[wplug-internet] Linode upgrades

[Vance Kochenderfer]

Linode has made some upgrades to their hardware configuration.

First, they have doubled the RAM in each plan
<http://blog.linode.com/2013/04/09/linode-nextgen-ram-upgrade/>.
This upgrade is available to us now.

However, there has been a change in pricing from $19.95/month to
$20.00/month.  In order for us to upgrade, the Board or membership
would have to approve the additional expenditure.  There will be
some downtime (less than 1 hour) as we are migrated to a new host.

Note that our current server setup is under no memory pressure, so
upgrading would not result in any real benefit to our current
setup.  It would, however, make running additional services more
feasible.

Second, the number of CPU cores has doubled from 4 to 8 and has
moved to newer and higher-spec Sandy Bridge processors
<http://blog.linode.com/2013/03/18/linode-nextgen-the-hardware/>.
We have gotten the 8-core bump, but our host is still running on
the older processors.

We have not yet received a support ticket to migrate onto a newer
host.  I will post to the list when I see this come through.
There is no cost associated with this, although there will be some
downtime as above.  Note that if we take advantage of the RAM
upgrade, then this step should be unnecessary as the new host will
have the latest processors.

While we are not in any way starved for CPU, this upgrade is
mandatory as Linode is retiring the older hardware.

Vance Kochenderfer        |  "Get me out of these ropes and into a
vkochend at nyx.net          |   good belt of Scotch"    -Nick Danger