Playing around with Cron, I created some scripts that will back some of DrQue.net's vitals, such as the config file, databases and even the log files.  We regularly symphonize the Iron Dragon (the laptop) to mirror the webpage directory.  But since the addition of dynamic content, some of the data needed to have a complete backup of the website wasn't included.
    We made a shell script to archive (tar) and compress (gzip) data and place it in a directory inside the website directory structure.  Naturally then, when we symphonize with the Iron Dragon, these backups will be included.  Then, we setup Cron to call this script once a day.
    We also had Cron run Webalizer which generates statistical information about the usage of the site.  After the minor disaster on 8-23, we lost out log file (silly me forgot to copy that-- although it was on the list of things to copy!!).  However, Webalizer was able to continue it's incremental session and still give stats for the month of August :)  Good program Webalizer.

    The White-Dragon's time is now synchronized to the atomic clock.  We had been doing this on all the machines here for quite awhile, but we just figured out how to get a SuSE Linux to do it.  Using Cron and a simple shell script, we now have the White-Dragon synchronizing with the atomic clock.

    A strange annoying disaster takes down the White Dragon (operator error).  DrQue.net switches over to the Azure Dragon with all dynamic content dead.  Basically, something got screwed up on the White Dragon.  We decided to had to do a reset, but the system wouldn't come back-- it's just hang during the boot process.  Basically, we ended up having to reinstall everything.  Took about 4 hours, but everything is back and functioning.  We're going to have to look into have to recover from these types of crashes with something other than full reinstalls.

    We finally finished a script long in the working for the member's area.  It includes a secure login system and provides a database for hundreds of thousands of files.  Searching, sorting and downloading was all incorporated into the script.  Unfortunately, none of this is visible to the public.

    Statistics for the month of July are in with a grand total of 145,211 hits for the month.

DrQue.net daily averages Hits/day 4,684.23 Byte/day 96,755,877.16 Visitors/day 157.39

Our busyest day last month was the 28th where we received 11,438 hits.  On the 20th, we sent out 957,045,760 bytes. Have a look at the graphs

    The Garage Crowd site's host computer gets replacement hardware and goes back on-line at it's permanent location in Zen's shop.  It was a very easy change over.  The index page on our temporary computer (the Azure dragon) was replaced with a changeover message, the dynamic data copied via FTP and the DNS record changed.  Within minutes, the processes was finished and Zen had his sites back on-line and on his systems.
    Zen commented it was the easiest hardware change he ever did.  And the efficiency at which the change over was done was very nice.  Good work Zen!
    What kind of traffic increase did DrQue.net network see for hosting the Garage Crowd site?  On the 29th, instead of our average 4,300 hits per day we typically receive, we hit over 11,400 and the 28th we received 7,500.  Our 3rd highest hitting day was the 2nd of the month where we received over 6,600.  So yes, the Garage Crowd site brought in quite a bit of traffic.
    This was a fun test-- seeing how fast we can change over a pretty active dynamic website to different hardware and back again.  I think we faired very well and learned a lot.

    The Garage Crowd site's host computer failed sometime this afternoon.  Zen and I went to his work shop to investigate why the site wasn't responding.  After determining the crash was hardware related and the host computer would not function, we returned to Park Place.  In a controlled rush, I put the Garage Crowd site's hard drive into the Azure dragon while Zen began changing over the DNS records.  Soon, the Garage Crowd site was up and running-- despite it being designed for a non-Linux OS.
    DrQue.net will host the Garage Crowd site as long as needed, until Zen and I figure out what hardware needs to be replaced on the broken computer.

    GarageCrowd.com was down for a while.  Zen, the system administrator, was out of town and it took some time to get a hold of him.  Once he was reached, he was able to call someone and have them bring the server back up.  But, for those of you who couldn't get on in the morning-- that's why.

    The photo's page takes on the fantasy and space art previously hosted at Space.DrQue.net.  Since there is so little on that site, I've decided to take the put the image on that page on DrQue.net.

    After development of forever and a day, the photo gallery script is complete enough to reach it's beta state.  This script runs the photo's page as well as the photo galleries at Drink'n Drano and The Garage.  It still has some areas that need work, but all the base functionality is there.