[clue] [ Server Info ] server and website changes

[Collins Richey]

FYI,

After review by the team of admins and other interested parties who
worked on the Drupal project, I'm releasing this news for general
consumption.

As most of you know, the aforementioned group launched an effort six
months ago to replace the current website with a drupal-based site and
to discuss the type of server required to support our website and
mailing list needs. We purchased a 6 month renewal contract for the
existing VPSlink service. That contract will expire in a few weeks.

We discovered along the way

1. The existing VPSlink service does not have adequate resources for
the Drupal website, and to expand the resources would double the cost
to the group. Many of you suffered through that disaster.

2. As a proof of concept, we moved the drupal website to a shared
hosting service provided by Shawn Perry, and proved that the
performance of the website was a lot better than our experience with
VPSlink. This site is still up at temporarily at
http://cluedenver.redmop.com.

3. Last night I moved a copy of the drupal website to
yet-another-shared-hosting service that I control
http://www.collins601.com/drupal7. I have paid a 3 year contract (Jan
2011) for this service and am offering the service for use of the
group. Unlike Shawn's service that supports his customers, this
service will be mostly dedicated to CLUE. The service is hosted by
GREENGEEKS (Chicago-based), and I am impressed both by the performance
and the professional support provided by GREENGEEKS.

4. We still need to determine the fate of the mailing lists. I have a
ticket open with the GREENGEEKS support team to determine whether
mailman is supported. If not, GREENGEEKS does offer a FOSS PHPlist
mailing list software that appears to meet our needs. At first glance,
the process of transferring our mailing list members appears to be
quite trivial.

5. There are still a few things to iron out for the new website, but
it is basically ready to go.

If the admins agree that this is a useful setup for CLUE, we will take
steps to redirect the DNS entries and complete the shutdown from
VPSlink. The use of a shared hosting service will eliminate the need
for our admins to maintain the OS, and we can concentrate on the
website and the mailing list software.

Once we have done what is needed to continue operation after June 30,
one of the first steps will be to document thoroughly the system
setup, maintenance, and inner workings. We will also insure that
multiple backups of everything exist in case we need to move anything
in the future.

We have learned in spades some of the grief that Jed Baer went through
for years in maintaining our previous website, Jeff Cann for the
mailman site, and various admins for the earlier servers and VPSlink.
Many thanks to these folks for a job well done.

Nor have we forgotten the comments you other CLUE members have made
about the drupal website. We will take them into consideration once
the new setup is stable.

Please view http://www.collins601.com/drupal7 now. The content will
remain the same, but the url will change to the old familiar
http://www.cluedenver.com in the near future. If it becomes necessary
to change the mailing list software, subscribed members will
automatically receive a new subscription request.

Stay tuned.

-- 
Collins Richey
     If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries
     of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.