We're moving!!!!!!!!!

Boards.ie: Mike

I hoped the headline would grab your attention :).

OK! Don't panic. It's only Transatlantic. 😕

So there has been a whole load of negotiations and back and forth with Vanilla/Higherlogic recently. Amidst all the conversations a new development came to the fore. The issue of site speed was a hot topic and they put forward an option that was previously unavailable to us. It is now possible for us to be hosted on a European server. Their hope is that this will improve site speed and some other issues that have cropped up. So it was decided to get the ball rolling on this ASAP in the hopes that it would have a positive impact.

I had requested for the move to be made this week. They have confirmed that the move will take place on the 11th of May. That's this Thursday morning at 1.00am. It is expected that there will be some downtime for the site then.

There are a couple of conditions attached to the switch. One of which is a clear and transparent move for all of our users. There may also be some minor changes to things like privacy policies etc.. We have not fully developed a detailed plan of all changes as of yet, but we want any changes that we are implementing to be as transparent as possible. We will do our best to keep everyone properly informed with all relevant information as soon as it is available to us. So we are taking the time to inform everyone. We have informed the Admins and Mods last week and are taking this opportunity to issue a site wide announcement.

It is our hope that there won't be much downtime and this will improve some issues that we are currently facing and will boost positivity overall. We have been assured that it will not be any longer than 24 hours. It could potentially take this long because there is such a huge database here to move. So although it may be disruptive it is necessary and it will be carried out as efficiently as possible to keep this disruption to a minimum. When we receive a definitive timeline we will add it here.

Anyways if you have any questions or comments then post them here and as I said, we will put any update here as soon as we have them.

Thanks all.

Mike.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058295687/were-moving

Any improvement in site speed is a good thing imho 👍️

If there are changes coming to the site policies will they be rolled out/published ahead of the move?

Leg End Reject

24 hours you say ... see you all next year. 🤣🤣🤣

Boards.ie: Mike

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120570867#Comment_120570867

I will do my best to make any changes ASAP!

Dial Hard

This should end well...

knucklehead6

Not yet developed a full plan for something happening in three days?

Think I’ll order some popcorn.

HeidiHeidi

"We have been assured....."

Where did we hear that before??? 🤔

I really hope it goes to plan (if there is a plan), but I'll be on my holliers for the next two weeks, so in reality I just hope there's something here when I get home.

ctrl-alt-delete

I guess if there isn't much of a plan it can't go that wrong.

I just wanted to be the first to mention GDPR!

Slideways

So as usual Boards.ie are going to take a shít and then pull their pants down.

Would it not be a little more prudent to have all the details ironed out before the migration??

Hungry Burger

Can someone explain this to a Neanderthal who is computer illiterate…

heavydawson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120571331#Comment_120571331

(Edited to reflect the fact the mods pointed out the site is currently hosted in Canada, not the US. My bad!)

They're moving the information hosted by boards.ie to servers in the EU (they're in the US Canada now). They'll then be physically closer to the vast majority of the users here in Ireland. By being closer, the site should be faster, as loading the site data takes less time because user requests don't have to physically traverse the Atlantic.

Hungry Burger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120571347#Comment_120571347

Yeah that’s what I thought but had just assumed an Irish website would be on a European server by default. The more you know.

odyssey06

To be precise is it an EU based server or a European one??? They are not necessarily the same thing.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120571272#Comment_120571272

Nothing will go wrong. Plans are for fools 😁. Nice Knowing you all.

JP Liz V1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120571331#Comment_120571331

I'm the same

_Kaiser_

I think you need to take another week before you do anything.

I'm serious. You haven't locked down the details, there's a lot of hoping and crossing of fingers and paperwork left to be done by the sounds of it and you're planning to do this in 3 days?

Does boards have a change control process, because as someone who oversees one, there's no way this major move is ready for implementation - especially given all we've seen to date of the relationship between you and your vendor and their responsiveness (or more accurately the lack there of) when something goes wrong.

Given this site is already operating on the margins financially (unless things have changed?), I don't think you should take the risk of killing off what little traffic remains (by previous standards) in another botched migration.

The server is likely in Ireland… waiting for planning permission! 🤣🤣🤣

Overheal

So all this clap in CA/IMHO over users raging about discussing "US topics on an Irish forum" and the forum is being hosted in the US? kek kek kek

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120571800#Comment_120571800

No, it's not. It's in Canada, which meets EU privacy standards, the US does not.

AMKC

Any chance we could be given the option of not seeing that add about Ukraine everytime we try to load up a thread on Boards.ie

Yes I know there is a war on in Ukraine. I come here to chat and get away from that. I see enough of it on the news. I do not need to keep constantly seeing it here too. Just have it if people are going into the Current Affairs threads and the ones about Russia and Ukraine not everywhere else.

I agree with the poster above wait another week at least or even better a month before you change things over. Let's try and get it right this time unlike last time which was a disaster.

Beasty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120571385#Comment_120571385

Apparently we were offered a great deal by Moscow......

😀

EmmetSpiceland

Any chance you could make the announcement message closable?

FishOnABike

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120571642#Comment_120571642

.... change control is sooo last year. Boards is bleeding edge agile DevOps all the way.... 😉

hoodie6029

So what does this mean for the Burkes?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120572492#Comment_120572492

They argued any site discussing their family should be hosted in Europe. They won.

Why try speed up the site when you have that full screen ad making it a miserable experience? Bizarre.

