On my very long list of tasks to complete in order to do the transfer includes deactivating the forum so that the database is not changes. I will then take a copy of the database and put on the new server and reactivate the forum.
Whilst the forum is deactivated, you will not be able to post to the forum but I think you can still browse. We will see.
It should take me half a day to transfer the database over and I plan on doing that some time over the weekend.
If you need to talk, you can do so on the NPF Facebook Page whilst the forum is down.
Cloud What?
The site has gained immensely in popularity over the past 12 months to the point where the current server is unable to keep up with the demands on it. It is a physical machine with a fixed amount of CPU and RAM. Hence, when it gets overloaded, it will tend to crash. The new Cloud Server allows me to scale the power of the server up and down during peaks at the click of a button. Hence I can double the RAM to deal with lots of new demand on the site. The result of this will be a much faster website and less downtime due to overloading.
Wish me luck!
