This week, we were able to retire our old web servers and move to a new set. Since a server’s purpose is to serve content at all times, it isn’t something that you can just casually upgrade like you can a personal computer. It takes a great deal of planning, forcing you to consider how everything on the server will react when it’s essentially dropped into another world. Oh, and nothing can break in the meantime. After not sleeping for four days, I’m glad that the transition is complete and almost everything works as expected.
With our move we made a leap in operating system versions (akin to moving from Windows NT to Vista), as well as Apache (the software that sends pages to your browser) and we also received much more hard drive space. These upgrades will enable us to better bridge the gap between what our visitors want to see and what we are technically able to provide them.
We have some exciting things planned and with this new technology, finally have the ability to see them to fruition. In the next few weeks we’ll be able to share one or two of projects with you. In the meantime, think about what your life would be like if you never had to use GoLive again.
Jeremy,
Does this explain why I can no longer reach my home directory from off-campus?
…Another negative comment by a faculty member. Please excuse the cynicism.