Farewell Servers …. You will be missed!

The end of a big part of my life, that’s what it feels like! Tonight I shut down the core servers of TN/FH (the old ones) - I had been with this DC since the early days of TN, migrating from a oversold T1, to a “SDSL” line that boasted LARGER speeds (yet never delivered), faster connections, that was down for nearly a week - but TN made it’s way back, rose from the ashes, a little hurt for cash, but pushing forward.

The move to this DC was mainly because a side project I picked up, started using the company, back then a startup, a simple, but bold company ready to provide great service, insanely competitive pricing, and for me, the second big dive into server management, as a guy who always had a physical rack of servers in front of me, it was quite a change indeed, but you learn, friendly server monkeys from the DC would give pointers, it was a great company, but in the end they changed names, and got a little “bigger” but still the CEO kept things going, and as some past posts note like in the hurricane they bought extra fuel, staff stayed on-hand, network things were figured out ahead of time if line XYZ died, hot cut to ABC - it was awesome, amazing, and comforting.

Then about a year ago, they merged with another company - and if your a server admin and know some of the key players out there, you’ll know the two companies - the merger was rough, and I stuck with it, I re-vamped servers, got newer hardware, invested in some VPS tech, got tons of IP’s, found new contacts - but it was nothing like the first company, it was a money maker, and who can blame them, money has to be made somehow, and they started working towards it, and in some cases loosing that “personal” touch and going more towards the cold corporate penny picking, every little thing was a extra $2, or $10, or suddenly they’d determine they weren’t billing you for XYZ (which was originally free!) and without warning a $25-$50 monthly increase, things got sloppy.

I stayed for a year, exactly what I said I’d give them to straighten up a little, I know what it is like to re-organize, didn’t want to declare them dead just yet, but with horrible pricing, pushy sales folk, and bad communication and billing system, when the recent option came up, I took it, and I’d take it again - I have no true ill feelings for the company, they have to find their footing, and I am sure there are some out there with zero problems, but the move for me was also related to the upcoming position I may get come Friday, so reasons there as well.

But none the less, I feel a big chapter in my life is indeed closing, sort of makes me a little sad - granted I have 1 server there still, it’s a client server and it’ll probably move in the next month, getting my budget even more happy - but it’s been quite a ride, and I hope, that even with a new job, I can continue to manage and operate TN/FH for many years to come until the bargain hosts run me out of business, but I hope that day is a long long ways away.

Anywhoo - that was my trip down memory lane, a fun ride, more fun to come I hope. Thanks for reading, and again, mega thanks for everyone for their prayers over the past few weeks with the migrations, with only 6 tickets in the end across all the moves, I could not be happier, and now with a big chunk of money saved a month, and bigger hardware for the better price, I move forward, as I am trying to do with a lot of things, so here’s to a great 2008!