BajaNomad

***BAJANOMAD SITE AVAILABILITY (UPDATE 2)***

BajaNomad - 9-8-2006 at 12:09 AM

Okay ... bring it on.

The forums are presently sitting on a rippin' new web server currently DEDICATED to ONLY the BajaNomad forums.

Due to misunderstandings (I received a couple of emails from people that couldn't understand why the site couldn't be available today while making a switch), I feel I need to clarify some things.

The amount of traffic here in the past three days crushed the server where the site has been hosted to a virtual halt - and made it pretty impossible to provide that many visitors with the information they came for.

The BajaNomad site was also residing, like most non-corporate websites, on a "shared" system. That means it co-existed with hundreds of other websites on the same computer system.

In this case hundreds of other business websites were also brought to a halt because of the traffic to the BajaNomad forums. These businesspeople were suffering a "brown out" (of sorts), where they couldn't even send email - which can be a critical issue for a small businesses.

I explained the situation to many of these people this week, and they understood my decision to keep the BajaNomad site AVAILABLE because of the emergency situation - and were very supportive. They also asked me for a deadline so that they could expect to have their anticipated service back. I requested up to this morning (having limited the service for hundreds of businesses here for THREE days by leaving the forums "live").

I worked diligently to stay on track to have everything changed over on that timetable, but with the new server system acquired, an unexpected hardware failure at about 5am this morning tripped me up, and brought this timetable to an an immediate halt.

My choices were limited - either leave the board open, and suffer from the debilitating effects of the traffic using the site to the point they quite possibly/likely wouldn't get what they came for anyway - coupled with crippling the other hundreds of businesses from having their websites and email available (and breaking my promise to my clients - please remember these other clients are my livelihood, and who actually make it possible for me to provide the BajaNomad site forums in the first place)... or, closing the forums until the new server was ready - and allow these businesses to go about their business.

The news from Mulege had also recently turned around, and reports were that electricity, gasoline, food, water, supplies, etc were becoming available.

So, I chose to close the forums and await the datacenter's fix (they weren't very good with their communications to me regarding timetables along the way today either - so I didn't expect it to take as long as it did when I made the decision).

The datacenter ended up not having the needed replacement hardware hardware available until mid-day today, and they then brought the server back online today in the afternoon - at which point I've been loading the web site files and database information to the server - then "flipping the switch" this evening to redirect forum traffic to the new location.

What you may - or may not - notice is that I haven't got all of the attachments back up. That will take me some time. There are a LOT of files, and I am only loading about 20-30 files at a time - out of almost 9600 (about 400 MB). So, that will take me a while. Each upload takes a few minutes each. If you do the math you'll see I still have many hours ahead of me. If anyone is a MySQL wiz that can tell me an easier way to do this, please don't hesitate to speak up.

I'm tired. Need sleep (only got 1 hour last night). Have a business meeting to be at at 6:45am in the morning - and have a presentation to make to the 25 or so people there.

I hope this will suffice for now.

My family's thoughts and prayers are with those people and families that are having difficulties after the effects of Hurricane John - including those who may have lost family members or friends.

Thanks to all of you who have stepped up to assist those in need during this time.

I feel very fortunate to be associated with the very understanding clients that I have, and with so many passionate, concerned and involved Nomads that frequent this website.

Very fortunate indeed!

And now I think I will bid you all good night. See you all tomorrow.

:)

--
Doug Means






[Edited on 9-8-2006 by BajaNomad]

BajaNomad - 9-8-2006 at 05:15 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by lencho
one way to do that sort of database transfer between compatible mysql systems is to simply copy the raw database files onto the new machine without going through any loading procedures of the program that uses the data. This is VERY quick if you have fast communications and a good way to get running in a rush, but suffers from the problem of carrying over any corruption or noise from the original files. Also requires root access and knowledge of organization of the MySQL system.
Larry,

Where could I learn this - as it would likely work if I'm able to pull just one table from the old database location into the new one - or is pulling just one table not going to be possible?

The other thing I could do is rename the old DB and/or tables, and copy everything across - then do some maneuvering in the new location between the two databases. (trying to remember if that's easy to do in phpMyAdmin or not)

Thanks,
--
Doug

shari - 9-8-2006 at 07:46 AM

Doug, mil gracias for all your hard work and dedication. This site is superb and very important to many of us as it provides critical updated info as it happens. It is my prime news source. I would appreciate it if you could let your clients know how much we also appreciate their patience and understanding in this time of crisis. We love you man!

David K - 9-8-2006 at 09:02 AM

Kate, there was tons of TV feed from CABO SAN LUCAS on U.S. stations (at least here in Southern California) that would cause one to think what was shown was the extent of the damage to Baja.... ie. if Cabo got missed, then Baja got missed... You know, like isn't Cabo all there is to Baja?

Baja Nomads contacting the news media IS what brought the truth to the eyes of non-Nomads.

Thanks to Doug, there is Baja Nomad Forums!

Cincodemayo - 9-8-2006 at 09:10 AM

Wow Doug...I think what you provide here on this site is just amazing let alone what a tool this site during a disaster like Mulege is for all the nomads. No apology needed amigo. I applaud your service to all.
Three cheers and raise that cerveza to Doug!!!

TinaRMarie2 - 9-8-2006 at 09:52 AM

Ditto to above.

Much thanks for all you do.

MexicoTed - 10-17-2006 at 08:55 PM

Doug, keep up the wonderful job you have done for years. You go unappreciated by many, but I recognize what it takes to supply this site to all of us so a BIG thanks amigo!
Ted

Tomas Tierra - 10-17-2006 at 10:53 PM

yes, many thanx Doug!!!

What about all the old photos??? Sometimes I just need to go back and look at all the cool old JRbaja stuff...


edit...Miss that Dude

[Edited on 10-18-2006 by Tomas Tierra]

Bruce R Leech - 10-18-2006 at 05:53 AM

a lot of those posts don't make any sense with out the photos.

BajaNomad - 10-18-2006 at 05:57 AM

I'm running behind with a few things... my apologies. I have to get to it when I can get to it.

Bruce R Leech - 10-18-2006 at 06:08 AM

no problem Doug you have the site working at stellar speeds and that is really nice and we do appreciate it.

Tomas Tierra - 10-18-2006 at 07:45 AM

ditto Doug...not pressing you, just curious

The transformation of the BajaNomads site....

Hook - 10-18-2006 at 11:55 PM

may have been the only good thing that came from Hurricane John.

It seemed like there was an huge groundswell of interest (including many newbies) during and immediately after John, no?

David K - 10-19-2006 at 09:29 AM

Yes, click on Memeber List on the top and see how many new Nomads registered in September, for example!