We will be moving various machines over to a new Host machine as well as some file systems in order to reconfigure existing hosts to address both old operating systems and thermal issues.

     The operating system is Centos 6 presently, going to move to Ubuntu 15.04 and 15.10 when it gets out of beta and proves itself stable (I’ve learned that when Ubuntu is in Beta it is REALLY beta).  Ubuntu stays current where CentOS does not.  Even Centos7 is still on a 3.10 kernel when 4.2 is current.

     The other thing about Ubuntu is they provide a means to upgrade to the next major release in place rather than requiring a re-install as CentOS does so moving to this will allow us to stay current in the future with less disruption.

     Also moving major file systems like mail spool and home directories to RAID10 arrays for speed and redundancy.

     I will announce specific downtimes for specific servers and services as I prepare to move them.  I will do my best to minimize downtimes, particularly during high traffic times.

     The thermal issues are that the CPUs are getting too hot under load resulting in throttling of their speed.  The stock Intel coolers they came with are inadequate.

     The fix for this is to relocate the components into a larger case that will accommodate a more massive evo 212 cooler.  I’ve used one of these in the construction of our new i7-6700k platform that will be used for private virtual servers and stress tested it at 4.5Ghz with cpuburn and mprime (the Linux equivalent of prime95) and it is able to carry away the heat of the CPU running at that speed for hours.