Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | Airline Operations | Server Upgrades

DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP

Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club

"Col. Panic"
Marietta, GA

2,313 legs, 9,317.7 hours
240 legs, 553.9 hours online
1,971 legs, 8,110.8 hours ACARS
75 legs, 196.3 hours event
2,349 legs, 9,452.6 hours total
91 legs dispatched, 66.4 hours

Posted onPost created on August 08 2015 12:35 ET by Luke Kolin

Years ago, DVA and AFV were hosted on a server in my bonus room. I still have a relic of those days - there's a 4GB UltraWide SCSI hard drive that used to power the site and sounded like a jet engine when it started up - until one day it went half way up and then back down again. smile

It's been my office coaster for a number of years now.

Thanks to the generosity of many Global Virtual Airlines Group donors over the years, Delta Virtual and Air France Virtual have been hosted in a real data center on a dedicated server. If you look back through the news postings you'll see that at the end of this month will be the tenth anniversary of us moving the sites and ensuring that we have reliable services, not financially dependent on a single individual. Terry has done a fabulous job for a decade arranging and tracking donations and I've been very proud and grateful for his efforts and our donors' generosity. As part of our plans for infrastructure, we typically rent a new server every few years to take advantage of faster hardware, newer operating systems and lower costs.

On Monday around 10:30AM EDT, Delta Virtual and Air France Virtual will be moving to a new server. For the first time, it won't be a hardware upgrade, but it will be a significant cost reduction and a newer Linux kernel. We will also be offloading our email, Teamspeak and other services to a new, virtual server that can also operate as the emergency backup server if needed. To do this, I need to take a full snapshot of all the data on the server, copy it over and restore it on the new machine. During this time, the web site, ACARS and email are going to be unavailable. I will be posting updates on our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Delta-Virtual-Airlines/105017132650

If you plan on flying during this time, please select "No Internet Connection" in your ACARS settings. ACARS will continue to record your flights and you can upload the XML/SHA files it creates to the web site once it is back up. Remember to turn this off when the site is back! smile

I look forward to a smooth cut-over. This will be the fifth server migration we've done in the past decade, and I expect it to be straight-forward and undramatic. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Cheers!

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

DVA12321
Captain, B737-800

Joined on August 20 2014
50 State Club
Century Club
Piranha Club
B737 50 Club
Online Century Club
DVA Five-Year Anniversary

"Keep Climbing"
Herndon, VA

148 legs, 269.9 hours
125 legs, 229.6 hours online
127 legs, 230.2 hours ACARS
12 legs, 27.4 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 08 2015 18:20 ET by Piper Forsen

Is there anything I can do with XACARS? I don't think there's an offline mode, but is there any way to save the data? (Other than a screencap)

Thanks,
Richmond

Piper Forsen

Captain, B737-800

Posted onPost created on August 10 2015 09:18 ET by Luke Kolin

Richmond Forsen wrote:

Is there anything I can do with XACARS? I don't think there's an offline mode, but is there any way to save the data? (Other than a screencap)

I don't believe so.

Cheers!

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

DVA7758
Chief Pilot, A330-300
OLP, 737-ATP

Joined on April 15 2009
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Online Millennium Club
Everett Millennium Club
Quad-Jet Quartermaster
Two Million Mile Club
Panda Club
Flying Colonel
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
South American Samba Club

"Un seul objectif, un seul mot : "Cockpit""
Montreal, QC Canada

1,572 legs, 5,148.0 hours
1,474 legs, 4,839.4 hours online
1,571 legs, 5,141.7 hours ACARS
48 legs, 160.0 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 10 2015 09:35 ET by Salem Gbian

Richmond, you can save your PIREP after flight (.xap.xap extension) load it back and send it later (on XACARS).

Salem Gbian (DVA7758)

DVA5643
Senior Captain, DC-6

Joined on February 08 2008
Piston Prop Professional
50 State Club
US Coastal Club
Globetrotter
US Mountaineer Club
Flying Colonel
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Long Beach 500 Club

"I'd rather be lucky than good"
Hampton, GA USA

1,914 legs, 2,888.2 hours
5 legs, 3.8 hours online
1,907 legs, 2,878.2 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on August 10 2015 15:39 ET by Jim Daigneau

Luke, Thanks so much for your expertise and dedication to the group.

Jim Daigneau (DVA5643)

DVA11591
Senior Captain, B757-200
OLP

Joined on July 02 2013
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Everett Millennium Club
DVA Fleet Master
Online Twenty Century
US Coastal Club
Events Double Century Club
Five Million Mile Club
US Mountaineer Club
B757 100 Club
Tri-Millennium Club
Tin Dispatcher
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary

"Left foot dead foot, verified! Feather Left!"
Daytona Beach, FL

3,271 legs, 11,709.7 hours
2,885 legs, 10,250.1 hours online
3,142 legs, 11,149.0 hours ACARS
326 legs, 874.1 hours event
274 legs dispatched, 316.5 hours

Posted onPost created on August 10 2015 16:11 ET by Soonho Lee

Thank you Luke for your work of getting this website up and running in this short amount of time!

Soonho Lee (DVA11591)

DVA10736
Captain, B777-200

Joined on May 13 2012
Globetrotter
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Everett 500 Club
Two Million Mile Club
Black Pearl Club
Nine Century Club

Milton, ON Canada

958 legs, 5,608.2 hours
47 legs, 280.8 hours online
953 legs, 5,587.3 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on August 10 2015 16:22 ET by Florin Marinache

Thank you Luke, much appreciated!

Florin Marinache

Captain, B777-200

Posted onPost created on August 10 2015 16:27 ET by Piper Forsen

Salem Gbian wrote:

Richmond, you can save your PIREP after flight (.xap.xap extension) load it back and send it later (on XACARS).

Whenever I click save or send, it says "[] file not found" or something along those lines. Sorry to ask here, but since you mentioned it, I figured this would be the best place.

Also, thanks Luke! I read it as 10:00 PM, so it doesn't matter anyways (I'm at work at 10 AM).

Piper Forsen

Captain, B737-800

Posted onPost created on August 10 2015 18:40 ET by Salem Gbian

Everything is back to normal, thank you Luke for all the hard work !

Salem Gbian (DVA7758)

DVA11021
Captain, B757-200
OLP

Joined on September 13 2012
B757 100 Club
Everett 250 Club
Triple Century Club
Online Triple Century Club
DVA Five-Year Anniversary

Milford, NH

375 legs, 620.5 hours
365 legs, 604.5 hours online
374 legs, 618.9 hours ACARS
21 legs, 51.4 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 10 2015 18:50 ET by Sean Zarella

Thank you Luke for your ongoing commitment ! appreciate all the hard work !

Sean Zarella (DVA11021)

DVA11445
Senior Captain, B727-200

Joined on April 12 2013
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Commuter Conquest
Long Beach 500 Club
US Coastal Club
Flying Colonel
US Mountaineer Club
Online Fifteen Century
DVA Five-Year Anniversary

"Amici e vini sono meglio vecchi..."
West Monroe, LA

1,808 legs, 2,793.5 hours
1,716 legs, 2,499.9 hours online
1,755 legs, 2,711.3 hours ACARS
1 legs dispatched, 1.9 hours

Posted onPost created on August 10 2015 20:42 ET by Ronnie Jacola

Thanks so much for all that you do for DVA, Luke!

Ronnie Jacola

Senior Captain, B727-200

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