Today we made the move to the new server.
So today was the day we finally moved from the old server to the new one, it was partially planned but a little bit unexpected at the same time. I had been intending to do it yesterday but put it off partly because I was busy and partly because I was anxious that the switch over would not go smoothly. I had done some testing of the new server but until traffic actually hit it I wouldn't know how well it would handle the load. I had planned to make a post before I did the change over and some other small last minute data pulls but all that really needed done at this point was to update the DNS. I was debating when I would do the change over today or if I would put it off yet again but at 1:30 BST I received and alert that the old server had went down. Our old host had assumed I had already done the changeover and had taken it down. I scrambled and pointed the DNS to the new server and crossed my fingers hoping that nothing would go wrong.
It seems however my fears were misplaced and the new server handled the traffic fine and everything seems to be running better than ever. I have been working on the site the past week and have made several performance improvements. I optimised the database and made the site use memcached for data cacheing as well as setting up OP Cache to improve the performance of the compiled templates/the site pages. We also now proxy all of our traffic through cloudflare which should help with performance but will also be another layer of protection against DDOS attacks in future.
So we are now at our new home and the change will allow me to offer a lot more features for the site. Action messaged me last night about adding more features for streamer clips and that is one of the first things on the list, also searching for streamer profiles by name, clips voting (prolly a little later) and a userscript to add a hasroot button to Twitch VODs which pulls data and takes you to the history of the current timestamp. I have had the userscript for awhile but was hesitant to release it as it would have increased traffic and server load.I will need to give it a brush up but that shouldn't take long.
Also quick note I realised that the emails I had been sending regarding the site were being junk filtered by many hosts. I have emailed everyone who has ever given a tip and many users who have submitted feedback. So this is a blanket apology to anyone who may not have seen those emails and assumed I had ignored them. I have rectified the issue now but just wanted to say sorry about that.
Hope you all enjoy the new faster site/server and thanks for sticking with us. Hopefully we won't experience any teething issues but it is possible as there has been many back end changes. If you notice anything wrong please be sure to let me know via the feedback form or on discord.
Sean - ScottishRambler