Fremont RAM upgrade
Thanks
37 Replies
At least, I hope that's what it is, and not something that involves any sort of bad news for those of us who like where we are…
@Valley:
This is wild speculation on my part, but I suspect some sort of migration of old servers housed in Hurricane Electric's Fremont 1 facility to HE's Fremont 2 facility (where I would guess their newer Fremont servers are) is behind the delay. I've been to both facilities and Fremont 1 is very low on space, and it would make sense to consolidate in one data center, even if they are just down the road from one another…
At least, I hope that's what it is, and not something that involves any sort of bad news for those of us who like where we are…
This has been the speculation (and hope) in other threads on the forum.
Complete lack of any official update regarding the progress after nearly four weeks, when the rollout (or, at the very least, more information) was initially promised within two, is not.
@carterparks:
Can we get a less vague status update with some kind of reasonable timeframe? I've been planning an upgrade for my client's website based around your initial estimates (1-2 weeks. It has been nearly a month). My client wants to know when the site will be upgraded to faster servers and I don't have an answer for him.
Solution: Move your Linode to another DC for a few weeks more while they get the last quirks worked out.
-Chris
-Chris
@lakridserne:
Solution: Move your Linode to another DC for a few weeks more while they get the last quirks worked out.
Many of us are geographically tied to Fremont.
Sigh.
Remember when Linode used to be the cool nerdy VPS provider that was transparent about this sort of thing?
Starting to make me uncomfortable / wonder what it is, exactly, that Linode doesn't wan't us to know.
@Valley:
@lakridserne:Solution: Move your Linode to another DC for a few weeks more while they get the last quirks worked out.
Many of us are geographically tied to Fremont.Sigh.
Remember when Linode used to be the cool nerdy VPS provider that was transparent about this sort of thing?
Starting to make me uncomfortable / wonder what it is, exactly, that Linode doesn't wan't us to know.
1) It's not that much more time it takes when we're talking about the internet
2) They're the same cool and nerdy VPS provider that are transparent about things. They have never, to my knowlegde, preannounced things.
3) They will announce it as soon as possible.
This was all staged and ready to go, but we discovered this link wasn't as redundant as we had believed. We asked questions, and got answers from HE. There are scenarios where the wave between the two facilities could break, and that news put a stop to everything while we investigated how to implement absolute redundancy between the two facilities in the event the link failed. We have a solution, but want to greatly shorten the time we're relying on this bridged network, which means altering the FMT1 to FMT2 transition timeline. This is where we stand now.
Things could change, but we're now thinking this will be: a few weeks heads-up during which the upgrade-button would simultaneously upgrade you AND migrate you to FMT2. Those who don't perform the upgrade by the deadline(s) would have their host shut down, the host de-racked and physically moved to FMT2 and then powered back on. Of course we would have everything prepared in FMT2 to receive these machines and essentially it would be: a shutdown, unplug host, transport it to FMT2, rack it and plug it into already-ran cables, and then power it on. Logistics so far indicate the downtime for that scenario is minimal, 60-120 minutes, performed in the middle of the west-coast night. Over the course of a few days we'd be out of FMT1 completely.
We've already deployed an impressive amount of capacity in FMT2, however this shortened timeline and elimination of phases means upgrade+migrate-to-fmt2 availability will be on a first-come-first-served basis. We've also been working on redirecting host builds from other facilities to fmt2 to augment fmt2's host resources. However, we can't guarantee everyone that wants to move/upgrade early will be able to, under this scenario.
There are still a few loose ends, and of course this could all change, but that's where we are. The logistics of this type of endeavor are quite complicated as you can imagine, and we want to do this with the least amount of stress, downtime, and risk as possible. We hope to nail down the timeline and enable the upgrade button very soon.
-Chris
I have hated being on Fremont (FMT1) all this time, and I cannot wait until I get to FMT2. It's helpful to know what's going on. You're the best!
Thanks!
Bruce
This is exactly the kind of answer I was hoping we'd get (it's obvious there was some sort of delay) so knowing what's happening and having appropriate expectations is the next best thing. Also, your response shows that you/the Linode team truly are concerned about making this a smooth transition for us, although I know that the world wouldn't come to an end if my very small $20/mo Linode went down, it's nice to know that minimizing downtime and inconvenience is a priority.
It's like that for this; getting some insight into the technical stuff behind the scenes may not be something that we customers need, but it's definitely appreciated and reinforces that Linode (the company) is doing something. It also tends to make customers more tolerant of stuff too.
So, whenever you guys can afford to share some insight into goings-on, it's appreciated.
-Chris
That's the kinda thing I would have been happy to hear earlier on – as I am now. Good luck with the move, glad to hear about servers there already.
That all makes perfect sense. FMT2 is awesome. I like their "dark room" -- it's like putting an amphitheater over a small town then shutting off all the lights.
@lakridserne:
@Valley:
@lakridserne:Solution: Move your Linode to another DC for a few weeks more while they get the last quirks worked out.
Many of us are geographically tied to Fremont.
1) It's not that much more time it takes when we're talking about the internet
Yes, we are taking about the Internet – and not the web, which seems to be your perspective since you do shared hosting. For other applications where latency is critical (let's use a game server as an example), a difference of even 10ms ping could make all the difference.
@Guspaz:
I really wish that you guys at Linode would post this sort of thing more often. Not necessarily all the time, or in that much detail, but it's nice to see. It's kind of like UI feedback; for a task that takes a given number of seconds, compare the user experience to having a progress bar versus just locking up the UI. The user who gets the progress bar is going to feel like the machine is faster and more response, while the user who just gets a frozen screen for the duration is going to feel the machine is slow and unresponsive.
The problem is that situations like this are often fluid. There's a tough balance to strike between enough information and too much. Had Chris been putting out the updates along the way, I could easily see people misinterpreting pieces of it and getting unrealistic expectations or simply not understanding pieces of it and jumping to conclusions. There's a reason that linode usually doesn't communicate things out until they're done, because then you don't have to deal with threads like this where people are saying "it's been two weeks, where is it!?!?". My day job has plenty of this kind of stuff, so I'm very sympathetic to Chris' position (of course, my linodes are in NJ, so it helps that I'm not personally affected as well).
Thanks for the forthcoming upgrade and the news.
So how can I keep up to date with how the move is progressing? Are you going to email everyone who has a host in Fremont when you open the migration queue… or do I need to check the blog and/or this thread every day to ensure I get a good spot in the line… really looking forward to to the upgrade.
-Chris
Would a resize to the 1 gig also upgrade me or should I upgrade then resize?
@mosdl:
I am currently on an 768 plan - I would get upgraded to an 1536, but really I just need the lowest plan.
Would a resize to the 1 gig also upgrade me or should I upgrade then resize?
First Upgrade then resize, you can't resize first
Thanks Linode!