After due consideration, I’ve decided to take a step that I probably should have taken many months ago: I am moving the Ultima Codex off of Mediatemple’s (gs) shared hosting service, and onto their (dv) dedicated virtual hosting services. There are many different reasons for the move, but the key point that needs to be understood is that this is a thing which must happen within the next week or so; I have until the 17th of the month to move everything between hosting setups and get it all working again.

And in fact, that is a process which has already begun; I’ve been migrating some smaller websites that I maintain first, in advance of moving the Codex itself. Old Aiera will also be migrated at some point, although (as will be outlined below) not without losing some key functionality.

Disadvantages of Migration

• Technically, a higher monthly cost ($50, instead of $40).
• Time: life and work still go on, so finding time to migrate all site files to their new homes will be beyond merely challenging.
• Space: the dedicated virtual server affords me significantly less hard drive space (30 GB as opposed to the 100 GB of the (gs) package), which means that Old Aiera’s 20+ GB repository of downloads will not be migrated; it will be archived offline. Practically speaking, this isn’t really an issue, since a lot of what’s being pulled down is non-current, and that which is current has largely been added to one Codex subdomain or another. Still, for a while, it will mean that a few downloads are unavailable, although I will strive to get the relevant files and the remaining subdomains set up on the Codex post-haste.
• Stress, stress, stress. I am a very stressed-out Dragon.

Advantages of Migration

• More powerful hosting platform: a faster processor, a non-shared platform, and loads more RAM should mean that the site is just that much zippier overall.
• Practically, monthly costs will be way lower, since I am no longer going to be hit with processor usage overage fees, which have been levied against the Codex for at least the last four months (and which have soared to north of $100 in the last month or two, in no small part (I suspect) due to some new WordPress attacks that have emerged).
• Because the site is moving to a dedicated platform that I have total control over, I can add features to the domain that previously it could not support. BuddyPress will be coming back, adding the activity streams feature and other social/community stuff. As well, a dedicated IRC server could, in theory, be put in place, adding a chat channel to the Codex proper. And who knows? Maybe other new features can be added in as well.

So, this will be happening this week. As such, don’t be surprised if there are site outages at some point, don’t be surprised if things seem a little funny at some points, and don’t be surprised if no content gets posted to the site for a few days. Rest assured; the Codex will be back to its full activity levels before the month is out!