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RHM Data Center Rebuild

  • For most of this year I have meant to rework our data center. We host everything ourselves in house because we send about 3 million emails a month through 10 virtual servers and our website gets about 300,000 visitors a month itself. Also with the equipment in hands reach, I can write scripts and configure it to do anything that I want immediately without having to call someone. For us, third party hosting has never worked out, not to mention that for what we need, it would be crazy expensive compared to just paying the light bill and Internet.

     

    I have had my own data center and hosted my own websites since the mid 90s and taught others how to as well. I enjoy it. There have been many ups and downs but we have learned a lot of things along the way. We have had servers taken over by Russians, picked up Internet worms, lost RAID systems and struggled along with drives hanging out the side of the servers, but we made it and eventually got better at it. We maintain near 100% uptime when things go our way, that has not been lately.

     

    A friend of ours was recently parting out a web hosting setup and I agreed to help him with it for some of the parts. So I picked up some nice equipment to upgrade the things that we had in the process. It is all used equipment, but newer than we had and we got two nice APC rack mount battery backups in the process. 

     

    Over the last few months our data center has really fallen into disarray due to a domino effect of something breaking and having to bandage it up the best we could to continue on. New(er) servers become stacked on old broken ones, cables get stretched everywhere and at some point you just need to rip it all out and start over with a spring cleaning. Well, that is what we have been doing the last two weeks. I am very tired and seemed to be bruised all over and sore, but I am happy because it was a job well done. My nephew Jarrett, Sylvia and I have completely reworked the RHM Data Center and it is now in much better shape. We did all of the work ourselves.

     

    The server room has 2” thick insulation and plywood over the top of the regular walls to help protect it from the summer heat like a freezer. We picked up a couple of air conditioners designed for server rooms, but they began to trip the circuit breakers. So we had to pull two new power circuits into the room as well. We picked up a used equipment rack off of Craigslist to house the servers that we picked up off of eBay. Now that is all put together, I am happy with the way that it turned out and believe that it will serve us for years to come. 

     

    Now that we have the power circuits and plenty of cooling, I can look into load balancing the website to handle much more traffic, be much faster, and redundant. Also we can set up a development sandbox site to test new things first without breaking www.refreshinghope.org

     

    Here are some pictures of the fun that we have had over the last two weeks:

    1) Before we began - Emergency after emergency with failing parts had left it a mess with cables and servers everywhere. The small window A/C could barely keep the room below 90 degrees and we had to turn some equipment off to avoid overheating even more. 

     

     

    2) We cleared the room out and began assembling a proper equipment rack.

     

     

    3) Teaching my nephew how to reseat the memory as the server threw an error after being bumped around. 

     

     

    4) Pulling two new runs of wire into the room to handle the extra equipment safely without tripping the breakers.

     

     

    5) Wiring the new circuits into the breaker box. 

     

     

    6) Completed server rack with all the equipment in it and a real server room air conditioner. We have two A/Cs now for load balanced cooling. 

     

     

    7) All done! (Still had to cover the wall backup where we had to cut through.) 

     

    A big thank you to everyone that has supported Refreshing Hope Ministries. It is certainly helping and we could not do this without you. We are also so encouraged by those who send us cards and uplifting letters. Sylvia and I pray over the donations that come in and ask the Lord to return them 100 fold. I pray that you are richly blessed. The new changes will enable us to reach many more people with the Good News of Jesus around the world and continue our mission.


