Witness @prc Update #1 after HF20: October 27th, 2018 - Witness nodes back online and upgraded

Hi Steemian friends! :)

This is my Witness Update, going through all the details about my Witness challenges, and for those of you who don't know me yet, here are some photos in my favorite playground: my music studio! :)

I am a life long Software Developer, working on Blockchain for last years on several projects, but I am also a DJ and Electronic Music Producer, my alter-ego "Kolatz" that you can browse for if interested... :)

I am the creator of DSound, which has continued to grow besides the state of the crypto economy, getting to the 9000+ users actually, and the next release will be the first "beta" release with loads of new features! :)

If you got curious about DSound, please check it out: https://dsound.audio

Update #1 after HF20

Yes, these last months have not been easy. Hard Fork 20 came about and with it loads of challenges to all the witnesses! To sum up with that, my witness nodes were reaching their limits and asking for an upgrade again... And DSound development was, and still is, demanding my 24 hours of work days and nights too! ;)

The update to HF20 was not an easy task, I tried to do it and all my nodes got stuck at the replay stage... Never ending story...

I asked some questions on the witness chat group in steem.chat, but the timing was not the best to get someone to help, as everybody was strugling with the problems that came up. So I got stuck with my nodes and without any time to explore and nobody available to help me overcome this... so I decided to deactivate my witness nodes until the issues were resolved and an HF20 stable version was released.

And it turned out quite ok, since I would have been one more witness struggling through all those updates, builds, replays and missed blocks! :)

Also my nodes needed an upgrade to 64GB RAM and bigger storage as the blockchain is getting bigger and bigger and the shared file is also growing at a fast pace, so I had to get quotes for the hardware and get it installed on my boxes, as my servers are real boxes, not VPS. So that process also took a bit of time... And at my position in the Witness rank, the investment on the servers is also a struggle, since the costs are always surpassing the revenue! But I believe in Steem and pushed it once more!!!

Well, today I finally got my witness node back online, my price feed also updated and my other nodes are on their way too! :)

During this period of downtime many people that voted on my witness decided to remove the vote, which I totally understand. Voting for witnesses is an important responsibility and so voting in inactive witnesses should be always avoided, giving way to other witnesses to fill in the gaps.

Although, I am still proud of my 1099 votes! Thanks so much to the people that came to me asking what happened and even offering to help out! And mainly the ones that believed in me and maintained their support through this difficult period, which the biggest ones are:

@done
@xaero1
@dtube
@steemfuckeos
@cob
@bleujay
@themonetaryfew
@everlove
@hebrew
@dan-atstarlite
@marketingmonk
@isaria
@rosatravels
@jaybird
@soundlegion
@pnc
@elmetro
@heimindanger
@sircork
@shanibeer

Thank you so much guys! :)

But, due to this downtime and all the explained above, the votes that I lost took me from #40 down to #115 in Witness rank. So now I am not in the top 100 anymore, so I need to recover from this...

First, I want to thank all the people that voted in me since the begining of my Witness adventure! I am still motivated and wanting to be a great witness in the Steem ecosystem! I continue to develop DSound and pushing it to the next level. And mainly I am truely grateful for deserving their vote for some time! :)

Some of my biggest voters that had to switch their support to other witnesses really made a difference in the rank position, so I want to thank them for the time that they supported me! Also, let them know that my nodes are already back on track, and that if they get a spare vote available, please reconsider me for that space.

My biggest supporters to whom I address these last words are:

@rok-sivante
@noisy
@blockchained
@minnowsupport
@bleepcoin
@sircork
@d-pend
@drakos
@adsactly
@clayop
@vachemorte
@acidyo
@patrice
@kubbyelizabeth
@pumpkin
@roadscape
@master-set
@riverhead
@noisy
@haejin
@steemgigs
@riseofth
@michelios
@themarkymark
@lyndsaybowes
@ethandsmith
@timcliff
@pataty69
@kona
@steevc
@future24

All the votes are very important, so if you believe in my work for Steem ecosystem and you also realocated your votes for other witnesses during my downtime, please consider me again now for your Witness choices. I'd love to get your support back.

I will continue to deliver stability on the network, and my commitment on my Steem blockchain related projects and, most of all, to bring Music enthusiasts, Artists and Portuguese people to our favorite blockchain is still the same as ever! :)

Thanks so much guys! I'll do my best for the community and to make you proud of your vote in me...

Technical Infrastructure

Related to technical stuff, my servers are a blast now! :)

My dedicated server boxes are now with the following specs. All boxes are behind firewalls, IDS and power redundancy systems. The server characteristics are subject to upgrade or revision as needed.

Witness node	Dedicated Server
CPU	AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 4x core 3.5GHz
RAM	64GB RAM DDR4
Disks	256GB SSD x 2
Connection	Gigabit over optical fiber backbone
Power	Redundant + UPS
Location	EU - Portugal

---

Backup node	Dedicated Server
CPU	AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 4x core 3.5GHz
RAM	64GB RAM DDR4
Disks	256GB SSD + 320GB HD
Connection	Gigabit over optical fiber backbone
Power	Redundant + UPS
Location	EU - Portugal

---

Seed node	Dedicated Server
host:port	seed.steem.prcolaco.com:2001
CPU	AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 4x core 3.5GHz
RAM	64GB RAM DDR4
Disks	256GB SSD + 320GB HD
Connection	Gigabit over optical fiber backbone
Power	Redundant + UPS
Location	EU - Portugal

---

What I am working on

I am currently working on DSound first "beta" release, that will be out soon, and finishing many improvements to stability and completely resolve the playback wait times to almost instantaneous! Also many other news to be announced really soon... Keep tuned my friends! ;)

On the community side, plenty of work to do and arrangements to fulfill the demand of a 9000+ community that is growing by the hour, so many improvements have been made on the social media side and to keep DSound Discord healthy while growing... DSound is always improving and I count with many people helping me out now! :)

Conclusion

I think that my Steem Witness endeavour is still going well. My servers are rock solid and keeping up with the growth as promised! :)

My involvement with the community continues to grow. The stake of Steem I already hold, as well as what will come from witnessing, will still be vested as I already do, as I never powered down.

I want to witness Steem growth and success, so count on me to help make it happen! :)

And If you trust me and approve what I do in the Steem ecosystem, please give me your Witness vote to help me continue...

Design by @aleister

You can vote for me as a Steem Witness here: Vote with SteemConnect

... but if you prefer the oldfashion way, please go to:
https://steemit.com/~witnesses

or if you cannot find me on the top 100 anymore (I hope you do, but votes come and go...)