Matchpeg tools for Flexiscale

Matchpeg does not currently use Flexiscale for live hosting, but we do use it as a superbly eco-friendly Disaster Recovery site.

Instead of having DR servers consuming energy 365x24x7, Flexiscale makes it possible for us power up the DR servers once per day, transfer the latest data onto them, and then switch the servers off again. (We also have a separate mechanism which allows us to restore intra-day database changes onto the DR servers.)

In the course of working with Flexiscale, we have built our own set of tools for automating aspects of the platform via Flexiscale's API. You can try these out yourself using the links below - please note that they are not supported by Matchpeg in any way, and use of them is entirely at your own risk.

Flexiscale console application

This tool lets you carry out Flexiscale actions and collect information via the Windows command line. For example, we use it to start up our DR servers automatically from a Windows scheduled task.

Simply download the tool, save it into a directory on your system path (e.g. the System32 directory), and then type in flexiscale at the command line for a list of options. You can get further details on a specific command using the syntax flexiscale help <command>.

Most commands set the %ERRORLEVEL% environment variable, letting you do conditional processing in Windows batch files etc. For example, you can send a warning to a system administrator if a server is not running, or is low on disk space.

We recommend wrapping the tool in a batch file so that you don't have to enter your user name and password each time you use it. See the tool's help (type "flexiscale help") for more information.

N.B. The console application requires version 2 of the Microsoft .NET framework.

Alternative control panel

We originally built up our familiarity with the Flexiscale API by using it to construct our own version of Flexiscale's control panel. We still use this ourselves instead of the official version!

• Matchpeg control panel for Flexiscale