Guys, like the title already says, it is the time of the year again where we ask for your donation to keep our place in the air.
Due to the odd situation in our real world during 2020, the plans made for last year were only partially met. Dave bought the badly needed server, but due to the real life complication the migration still has to be done.
Below Dave's explanation, which you can also find at the home page. I think the Sim-Outhouse is a place we all visit daily and perhaps even several times every day. I hang out here with my virtual friends here and I would really hate to see the place close. So please consider to donate, and when we all do, I'm convinced we will reach out target for another year.
We do realise it has been a difficult year and complex year. And I know there are many among us, who do feel the financial consequences of this global crisis. But especially during this crisis it is nice to be able to visit a place where Covid-19 isn't the focal point for everything.
Cheers,
Huub
"Last year we came to you we were going to upgrade the servers in the 2020 calendar year. We couldn't have been more wrong. Nothing went as planned in 2020. Here's hoping for a better 2021 for everyone.
The good news is we did take posession of the new server on December 20th. The process to migrate has been kickstarted again but it is going to take place at the same time the donation drive is going on. It is not the best time but we have to move to the new house.
Below is a repeat of what we said last year.
Normally we would simply say it’s time to pay the bills for the next year. This year things are changing. Our servers are getting old and will no longer be supported by the hosting company or their operating systems. We have spent a lot of time this year exploring our options based on our needs.
We have had these 2 servers since February 2010. Our first quote was to upgrade both servers. The cost to upgrade was outside of our budget. After going back and forth with the data center we arrived at the best option for us.
Monetarily we will be paying the same as we have for the last 10 years. The down side is we have to lose the Windows server. We simply cannot pay the costs for both servers. The bottom line really becomes the lowest level server the data center supports is about double what we pay for both servers at this time.
There is good news though the move puts us in a much better server than we have. Currently we are in a 32bit server, 3GB ram, Quadcore CPU and 1TB drive. The new server takes us to a 64bit platform, 8 core CPU, 64GB of ram and 2TB of drive space in a RAID 6 environment. This should give us ample drive space for a number of years and increase the ability of the server to handle heavier loads.
We will not be losing any services that we currently provide. Some things will be moved from the .net server to this server. The only function that will probably be lost for a few weeks is FS Host and JoinFS. Those services need to be moved to another server which could happen in the month of Feb or might be March. It’s hard to tell. I am putting a server I bought in an associates business. That business has not opened yet.
Naturally to get the new server online the old one has to go off line. We will post a notice before that happens. The migration process should not be too difficult. What is probably going to take a long time is transferring all the files (currently 250GB) to the new server. Because of the way the new server is going to be configured both the .net as well as the .com servers will not be accessible.
Here’s to a new year.
The Staff"
Due to the odd situation in our real world during 2020, the plans made for last year were only partially met. Dave bought the badly needed server, but due to the real life complication the migration still has to be done.
Below Dave's explanation, which you can also find at the home page. I think the Sim-Outhouse is a place we all visit daily and perhaps even several times every day. I hang out here with my virtual friends here and I would really hate to see the place close. So please consider to donate, and when we all do, I'm convinced we will reach out target for another year.
We do realise it has been a difficult year and complex year. And I know there are many among us, who do feel the financial consequences of this global crisis. But especially during this crisis it is nice to be able to visit a place where Covid-19 isn't the focal point for everything.
Cheers,
Huub
"Last year we came to you we were going to upgrade the servers in the 2020 calendar year. We couldn't have been more wrong. Nothing went as planned in 2020. Here's hoping for a better 2021 for everyone.
The good news is we did take posession of the new server on December 20th. The process to migrate has been kickstarted again but it is going to take place at the same time the donation drive is going on. It is not the best time but we have to move to the new house.
Below is a repeat of what we said last year.
Normally we would simply say it’s time to pay the bills for the next year. This year things are changing. Our servers are getting old and will no longer be supported by the hosting company or their operating systems. We have spent a lot of time this year exploring our options based on our needs.
We have had these 2 servers since February 2010. Our first quote was to upgrade both servers. The cost to upgrade was outside of our budget. After going back and forth with the data center we arrived at the best option for us.
Monetarily we will be paying the same as we have for the last 10 years. The down side is we have to lose the Windows server. We simply cannot pay the costs for both servers. The bottom line really becomes the lowest level server the data center supports is about double what we pay for both servers at this time.
There is good news though the move puts us in a much better server than we have. Currently we are in a 32bit server, 3GB ram, Quadcore CPU and 1TB drive. The new server takes us to a 64bit platform, 8 core CPU, 64GB of ram and 2TB of drive space in a RAID 6 environment. This should give us ample drive space for a number of years and increase the ability of the server to handle heavier loads.
We will not be losing any services that we currently provide. Some things will be moved from the .net server to this server. The only function that will probably be lost for a few weeks is FS Host and JoinFS. Those services need to be moved to another server which could happen in the month of Feb or might be March. It’s hard to tell. I am putting a server I bought in an associates business. That business has not opened yet.
Naturally to get the new server online the old one has to go off line. We will post a notice before that happens. The migration process should not be too difficult. What is probably going to take a long time is transferring all the files (currently 250GB) to the new server. Because of the way the new server is going to be configured both the .net as well as the .com servers will not be accessible.
Here’s to a new year.
The Staff"
