresses an
interest, then I'll see what I can do.

Thanks for reading, and I'll keep you up to date as to what's happening.

 - Ciaran.