devans's blog

Well, after quite some time we are now back in business.

I'm sure many of you who have commented are wondering (after such a long hiatus) as to when the second half of the MySQL Replication for Windows post was coming, if at all! Do not fret, it will be coming soon. In order to prep the post I need to rebuild some test systems so please bear with me.

All I can say is this past 12-months has been a hectic and very trying time both personally and professionally and now with some light at the end of the tunnel I feel I will have the time and inclination to once again create content for this site.

Over the past several weeks/months I have been collecting together the components necessary to update and enhance the hardware supporting this and several other websites that I maintain from my home.

The original configuration in a self-hosted model was that of a single PC. This thankfully was replaced by better hardware a couple of years ago that could be best described as powerful desktops or low-grade, non-redundant, server equipment.

Well today I am pleased to announce that through a little begging, a little borrowing and a little scavenging I have established not only a redundant configuration in terms of multiple web servers but also a load-balanced and highly available configuration.

Here's a quick overview of the setup as it stands now.

[Click Image To Enlarge] Home Network Diagram

As you can see there are now two web servers and two database servers. A little overkill for the current setup maybe; but enough room to grow for the foreseeable future too. Like I said earlier this is not the only website that I am hosting on this system but it is the one that currently draws the most attention and the most traffic.

Here are few pictures of the equipment in operation. Some of it is not the newest server technology but the systems run strong, offer RAID capability and in the case of the two newer servers redundant power also.

[Click Image To Enlarge] The used rack is a little more aesthetically pleasing than the previous open wire rack	[Click Image To Enlarge] Wiring mostly in place, just a little tidy up to do.
[Click Image To Enlarge] Intake fan at bottom aids cooling as does spacing somewhat	[Click Image To Enlarge] Separate switches for separate internet connections
[Click Image To Enlarge] Extractor fan to remove excess heat. First fan had worn bearing hence the clipped wires	[Click Image To Enlarge] Foam aids sound suppression but also heat build up

My next step will be to establish some kind of round-robin DNS setup that permits fail over, albeit slightly delayed between the two types of internet connectivity that I have.

Over the next week or so I hope to provide examples of how I have established the load-balancing and replication using the Microsoft Windows Operating System.

Yes, that's right I am using Windoze!

Why not Linux I hear you cry? It's the perfect LAMP configuration! This is true, but I wanted to try something a little, well unconventional by todays standards.

That said, in all likelihood upgrades or additional equipment will involve Linux, although I'm hearing good things about Windows 2008, so I'm gonna have to try it somewhere, maybe here!

Over the past few evenings I have successfully upgraded the site to the latest release of Drupal, now at 6.2!

Having hit a few speed bumps with incompatible modules it's taken a little while to get back to the level of functionality there before the upgrade. That said, it was a necessary upgrade for many reasons most obviously to me being that of the hundreds of fake user accounts that have been springing up on a daily basis. At points during any given day there were tens of new users accounts being registered every hour. To combat this problem I have introduced the reCaptcha module that makes use of the reCaptcha web service for 'human' recognition versus the annoying scripts that have been invading the site. At the same time, and I apologize to all this affects but I have removed all user accounts that weren't personally known to me or accessed within the last 12-months. Please re-join whenever you get the chance and again sorry for the inconvenience.

As part of this upgrade you will also notice that I have included a rating system to allow visitors to rate the posts and comments that they read. This will hopefully add to the user experience and encourage participation. Along those same lines I have decided to open up the comments to allow 'anonymous' input while utilizing the reCaptcha service to 'fingers-crossed' dispel any and all scripted abuse that has been witnessed in the past. I'll let this ride for a time and if I see any abuse occurring regroup and decided on what to do then. All comments, just like posts will continue to be moderated by myself and require approval prior to public display.

Well that's it for now! It's been a while and a lot has happened but without trying to dissect my life, my work and everything in the middle I am going to push forward with a new revitalized blogging schedule. On the list of topics that I have running around in my head at the moment are hardware upgrades to the site infrastructure (remember this - Old Hardware Post) and the reconfiguration and introduction of load-balancing and replication. These and more will be coming very soon.

Dave

Let me begin by stating that on the whole I have been using the same version of Drupal for well over a year with zero functionality or stability issues to report. Quite simply, it works!! As a firm believer in the old saying, "if it ain't broke don't try to fix it!" I have chosen to leave it alone during this time. That said I had a pressing reason to perform an upgrade for some time now in addressing a very annoying condition.........let me explain.

Over the past several months I have been getting seriously plagued with spam comments and well, just 'not-nice' crap including porn messages, drug solicitations and others. While the content has been controlled to sitting in the approval queue for comments, it has nevertheless been a painstaking process for me going through and deleting several pages of junk at a time. While I know I could have saved myself time in the long run by including a captcha module several months back I just didn't have the time.

Well, the problem is now fixed, or so I hope!

This past weekend I finally sat down and spent the time needed to upgrade the site to the latest version of Drupal (the content engine on which Poscribes runs, if you didn't already know) including the captcha module to make automated submission of comments from the script kiddies out there and my job in moderating comments that much easier.

After 2-days I am happy to report that I have zero 'crap' sitting in the comment approval queue. While I am optimistic this may have solved things for now I will continue monitoring the queue for any problems that may arise.

Other than some layout changes with the administration features for Drupal, and without having dived into the code, I really don't see a lot of changes with this version. My only hope is that it remains as solid and reliable as the version I just chose to leave behind and of course I did a complete back up should anything go wrong.

So far, so good as they say and let's hope it stays that way!

I apologize to those of you who have tried to register recently. I have been experiencing a few issues with my automated email attendant which will be resolved this evening for sure. Normal service can be expected to resume from tomorrow morning.