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29 comments
  • 0
Kay Rushin
Kay Rushin Be very careful when you ask God to do things, He ends up giving you more then you bargain for and ways you never saw coming! Trust me I know. LOL Be Blessed
May 27, 2015
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Lucas Napo
Lucas Napo Great Job. Hands of God at Work......
May 27, 2015
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Lissy Verghese
Lissy Verghese Congratulations!
May 27, 2015
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Beverly Boyd
Beverly Boyd Wow, what a great testimony of the process and equipment needed!  You have so much talent.  May God Bless You More and More .... amazing!  thank you for taking the time to put this testimony together. 
May 27, 2015
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Linda Darlene Gibson
Linda Darlene Gibson I agree with Beverly, WOW! That's a work!
May 27, 2015
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Susan P
Susan P Those are pictures of putting your God given talents to good use! May you both be blessed many times over. 
May 27, 2015
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<i>Deleted Member</i>
Deleted Member It is truly amazing all the work Pastor Dion and Sylvia, and his nephew has done. I seen it first hand and I can't even imagine how all this work was done. They are very gifted and may God bless them with many many blessings. Love Y'all
May 27, 2015- Edit- Delete
  • 0
<i>Deleted Member</i>
Deleted Member Amen, it is truly a blessing, they have so many talents. It is amazing.
May 27, 2015- Edit- Delete
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<i>Deleted Member</i>
Deleted Member Amen
May 27, 2015- Edit- Delete
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<i>Deleted Member</i>
Deleted Member Amen, when I seen all this with my own eyes, I couldn't even imagine how all these wires and boxes and everything was put together so neatly and I told them I wouldn't have a clue of what to do, but Dion and Sylvia are very very talented in so many things. They are a blessing to my life, not only as My Pastor and Pastor's wife, but as my dear dear friends that I love so. God bless them
May 27, 2015- Edit- Delete
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<i>Deleted Member</i>
Deleted Member Amen
May 27, 2015- Edit- Delete
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<i>Deleted Member</i>
Deleted Member Amen.. God is truly using them to be a blessing to so many.
May 27, 2015- Edit- Delete
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Maria Luna
Maria Luna Wow...perfect work Pastor,  I pray God keeps blessing you and Sylvia on everything you do :)  
May 27, 2015
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Deng Tembreza
Deng Tembreza Wonderful job well done. To GOD BE THE GLORY Thank you for working hard GOD BLESS YOU
May 28, 2015
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Cheryl Hepler
Cheryl Hepler Wow!!  Great telling of all the work you & Sylvia do in honor of the Lord!  I know the donations recently given had to make a big part of the ministers.  With so many viewing & receving the help needed I pray too that the "Given Keeps Given" for the Lord is GOOD!!  We are hands & feet as a church body here in Refreshing Hope to keep holding up the work.  Any one who has not given yet to the ministry will pray and ask God to provide for them to do so!  (My pitch).  Your pictures are of a "thousand words" !!  Blessings to you both and your apprentice
May 29, 2015
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Dennis Hubbell
Dennis Hubbell Great work Dion, Sylvia and nephew Jarrett! Looks great and I'm sure the upgrade will reduce the scurrying around to fix things and allow you to focus on your ministry. God Bless you for everything you do! Thank you for being an amazing partner on JIOSRadio.org !
May 29, 2015
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Leslie McLea
Leslie McLea wowowowowowowowo !!!!!!
May 29, 2015
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Donald Woodard
Donald Woodard God bless you for all your hard work. Thank you for all you're doing.
May 29, 2015
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Darla Bailey
Darla Bailey  I am so very thankful for your ministry. I feel nearly ashamed that I have not had money to help fund what helps me daily. I trust God to help me put something out there for you, to help you keep going. I certainly do not want to start my days without RHM. How wonderful your servers/equipment look in the nice new rack! It must be quite pleasant to be in that glorious new room! I thank God for you and the blessings you reap on so many of us.
May 30, 2015
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Rosemary Marsh
Rosemary Marsh So truly grateful your ministry in every way.I have been so blessed since I was lead to get in touch with Refreshinghope.Needing some help to send you a donation.Thank you for being there for me,and been so encouraged by the Daily Devotions,
May 30, 2015
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J D  Williams
J D Williams YOUR REWARDS SHALL BE GREAT FOR OUR WORK IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NOT IN VAIN I PRAY THAT GOD WILL CONTINUALLY BLESS AND KEEP YOU ALL I LOVE Y'ALL VERY MUCH......
May 30, 2015
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Sylvia Todd
Sylvia Todd Please don't feel ashamed, Darla, we are very aware that there are many who do not have the means to help financially. I pray that the Lord blesses you and provides for all your needs!
May 30, 2015
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Dion Todd
Dion Todd To know that you care is a blessing in itself :)
May 30, 2015
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Pam Ivins
Pam Ivins I know that God will honour your hard work.
June 2, 2015
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Millie Hollis
Millie Hollis Praise God for answering yours and our prayers, God is so good, love him so very much.
June 4, 2015
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Albert Chau
Albert Chau Amazing transformation. Nothing else I can say more. A job well done with God's miracle bringing much needed parts and helps along the way. You're very talented Pastor Dion.
June 4, 2015
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Debra lynn Hubbard
Debra lynn Hubbard God has blessed you... And he will keep blessing you... You are an awesome shepard servant
June 4, 2015
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Allie Ponzo
Allie Ponzo Wow, great job!! So much more organized, bet it feels good. Nice to see some pics of you and family too:)
June 6, 2015
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Daryl Donerson
Daryl Donerson That's Great God is Awesome!!!!!
June 10, 2015