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Anonymous
January 21, 2009
Question

General Question Regarding Servers

  • January 21, 2009
  • 1 reply
  • 257 views
I recently just ordered my first server, and I have brewed up some questions that I am hoping someone here could answer for me. Say that I upload a bunch onto my server, and I run out of room and need to get a new server to hold all the stuff. What kind of process is usually done when this happens? I am mainly curious about what is generally done with the database...In terms of uploading files to my hard drive my plan is to have a master setting in my admin page that sets the drive that everything is uploaded to (C:, D:, etc.), and then store the location of the file in the database. If anyone could explain to me the most efficient way this is done by big corporations that have multiple servers, I would appreciate it. My site is written in Coldfusion which is why I am posting here.
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    F
    Fetch
    Participating Frequently
    January 21, 2009
    We have a LOT of dedicated server clients, and this problem does come up from time to time. If you're running a single drive on the machine then it's a bit of a chore; basically you have to get a new server with larger drives then migrate all of your data - potentially a time consuming process.

    Alternatively, what we do is force all of our client servers to have hardware RAID1 running - i.e. even the smallest server has 2 mirrored drives. So, if they've got 2x80 GB SATA drives then they have 80 GB of usable space. In order to upgrade we'd break the RAID array and remove one of the 80 GB drives then put in a larger drive, say a 250 GB Drive. Then we'd allow the RAID to rebuild. After it's done, break the array again and remove the last 80 GB drive, then replace it with another 250 GB drive and again allow the RAID to rebuild. Once done, simply expand the partition to include all 250 GB of space instead of just 80 GB.

    There's a lot more to it technically, but you get the idea. This process is seamless in terms of uptime - you never have to bring the server offline, just reboot a few times. IT should be noted that you take a performance hit when the array is rebuilding, but that's better than being altogether offline, and certainly better than a manual migration of data.
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