Endless-Sphere is the premier online community for DIY electric vehicle enthusiasts, boasting over 25,000 active members and millions of posts. The forum serves as a critical knowledge base for the EV industry.
The Challenge#
The site was hosted on a legacy Virtual Private Server (VPS) that suffered from:
- Frequent Downtime: Hardware limitations led to database locking during peak traffic.
- High Costs: Inflexible pricing models meant paying for peak capacity 24/7.
- Security Logic: Lack of automated backups and no SSL/TLS encryption.
Technical Solution#
I led the migration and modernization effort, serving as the lead Systems Administrator.
1. Cloud Migration (AWS)#
- Lift & Shift + Optimize: Migrated the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) to Amazon Web Services (EC2).
- Database Optimization: Tuned the MySQL configuration to handle high-read/low-write workloads typical of forum software (phpBB).
2. DevOps & Automation#
- Backups: Implemented automated incremental snapshots (EBS) and S3 off-site backups to ensure data durability.
- Security: Deployed Let’s Encrypt certificates for complying with modern HTTPS standards, improving SEO and user trust.
- Cost Reduction: Utilized Reserved Instances and rightsizing to reduce monthly hosting costs while improving uptime availability to 99.9%.
Outcome#
The migration stabilized the platform, allowing the community to grow without technical interruptions. (Note: You can find me on the forum under the username gammaray)
