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So what happened to the HN server?

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Re: So what happened to the HN server?

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's only one server. if the server is down, then assume the status is not 'green'.

How can Joe-random-user be certain the server is down?

Aside from the various services to test on, if you're using Chrome you'll see a "Other people have reported this site is unavailable" message in addition to the standard errors.

Re: So what happened to the HN server?

#53
post #44
post #39

Why don't you Ajaxify HN while you're at it??

Not trolling but just wondering. What added value does Ajaxifying the site bring to HN?

:) I'd instantly know when I get downvoted for saying something stupid ;)

seeing submissions in realtime, reducing load on the HN server. Saving F5 addicts.

Re: So what happened to the HN server?

#55
post #45

Fast is one thing. BUT I'd much rather get rid of the "this link has expired" syndrome. Fast is only impressive if the results are modern.

The superior results from my browser's back button far outweigh the inconvenience of the expired link. I click on a link from the "Ask" front page, reply to the top comment, and my comment appears in the thread. Next I click "back" on my browser and I'm back at the front page of "ask".

I do that much more often than I hit an expired link.

Re: So what happened to the HN server?

#56
post #21

Saturday, I thought: "This guy (PG) is really brave, everybody is nowadays using virtualized server environments on mulit-core machines and PG just gets some bare metal and puts his app on one core and one thread. WTF, this guy is a genius, single-threaded apps on bare metal FTW, this is so great and I am doing this too." After seeing this thing down for several hours -- and Google hate downtimes, they punish you ins…

What would the benefits of using a virtualized server for a relatively small (in terms of server needs) site like HN be? The way I see it so far, is that virtualization is mostly beneficial for hosting companies that can provide cheaper hosting and have better isolation and easier resource allocation. But I can't think of any big benefits for the site owner, assuming they can afford a dedicated server, and I can see downsides of virtualization, so I am genuinely curious if I miss something.

Re: So what happened to the HN server?

#58
post #53
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not trolling but just wondering. What added value does Ajaxifying the site bring to HN?

:) I'd instantly know when I get downvoted for saying something stupid ;) seeing submissions in realtime, reducing load on the HN server. Saving F5 addicts.

F5 addicts will never go away.

Re: So what happened to the HN server?

#59
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the site actually runs very quickly, so can't argue it needs more cores / threads. seems the issue was more with the migration. so i reckon you're good to get back to removing all the threads from your apps :)

I totally agree, this new machine is so fricking responsive that I still think bare metal rules but I am just so afraid of the system operations of such a machine. But maybe Paul can give us some hints and why it's still worth to go the bare metal route. EDIT: since Heroku fooled Rapgenius and us all it would be one more reason to get into system operations again and host on bare metal.

Many people use baremetal for their base-load and virtual/cloud instances for their fail-over and elastic loads. Its not all or nothing.
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