Lots of news on what we are planning and working on right now...
Upgrade Plans
We need to replace our current main DDL server (Naru) due to some long standing issues, mainly down to not having RAID and we dont want to loose all our data for a third time. Our data centre had been offering a nice deal for bigger drives and RAID for a lower price than our current machine, with more ram and same CPU. We were considering this as one option however they have now removed that offer, the other was to use colo and buy our own server, which would be much cheaper monthly, but we'd have the hardware cost. After about 6 months we'd be better off with that option.
Another idea was to simply replace the one big-ish server with 2 smaller ones - less CPU/RAM, about the same HD not in raid and because its 2 servers we'd actually double the bandwidth. Lack of raid wouldn't matter becuase we'd duplicate the data over both servers. We were also considering other ways of getting more bw, either upgrading to gig on Naru or adding in another 100mbit line.
Unfortunatly our ad revenue has dropped so much that the above plans may take the cheaper option, or maybe go for a smaller server or less bandwidth.
Details here.
Haruka
I'd also like to announce the addition of a brand new server called Haruka, named after the character from Namco Bandi's The iDOLM@STER games on Xbox 360 and PSP. Haruka is a virtual server which is Cloud hosted at gigabit speed in London, and is currently in testing, the idea is to use this as a more reliable place to store the DBs and run the site from (basically the web pages). It may also be used to host the screen caps. Haruka is also running our NMS (Network Monitoring System) and I'm currently working on integrating this into MATV XI (MATV version 11) which is what Haruka is running a beta of at present.
As a sub note as we talked about finances above, Haruka was commissioned before we had the large drop in ad revenue and is actually only costing us 12 to operate, unfortunatly Haruka cant run our DDLs due to her small size and bw limits, she is insanely fast and small, perfect for the DB and site, but not for ddls.
MATV XI
The current site code (MATV X) has been running very well over the past 10 months, with quite a few additions and changes bolted onto it in various ways along the way. Version x (10) was built out of an urgent need to move away from the Andromeda platform which we were using. Andromeda was a great solution, but it wasnt designed for our uses, and so I decided to write my own. After running it for almost a year, I've found a lot of faults and areas where it could be better, and its those areas which have brought about XI (version 11).
Some planned features:
- Redesigned front page.
With the old listings moving aside (still there but more like a menu now) and a much better and cleaner looking display of the latest episode updates. No longer will you have to dig around to find out if episode X is out yet.
- Youtube Related videos
Every anime (or other item) will now have a selection of regularly updated Youtube videos.
This is already present in a reduced form, and will be better in the final XI release.
- NMS Integration
The site will talk to our network monitoring system to detect which servers are up before sending you to a download location. If a server goes down, the site will no longer send you to that url.
- Multi Server Support
This is part of the NMS above, and means we can keep the site running even if we loose a server. Haruka is a big part of this, running the NMS as well as being a cloud hosted server itself to hold all the DBs and site code.
- Code Upgrades
Removing and tuning the code to be more reliable and perform better. Also some security updates.
- Performance Modifications
Changes to the code and backend of the site as well as server changes to make it run faster.
- Re-design of many core functions
Some features require a re-write of some of the backend code to make them work.
- Re-design of the DDL system and the 'MATV For Fansubs Groups' site.
This is the system used by Fansubbers to seed and release the files on the site as well as provide DDLs on their sites. This hasnt seen much done to it since the original version when we were still running Andromeda. Its currently struggeling to keep up now we have so many files, and needs to be updated. Therefore I'm going to not only update it but extend it to add in a lot of the features the groups have been asking for.
This is a big project with a full code review, therefore expect a lot more changes to be added later. I'm also very interested in any suggestions, feel free to send me a PM, find us on IRC - irc.rizon.net #matv or you can post in the other thread.