KRISISDnB V3 - THE MIGRATION STORY.....

Well.. time for a quick update I think...

KRISISDnB V3 went live at 2am on Saturday 26th September after a cutover that took 10mins to perform. A few minor problems with content and small site adjustments to get things as we wanted but it was performing fine. Both NeO and myself kept an eye on things and started thinking about the adjustments in layout or developments that could be made instantly, well after the immediate issues that we found.

By well before lunchtime we were seeing so many additional hits on the site as people were clearly aware that we were cutting over today. 100-200 concurrent users all searching through the site and shop it was amazing to watch.

IStandard was ready to go for the first live show on the V3 site at 2pm, and he had a substantial amount of listeners locked on and in the chatroom. NeO and myself were busy setting up all of the DJs still to play on saturday and sunday. Not an easy task for some, but we managed.

Things quietened down a bit in the evening which was good as both NeO and myself were getting so tired my eyes were blurred from staring at the screen all day.

That calm evening was about to be blown away however..... Around 11pm saturday night I was in the process of setting up ESR to give him his DJ access on the site, when he said he wasnt able to get to the site. Sure enough i got the same error message, and NeO had spotted it as well, so we raised a support call with our hosts. The long and the short of the story was that the website was utilising around 90% capacity of the shared hosting server we were on. This was due to the large number of visitors to the website all day.

NeO and myself were surprised by the impact that V3 had had during the day, but we had never thought that we would hit any sort of capacity issue. The hosts had assured us that they were confident that the website would be fine. So this was a real kick in the bollocks to us. What made it worse was that they had given us absolutely no warning even though there email said they 'actively and proactively monitor' usage on all of there servers. It was clear that we needed a different solution right now. NeO was thinking fast and had a temporary holding page up on the V2 host site explaining the problem.

After a lot of emails and discussions between us and the hosts, we took the step to purchase our own dedicated server as it was already clear that V3 was such a step forward in terms of flexibility, layout, and performance. What should have been a 1hr cutover and migration has been extended due to us moving over a weekend meaning that our new host had limited resource.

We agreed that the V2 site should not be reinstated even though it was perfectly possible to do so. It would feel like such a let down to NeO and myself if we did that. The launch show WOULD go ahead as planned on Sunday afternoon, and as listener figures were proving, the temporary page did exactly what it needed and the masses of loyal supporters that KRISISDnB has was overwhelming.

The V3 launch show was a fantastic show and have to say a massive big ups to DJ SONNA from Federation S Records who alongside MC SKAZE, Kendall, Shakey, Gambit who were all superb.

Its tuesday morning and were still in a wounded state waiting for DNS to propogate around the net to get our new server up and running. We think everything is ready to go but its so annoying just waiting for something to happen. However when it does then the mayhem of continuing setting up all the rest of the DJs on the station will continue, as well as tweaking the site to work as we want it to.

V3...ITS COMING !!!!

Only 2 days to go till Go-Live for KRISISDnB V3 and the migration of some core components of the current site has started. As of around 8pm last night (uk time) the Gallery and Forum were effectively paused and began the transfer to the new site. The Gallery will be converted, reorganised and back up on the new site on Saturday. Its not however just a cut and paste to the new site, its a massive development, new front-end and a new structure and layout.

The forum is also getting a major overhaul for V3, and when you see the new site, you will begin to understand how the integration of various parts of the site will benefit everyone in the future. What this does mean is that the current V2 forum will not be converted to the new format, however there is every bit of history associated with KRISISDnB contained within it that simply cannot be lost. It will therefore be kept permanently on the new site as a read only historical guide to the beginnings of the worldwide site you see now. DJ Mixup will continue his role as forum administrator and over time the old V2 forum may be streamlined to show the major milestones of the first 2 and a half years.

As for the rest of the V3 site..... well with 2 days to go you will find out very soon !

Final preparations for the V3 Launch Show on Sunday 27th September are almost there (yes were cutting it close). FEDERATION S RECORDS DJ SONNA will be down for an extended set to headline the show with a large batch of forthcoming tunes from his label. Confirmation of the rest of the lineup with more special guests will be announced and published through the KRISISDnB facebook group and the front page of the KRISISDnB website

Only 1 week to go till the launch of KRISISDnB V3 and things are tense. Is still a lot to do but not really much im able to do to help things as im still fairly behind on how the new site works and holds together. Me and NeO have had loads of arguments in the years weve known each other but thats cos we both have so much drive to make things work and to progress. The new site is a huge step forward for KRISISDnB and once its in and were both up to speed with how it will all work then things will calm down.

On a different note while NeO is working on the new site and im twiddling my thumbs i thought a new look for my mini site was due. Hope you like it ????