Purple Mountain

"There may also be some minor changes to things like privacy policies etc.. We have not fully developed a detailed plan of all changes as of yet"

Don't like the sound of that, Ted 😵

StupidLikeAFox

Kaiser, tell the truth, you will be here until boards breathes it's last breath. You have a love hate relationship, they could revert the site to a dreamweaver html website and you would still embrace it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120571642#Comment_120571642

Fathom

We should already be in compliance with EU guidelines, Ireland being EU. Unless the “European server” is not in the EU? The geographical server site location may also have specific national regulations?

Esel

The Russians are tapping the undersea cable so they can capture all of Boards in one go. 😀

secman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120571869#Comment_120571869

On top left (on phone site anyways ) of the advert, click it and it gives you the usual Google options to adverts, it's gone for the moment from my screen.

JayBee66

Is the site slow? I hadn't noticed.

If it aint broke, don't fix it.

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573146#Comment_120573146

Yes it can take an age to load sometimes. Lucky you.

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573146#Comment_120573146

I personally never saw any speed issues either, but there's a small fraction who've reported them since the move. It's not as simple as someone connecting to the Vanilla server in Canada. There's also a Cloudflare layer in front of that, to add further complexity and an extra potential source of slowdown. Moving it to Europe helps to shorten then part too.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573174#Comment_120573174

I've never found it in the least bit slow.

I'm amazed there's anybody left using the site when you read all the moaning in this thread.

JayBee66

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573174#Comment_120573174

I'm with the ancestors (sticks to you) but have 500MB fibre. Is it only ADSL users on ~2MB that report slow loading?

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573244#Comment_120573244

Not slow for us and we haven't fibre at all.

JDxtra

Many casual users may not understand what the original post here is about. Can it be edited to explain in one line that there is a site migration on X date and what the expected outage is? More details below then for those interested.

In terms of the migration itself, is it possible to do a dry run? Then you’ll know how long it would take and iron out any kinks in the process.

Boards.ie: Mike

Good morning all,

I'm glad that so many of you have had a chance to read the OP.

I would like to add here that this is not a major site redevelopment or another migration. This is simply a move to a server that is much closer to home. There will not be any changes to the layout, settings, appearance or functionality of the site. This is merely a change to the European AMS server. Any other issues that have been raised here have already been addressed in other threads and are all currently being worked on. Lets keep things civil and on point here please.

The idea behind the move is as I said. To increase usability and performance. There are many reports coming to us about site speed every single week. So we understand that it is a major issue for some users. That is why we decided to make the move when the option became available to use. This is meant to be a move to something better, a boost in positivity. Boards.ie has been around for a very long time, as have huge numbers of users. We are constantly trying to improve on what we have here so that it remains a place for users to come to and enjoy well into the future.

I added detail to the OP in the interest of transparency. The fact is there will be negligible changes that will need to be made a couple of words in a document perhaps. The current use of the YUL1 Canandian server ensured that all rules and regulations were complied with. So "The Plan" that is causing such concern need not worry anyone. Privacy and Data Protection will remain a top priority as it always has here.

Glaceon

AMS is Amsterdam I assume?

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573540#Comment_120573540

Yes. There's a whole standard for naming data centres after their closest airport code, and Schiphol is AMS.

heavydawson

For those of you wondering about speeds. I have an FTTH connection, and the main page takes ~ 750ms -> 1200ms to load (slow by modern standards). All of the javascript/css is well-cached via CDN, and loads much faster (because it doesn't change that often), around 30ms.

Boards.ie: Mike

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573540#Comment_120573540

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573584#Comment_120573584

Yes. Currently on YUL Montreal server.

degsie

Hope there is a rollback plan!

TaurenDruid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120572815#Comment_120572815

First time the Burkes would have won anything since yer man won a school debating competition!

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573511#Comment_120573511

"This is simply a move to a server that is much closer to home. There will not be any changes to the layout, settings, appearance or functionality of the site."

Pity...

Escapees

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120574220#Comment_120574220

Well, no 'intended' changes I would think. But on a more important note, I think the boards.ie folk behind the scenes really need to put a time or range of time on the expected site outage. The vagueness on stuff like this and the lack of apparent risk management or contingency planning is worrying. Instead, the focus in the announcement seems to be on setting the service provider up as the fall guy should anything go wrong. Sure, it might all go swimmingly well, but at least take responsibility for the move and be planning for the worst etc.

Edit: Sorry, I see now the original announcement has been updated re: the outage time etc.

Boards.ie: Mike

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120574357#Comment_120574357

We are not looking for a fall out guy. This is not a game of pass the parcel with the blame bomb!

This switch is not controlled by our side. It is a joint collaboration between Boards.ie and its database and Vanilla/HigherLogic, their tech team are overseeing the switch. We have not yet received a minute by minute timeline of the switchover From Vanilla/HigherLogic Tech team. As I said before when updates are sent our way I will post them here. Once again my goal is absolute transparency on this.

Quantum Erasure

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573182#Comment_120573182

I've noticed 'skimlinks' seems to be slowing it down sometimes

GreeBo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573511#Comment_120573511

Its a data center migration, which, to anyone who has done one before, is certainly not a trivial exercise. If it was me I wouldn't be down playing its potential for impact.

Are Vanilla already hosting live sites from this AMS DC?

Have we tried a background migration and confirmed it all works before we actually switch the live site?

Let’s really slow it right down and put it accessible only via a tor network. One could always go off and make a cup of tea as it loads up. 😂

Tbh I’ve not noticed it being overly slow, but on a fast running thread like Liveline (on good days) a bit of speed up would be welcome.