The great server migration of 2008

Wednesday, January 16, 2008, 11:51 PM
Other Stuff by John (Article #169)

UPDATE March 11, 2008: I've added a rundown of the basic process I've used for backing up servers here.

If you use GoDaddy for a virtual dedicated or dedicated Linux server, there's a pretty good chance you've gotten this little message in your Inbox:

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*** REQUIRED OPERATING SYSTEM UPGRADE REGARDING FEDORA CORE 2/4 ***

It's a sexy message, for sure. One of the nice things about GoDaddy is that they offer a virtual dedicated server that is just as good as running your own box, minus the outrageous bill for business grade broadband access. One of the downers, though, is that GoDaddy is pretty committed to upselling you toward an assisted support plan.

Of course, I'm not looking for anyone's help with my own server. So, I began the great server migration of 2008.

Instead of backing up and the upgrading my main server, I decided to purchase a second server. The long term plan is to decommission and shutdown the original server sometime between now and the end of February. I also have two other servers that will require similar reprovisioning, but now that I'm comfortable with the process of backing up and and starting over, I think those I may just reporovision

I understand GoDaddy's motivation for the upgrades. My oldest server is running Fedora Core 2 and PHP 4.3. It's been a while.

I just wish GoDaddy had been a little more committed to providing an upgrade path. While I know selling the assisted support package is part of their core upsell (and the difference between eating canned food and caviar is the upsell -- but that's another article), there's a difference between not providing assistance and not even providing enough documentation that a competent person could follow it. GoDaddy leaves you out to the wolves when you reprovision your server.

I also hope to use the opportunity to abuse the old server a bit. I'm looking forward to testing a few installs I've never been bold enough to try.

First, I absolutely plan to get FFMPEG running on a virtual dedicated server. It's been a project I've put off for so friggin long it long ago ceased to be funny.

Second, I plan to get MySQLdb (for Python) running. Inexplicably, GoDaddy does run Python on its servers, but does not install MySQLdb on them! I guess GoDaddy prefers to see Python as a shell script language, and not a viable web app scripting language. Hmm.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the new server. The spam controls are miles better. The DNS resolution and glue are much more solid, also. So far, I feel that the perl and Python support is better, except for of course that mess with MySQLdb.

In general, the great server migration of 2008 has been successful. While it isn't something I was inclined to push for, once pushed I am happy with it.

If there are any other GoDaddy customers out there who need some help with this sort of thing, drop me a line.

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Welcome!

Wonder where to start with your web design business?

This blog follows along with my efforts to build and grow a website design business, Pro Content and Design.

The goal of this blog is to fill in blanks that may be empty as you get your business rolling.

This blog, particularly the source code section, is not intended for beginners. If you are not comfortable with databases, Ajax, DOM objects and other advanced methods, I strongly suggest you go take a look over at W3 Schools before even reading -- let alone tinkering with -- any of the code here.

I hope this blog has some value to web designers as they attempt to get their businesses going.

Good luck, and happy reading.

Thank you,
John Crawford
Pro Content and Design