CombatACE - Data Center Relocation

[Erik]

Notice to all,

The data center which we reside in will be moving in June of this year which means they are physically moving locations. This is a rare event but they are moving their entire rack space to a new location and we're included in that move.

This will be an outage event that can last up to 12 hours.

How this will impact will affect CombatACE.com

• We will be given a date and time for the move, when I have that information I will post it publicly.
• When the day and time comes our servers will be powered down while they are physically moved. (Expected window 6-8 hours)
• During that time CombatACE.com will resolve to our temporary static site to let visitors and members know that our move is in progress.
• When we get power restored we'll undergo a complete in-place diagnostics to make sure our cabinet, machines, and network are performing as expected.
• After a successful test of the gear and the green light to relight CombatACE, our site will be back online and no longer resolve to our temporary site.

I will be making updates as I get them during the move on our x.com page. If you want to stay up to date with the move in June I recommend you subscribe to our page here: https://x.com/CombatACE

Erik

 

[daddyairplanes]

aaaaand this pops in my mind

[Erik]

*slips you the keys and walks away silently*

[streakeagle]

I generally don't mind these types of disruptions as long as CombatAce comes back. Whereas I remember a certain WWI group abandoning CombatAce for SimHq because of an unavoidable unplanned outage. As if SimHq was an upgrade. At one time, SimHq was the place to be, but at some point CombatAce became the refuge for people fed up with SimHq, especially for the Strike Fighters series. SimHq eventually gave up the .com for a .net because the new owner had a better use for the .com domain. Maybe its just me, but pc game forums are a luxury not a necessity. It is no big deal if service is down, especially since I am active on so many other forums, too.

Now, if the internet goes down, I am screwed. One of the disadvantages to my primary sim, DCS World, is that you can only play offline for 24 hours, then it shuts down until you can log into the internet again. Likewise, when their licensing servers are down, I am screwed. SF2 may not support multiplayer and the graphics engine may be a bit dated, but the software has no anti-piracy crap and runs anytime. If Eagle Dynamics were to go out of business, would they issue one last patch to unlock their software so people could keep playing without the ED servers? If not, I would be back to flying Strike Fighters 2 until another F-4/MiG-21 sim arose from the ashes.

[Erik]

The plan is definitely to return just letting everyone know that there's a move in our future and I can't do anything about it. I had hoped they were going to allow us to deploy duplicate equipment which would allow us a switch over that nobody will notice but they are going old-school with this move. The plans aren't inked yet so there may be changes but until there are the only thing I can do is prepare.

 

[streakeagle]

I just remembered: SimHq was the place for refugees from CombatSim.com after they went payware. CombatSim.com learned real quick that no one wanted to pay for community forums, especially when there were plenty of competitors still available for free. The late 90s to the 2000s was a crazy time for the flight sim community. But CombatAce.com (formerly BioHaz) rose above the mess and is still here over 20 years later.

[DoctorQuest]

Having retired from IT I've seen my share of server moves. Hopefully it will go smoothly. Let us know if there is anything the community can do to help. 

[Erik]

My understanding, as the current plan is set, is that they are moving entire cabinets which is preferred over a de-rack event. I'd have preferred that they provisioned new gear and let us (customers) move but it's not looking like that's going to happen. They've hired qualified movers but that as you know isn't saying much. I'm still waiting on some answers about who's insuring the move, who's ultimately responsible for loss, and if we can insure against loss. That said, we're in a good place for this. Over the years, more so lately, I've built a full offsite backup funnel which will allow us to rebuild from a total loss of gear and/or data. A tested funnel I will be stress testing between now and then, to make sure I've got everything I need. I'll have to find a couple test boxes to deploy on but I'll figure that out. Community wise, patience during the move is the only thing I can ask. I'm preparing ahead of time so we all know the plan and there are no surprises.

E

[redwood]

Thanks for the heads up - hopefully the move goes smoothly!

 

Cheers