What I’ve done is actually migrate [finally] all my sites/blogs/galleries to a single server. I’ve eliminated the old photo gallery server that was an “interim” box and moved that function to the main server. I’ve removed all instances of MySQL and am instead utilizing a single Microsoft SQL Server 2008 instance, which will soon be upgraded to SQL Server 2008 R2 for those that care.

This was harder to do than to write about and much pain and link adjustment/correction was required after migration to make sure everything was working.

In the past, running WordPress required MySQL since the Microsoft database was considered “enterprise” and not “open source”. However, in recent months, some enterprising individuals wrote a WordPress plugin that allows a connection directly to MS SQL instead of MySQL.

Now, all my blog are belong to MSSQL. [Grammatical incorrectness intentional for those not “in the know”, and if you don’t know where that reference comes from, I’m not explaining it to you.]

First off, Laura has been bugging me to “re-do” my closet for years. Our master bedroom has two closets, one large [hers] and one small [mine]. We did hers shortly after moving in, and a couple other projects involving the same closet construction parts and process. Now, it was my turn – especially since it seems my excessive quantity of shirts was bending the closet shelf/rod downwards. In my defense, the truth was that it wasn’t a capacity problem, but one of sloppy installation of the old system. I think it was bad when we moved in, but my obtaining a few more items of clothing has not helped.

Friday, on the way home from work, I stopped at the mall and picked up the equipment and shelves… in my two-seat convertible. It fit, but it was tight – kinda hanging out the back. That night, we ripped out the old shelves and I sanded and spackled the gaping holes that were left. I did more sanding and spackling the next morning and that evening, we painted the walls a similar color to the ceiling of the bedroom. Today, we installed the shelving system and hung up my clothes again. No more sagging: all is well with the world!

Oh, look: room for more shirts!

<geek-speak>

And the data migration part? I’ve just found out that there is a database plugin for WordPress that allows for it to utilize Microsoft SQL Server as the backend database. FINALLY. You’ll have seen many posts from me in the past about this [if you’ve been with me that long] and know my frustration that WordPress would never abstract the data layer and forced a proprietary data source on the users. Well, I’ve ditched it and this is my first post on the blog using SQL Server. So far, I think it’s a bit faster. But, I could just be biased…

The main thing is that I know how to use it, manage it, optimize it, and patch it. It is, after all, what I do.

</geek-speak>

SP1
You may or may not have noticed that the site is a bit faster. This is mainly due to the fact that I have installed Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 on both the host and the various guest OSs that I have running. The new Dynamic Memory feature allows me to just set initial memory settings and allow the system [guest] load to either request more memory or free up unused bits so that other guests can use them. I’ve given the email server and this web server [and the firewall server] priority so that their requests for resources are serviced first.

The performance is much better – you may not notice much, but on my end when I use my virtual desktop [which is where I do all my personal computing like Quicken and personal email] is much faster since it has the RAM it needs and the other guests aren’t being hogs.

It also makes accessing all my other guest machines easier and faster. The ones not used much can idle and give back RAM. It’s supposed to be “greener” too, allowing you to save money by throttling back CPU and resource usage on the server to only what is needed.

New Virtual Box: FAIL
I tried to utilize one of my old laptops, a Toshiba Techra M5, as a new virtual host for a couple of guest machines [like a new virtual SAN host I got at TechReady]. I installed the raw, bare-bones Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 – which is NOT Windows Server, for those of you not in the know. The install went fine until I got to installing SP1 [see above] on the machine. The Blue Screen of Death made a command performance.

It seems that I remember why I stopped using the laptop: it’s prone to overheating and crashing, which is exactly what it did – several times. So, scratch having another host box for my virtual machines for now. I suppose I’ll have to wait until I get a new one and take one of the other old ones and repurpose it.

Smart Cards and Certificates
I’m also playing with certificates and smart cards. I’m about halfway there – I’ve gotten one to work via logging into a laptop, but not yet with OWA [which is the goal].

I’ll soon have to upgrade the CA to 2008 R2, but not just yet.

That’s all for now.

As you can see, it’s working now. This means that the configuration I had was working just fine. When the servers rebooted, the new server came up first and took over the network and became the production firewall server. I only found out because I hadn’t put the new mail certificate on the listener. The old server came up second, but because it has the same IP address, it couldn’t connect to anything.

I needed to upgrade it because it was running Windows Server 2003 and the old version of the firewall. The new version is running on Windows Server 2008 R2 and is all current and up to date.

It seems to be faster, too.

I’ve turned off the old server and deleted it’s virtual hard drive. No going back now!

Anyway: all is well now with the world and the web server.

Enjoy!

Yay!

This is has been an ongoing project which I started a while back when 2008 came out. I wanted to migrate all the sites from 2003 to 2008. I got bogged down and then R2 was release and I couldn’t just upgrade the new server, so I had to deploy a new one. Presently I have 3.

Soon, there will be only one.

There is still much work to be done, but it won’t be the onerous task I thought it would be… I hope…

It looks like it was always there. Here are some pictures of the inside:

So, I’m pretty excited about the room. Tonight, I’ll be moving the servers into the room, so the site will be down for a bit.

Previously, there was a desk [and then a table] holding printer, monitor, CD filing units on top and computer part holders and a server or two beneath it. It was quite messy.

Over the next few days, there may be some few outages as we move wiring and other things around to accommodate the new space.

Not that I’ve been posting anything recently… I know: I’m a slacker.

So, I’m not deliberately ignoring you. This time.

The only thing you might miss is the links are kind of ugly now, not the neat links they used to be. I may be able to fix that in the future.

UPDATE: I fixed the links and they’re back to what they were.