Pressing this puppy into service
So now you've seen an overview of our new server. I wish I'd had time to do several things before putting this system into service, including taking some better pictures and running some common benchmarks on it, either in Linux or in Windows. However, the old server decided to barf on its RAID array once again just days before I was planning to ship the new box to the co-lo facility. We had to scramble to get the new server shipped out and in place as soon as possible, so I had to cut short the benchmarking and photo sessions.

The folks at our new hosting outfit, Defender Hosting, did a wonderful job helping us get our new system shipped, racked, and turned up. (Thanks again to Hooz at 2CPU for recommending them.) Within 24 hours of leaving Damage Labs, the new system was online and running, serving all of TR's traffic. And barely breaking a sweat.

Of course, no server setup is perfect, and I'm sure we'll explore the limits of this one in due time. We have yet to feel the joy of a Slashdotting with this box, so when that happens the first time, all bets are off. This thing could come crashing down like Michael Jackson's career. However, we have alleviated the most severe bottlenecks we've run into the past, which is a start.

Now, the old server will come out of our old hosting outfit and land in Damage Labs for a brief retrofit, in which the IDE RAID controller will be extracted, and a full exorcism performed. Once the server is free of evil spirits, faster hard drives will be installed, probably along with more memory. With luck, our quest for utter, crushing world domination will be on track, and we'll bring up the first front-end server to go along with our new back-end box.

A brief epilogue
You have just read an article about how I built our new web server. I wrote it because lots of folks told me they wanted to see such an article. No doubt if you have some semblance of experience with server systems, you have developed some very strong, deeply insightful, and intensely correct views about how servers ought to be built and run. You would like to share them with me now, so I can see how desperately and utterly wrong I am about nearly everything.

That's nice. Please think before you type, though. I promise, I'm only a partial idiot.