New Server

[PyTom]

I'm pleased to announce that a friend of mine and myself spent this evening putting together a new server, one that will eventually be colocated at a data center and used to host these forums. It will also be used for various other projects, both personal and Ren'Py related.

The new server - yet to be named - has the following specs:

- Intel i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4 GHz CPU
- 16 GB RAM (DDR3 1333)
- 2 x 2TB Hard Drives (RAID-1)
- 450W Power Supply

It will be a couple of weeks before I get the server installed in the data center. I'm probably not going to migrate the forum over until early March. But the parts have been bought and assembled, and the process has begun.

[Sapphi]

Congratulations! We're totally going to have a LSF-wide contest to name her, right?

[LVUER]

Yay, glad to hear this \(^0^)/ Hooray to PyTom!

Just like Sapphi said, will we have a contest to name her?

[jack_norton]

Haha you're the only person I know that assembles his own server and put them in a data center (but probably worth it since you save lot of money). The server specs are nice, should sustain quite some traffic!

[Greeny]

Groovy.

[PyTom]

So, this project got put on hold for a bit while I was working on 6.13.9 and some actual paying work. But it's back on track, now. I've installed Linux onto the server, and I've started paying for the virtual hosting service. Today, I'll be packing the server up, taking it down to the post office, and mailing it to the data center I've chosen.

I've picked a name for the server. Since I own it, that's my prerogative.

To understand the name(s) I've chosen, you have to understand how the server is configured, and what it will be used for. The server will be shared between myself and several friends of mine. Each of us has our own virtual machine, with its own IP address - the idea is that we can then use different web server software, different mail software, and so on, without having to coordinate further. (Technical details - I'm using Libvirt and KVM for the virtualization.)

So needed a naming scheme, more than a single name. One name for the host computer, and one name for each of the guest machines that runs on it. Being me, I wanted something VN-related - and I need a scheme where I could come up with a number of additional names as I add VMs to the host. If the scheme somehow reflected this arrangement a bit, all the better.

And then it hit me. We had a VN, recently - one I really enjoyed - where a single character was responsible for taking care of multiple characters. One in which multiple long-time members of the forum participated, and one which has 5 main characters, and maybe a half-dozen other names I could take if I needed.

That's ADRIFT. (Minor spoilers for ADRIFT are below.)

I've decided to name the main server "Supervisor" - it's a departure from my "all computers are female" rule, but one that seems warranted insofar as his role, like the role of the character in the game, is to take care of the others.

The VMs then get the names of the characters from Adrift. Erika will be my VM, where the LSF will eventually move to. Minako, Hinami, and Sachiko are names for other VMs, and I can use the Bots and AIs names as necessary. I'm probably not going to give a DNS name to the underlying network - I don't usually do that - but I've been calling the network Bluetide in some config files.

Anyway, I'm going to ship the server out in a couple hours. It's a little bittersweet - this computer will be an important part of our lives for the next few years, and I won't see him again until he's retired. But he's ready, and it's time to send him off. I did take a photo, though:

[CheeryMoya]

Goodbye, Supervisor-san ;-; Take good care of us.

In other news, I rather like the naming scheme. Did you ask Taleweaver first though?

[PyTom]

Did you ask Taleweaver first though?

Um...

[jack_norton]

Nice computer. I don't think Taleweaver would mind it, he should be proud instead!

[Taleweaver]

Taleweaver IS proud

[Sapphi]

Aw, what an honor!
I hope one day I can be so lucky to have a server named for my characters
*breaks out the champagne* And now, the christening!

[PyTom]

Supervisor has left the building! (He's now on a truck bound for the sorting facility.) That's according to the tracking page found here:

https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmA ... 553%200398

He's headed for Kansas City, Missouri, 1240 miles (2000 km) away.

[jack_norton]

The Supervisors Were Created By Pytom
They Rebelled
They Evolved
There Are Many Copies
And They Have a Plan

[dorne]

Can we blame Supervisor-san when things go wrong now? =P

[Taleweaver]

Adrift spoiler (minor):

If Supervisor breaks down, can Sachiko take over its place?