MX Contact Details

There are a large number of sites im probably registered on, but the main contact places for me are :

Personal mini-site : http://www.djmx.krisisdnb.com
Main KRISISDnB.COM website : http://www.krisisdnb.com
Facebook logon : http://www.facebook.com/krisis.dnb
Myspace Page : http://www.myspace.com/djmx2006
Email / MSN : mailto:mx@krisisdnb.com
AIM : DJMX2006

Main KRISISDnB.COM links

Listen links :

Winamp/Itunes 128k stream : http://www.krisisdnb.com/listen2.pls
Media Player 128k stream : http://www.krisisdnb.com/listen.asx
Realplayer 128k stream : http://www.krisisdnb.com/listen.ram

Winamp/Itunes 24k stream : http://www.krisisdnb.com/listen_24k.pls
Media Player 24k stream : http://www.krisisdnb.com/listen_24k.asx
Realplayer 24k stream : http://www.krisisdnb.com/listen_24k.ram

KRISIS EXTRA : http://www.krisisdnb.com/krisisextra.wax

KRISISDnB V3 launches on 26th September

KRISISDnB V3 launches on 26th September with a new logo, new design, and a load of new features. Its taken around 6months to get to the stage its at right now and theres still a lot to do in the next 2 weeks to get it in a state where its ready to launch.

The main task now is to work out the schedule of what is left to be converted and whether it can be converted at all or will simply be put in an 'archive' area for read only access. The first 2 and a bit years have been a rollercoaster of a ride for the station, and NeO and myself have learned so much in terms of web design and how to make things work. This means that the current V2 site has so much in it making this move a massive task. Fair play to NeO for doing most of the work on V3, he has done a good job. He knows I moan about everything I dont like or think should be done better, but I see that as one of my roles on the website. As I tend to look after more of the operational side of the station then I see a lot of things that he may not do. Im the one who has to solve individual DJs show problems, whether its there setup to get them live, or silly things like setting the show title right. So much for being just a DJ myself !!!

With the launch on the 26th September, it means my other role kicks in to organise another special show on the station. Weve picked Sunday 27th September for this as there is bound to be issues on the day we launch the site. My plan for a special is really to keep the lineup as fresh as I can from the last special show, and this time is no exception. The first DJ I asked to come down is not only one of our new artists to the station, but also the head honcho of Dreadnought Records. DJ Selecta has been linked with KRISIS since early in 2009 when Josh (DJ Highroller) came over from Australia to take part in one of our events in Portsmouth. Selects came along with him to the event and since then has done random shows on the station until finally a few weeks ago we managed to get him a permanent slot to showcase all the latest Dreadnought Records releases as well as their forthcoming tunes. To have yet another label showcasing on the station is another massive boost and also provides Chris (Selecta) and Hallsie with a decent way to promote not only the label but also there events in Peterborough.

After a busy summer for myself playing almost every weekend, September is a bit quiet in terms of events for myself. Its given me a chance to not only work on the new website, but also to get a grip on some of the shows on the station that maybe arent putting in the commitment to playing every week. Its never easy to replace a show, but having archives playing when someone is due to be live isnt a good look for the station, and in the last month its reflected on the website stats. With Destructive helping me we are now getting a grip on the situation and progress is being made.

Since my trip to Belarus almost a month ago, its given me such an urge to move over there. The scene in Belarus and Russia is big, and from my visit it was quite obvious that they liked the jump up style of DnB that I generally play. Its a bit different to the darker flows that most of the other russian DJs played at the festival over there, and yes I was worried before my set that I may clear an entire field of 3000 people with something they werent used to hearing. From the response I got not only during my set, but also after when I came down from the DJ stage I could tell it was a refreshing change for most of the people there. Im going back there at the end of october (well to Ukraine) to finally get to the Chernobyl exclusion zone as my visa didnt cover it last time, and it would be good to play in Kiev while im there so Ive approached some DJs in the area to see if there is anything I may be able to get involved with.

Then who knows what happens... I would love to help extend the DnB scene in Belarus alongside Red Catz, so after some advice from them, ive approached a couple of universities about teaching advanced english to students over there. The responses ive had are looking good so far, and even though I have no previous teaching experience, they seem keen to have another native english speaker. It really doesnt matter where I am based in order to continue my role as co-owner of KRISISDnB, plus it really does give me a very different view of how to make the station more internationally friendly, not only in attracting more international shows, but also how we can make the site an appealing option to our international listeners.

It could be an interesting end to 2009 and who knows where I will be at the end of the year.


more later....

HELLO !!!

My first attempt at a blog and I aint got a clue what im doing..

Well im planning to use this as a way to document my thoughts, things that happen to me or things around me.

So for now Im DJMX (or just MX) and im co-owner of internet Drum and Bass radio station KRISISDnB.COM

Im also an international DJ who plays both Drum and Bass, and also Breaks as well.

Think that will do as a start... back soon !