gdgt launched

What a long night but finally gdgt is launched and running successfully. The gdgt team @ manusis was on standby for the whole night. We had tried our best to simulate the production environment and tackle all the scenarios that we could expect but still there was a sense of fear in our minds. Almost an year of hard work was at stake. We were keeping our fingers crossed.

Before the launch we sent out emails to all the users that have registered on the gdgt podcast site. The podcast site had already set up the stage and built the hype. Users were anxious to checkout the real site. As soon as the site launched the traffic started going up. We were monitoring the the server statistics, application logs and database counters on various screens. Soon the stats started touching the limits and before we could realize the site was down. The rate at which users were registering was beyond our expectations. In few hours tens of thousands of users have registered and about 8000 products were added to the system. Our fear has come true. Fortunately it was not that bad. A few tweaks to the database configuration, and the site was back up again. This time the stats were looking much more stable and traffic had also eased to some extent. Trying to get some sleep now.. we need to continue paying close attention to the site for the next couple of days to make sure the site stays up and fast.. It definitely helps to have two teams working in opposite time zones so we can take turns to monitor the site.