Hey folks,
I want to inform you that I moved my services from my old server aka. World Server🌐 to my new server aka. Galaxy Server✨.
Hardware Changes
The reason for the moving was, that the hardware specs of my old server hadn’t been sufficient enough:
- Intel Core i7-2600
- HDD2x HDD SATA 3,0 TB (RAID I)
- RAM2x RAM 8192 MB DDR3
The RAM leaded to an issue with Memory intensive applications like Discourse and Gitlab, which I recently installed. Also the HDD’s had been pretty slow and to small for storing all of my cloud data ~ 1TB and a daily backup history on the long run.
So I decided around Christmas that I want to move my server to get a server with the following specs:
- Intel Core i7-7700
- HDD2x HDD SATA 4,0 TB Enterprise (RAID I)
- HDD2x SSD SATA 480 GB Datacenter (RAID I)
- RAM4x RAM 16384 MB DDR4
- PLUSNIC 1 Gbit – Intel I219-LM
I set up the server with encrypted an encrypted ArchLinux. Therefore I used this recipe .
Software Changes
Besides this I also improved the performance of the CyMaIS software, which I use to set up and manage my servers, to take the full advantage of the new hardware.
Next to the usual restructuring and refactoring work, I implemented new roles which raise the performance:
- Central MariaDB instead of one Database per application with the role docker-mariadb
- Central PostgreSQL instead of one Database per application with the role docker-postgres
- Store database volumes on SSD and file volumes on HDD with the role system-storage-optimizer
Now the user can decide it they want to have one database for all applications, or one database for each application. The system storage optimizer should significantly raise the speed of server applications.
I also implemented other performance tweaks. E.g. I optimized the backup-docker-to-local script to reduce the down time during backups and also excluded the backup of not necessary data like redis or memcached.
Moving Process
The moving process started on 2024-01-11. I decided for a radical step and move all domains at once instead of moving the applications one by one to the new Galaxy Server. This was a gamble, because it goes against an iterative approach.
I trusted my software modifications enough, to take this risk.
At the evening of 2024-01-11 I finally shutted the applications on the old World Server down. And pulled the backups of the applications to the Galaxy Server.
The biggest challenge was to change the databases from one database per application, to two central databases; One for MariaDB and one for PostgreSQL. This involved much manual work. Also I needed to change the names of some volumes.
Besides this the changing of the mail server application to the new Galaxy Server leaded to the expected headache.
It could be that some emails which had been sent between 2024-01-11 and 2024-01-12 didn’t reach me.
I decided to keep one separated database for the Mailu mail server application, because it wasn’t obvious for me why the application didn’t run with the central database activated.
The performance should also not be to much affected by this missing migration.
I’m also still in the process of migrating Discourse and Big Blue Button to the new installation.
I want to say sorry for all inconveniences which appeared for the end users during the migration process.
Outlook
I’m glad that my new server is now up and running. The next things on my CyMaIS bucket list are the following:
- Full implementation of Matrix as Single Point of Truth to replace all other messenger applications
- Implementation of LDAP and Single Sign-On to have one Single Point of Truth for the User Management over all server applications
- Implementation self programmed User Management Application for CyMaIS, to provide CyMaIS as SaaS
- Setting up first commercial CyMaIS SaaS application for B2C
- Providing CyMaIS Infrastructure Setup for SMB’s as B2B services
I hope this insight was interesting. I’m looking forward to continue my IT journey with you!
