We have rescheduled the replacement of Linux server WWW-19 with a new server to occur on Friday and Saturday 23 and 24 January.
We are continuing our series of sever hardware upgrades. The second item of business is the replacement of Linux server WWW-19. The server has been a reliable platform to our resellers for the past 3.5 years. With the vast majority of the sites on the server belonging to South African reseller clients, we will perform the migration during the South African night time.
We will migrate all services (websites, databases, and email) over to the new server. There may be some interruption of service; we apologise for any inconvenience this my cause. Rest assured that we will take utmost care to ensure everything works perfectly the following morning.
The name of the new server is WWW-27; you will notice this name in the SSL certificate when you visit cPanel and Webmail.
The new server uses a new set of IP addresses. (Our previous attempt at reusing IP addresses was not successful). This means that there will be DNS updates and the possibility of old DNS information hanging around in the caches of ISPs around the world. DNS caches should refresh within a few hours. If you are using third-party name servers, you will need to update the DNS records for the affected domains to use the new server IP addresses.
Update on cancelled replacement on 17 January
We encountered unexpected hurdles during our first attempt of migrating hosting accounts over, both of which have been addressed:
- Very slow network speeds: We have now installed a separate gigabit LAN between the two servers. Thing will just fly this time!
- Difficulties with subnet re-assignment: Re-assignment was possible in theory, but because we are working with a single large subnet (32 IP addresses) there would have been significant downtime while we transferred all accounts. For this reason, we are choosing to use a brand new subnet. DNS caching may cause a problems here and there, but should resolve itself within a few hours.
- Maintenance window: Because of the slow network speeds, we ran out of time. While not necessary with the new fast LAN, we will play it safe and split the migration over two nights.
Maintenance window
Friday group
Hosting accounts with IP addresses between 41.204.209.176 and 41.204.209.190
Friday 18:00 to Saturday 06:00 SAST
Friday 16:00 to Saturday 04:00 GMT
Friday 05:00 to 23:00 EDT
Friday 8:00 to 20:00 PDT
Saturday group
Hosting accounts with IP addresses between 41.204.209.160 and 41.204.209.175
Saturday 18:00 to Sunday 06:00 SAST
Saturday 16:00 to Sunday 04:00 GMT
Saturday 05:00 to 23:00 EDT
Saturday 8:00 to 20:00 PDT
Update Friday 16:00 GMT
We are commencing the site migration. First up is the IP range 41.204.209.184-190. This should take about three hours.
Update Friday 18:40 GMT
Processing IP range 41.204.209.180-183. This should take about one hour.
Update Friday 19:12 GMT
Processing IP range 41.204.209.176-182. This should take about one hour.
Update Friday 20:10 GMT
We are finished with tonight’s portion of the migration. Things went very smooth. We will resume again on tomorrow 16:00 GMT.
Remember! If you are using third-party name servers and have site the in the above IP ranages, please update your DNS records now.
Update Saturday 16:50 GMT
We are kicking off proceedings with the IP range 41.204.209-174-175. A couple of very large accounts are included; this may take a while.
Update Saturday 18:20 GMT
Processing 41.204.209.170-173. This should take around one hour.
Update Saturday 19:10 GMT
Processing 41.204.209.168-169. This should take no more than about two hours.
Update Saturday 20:10 GMT
Processing 41.204.209.166-167. This includes a large number of accounts and may take as long as two hours or longer.
Update Saturday 20:20 GMT
We are about 2/3 through 41.204.209.166-167.
Update Saturday 23:50 GMT
Hit a snag with the name server cluster. Just waiting for the load to go down on all members, and will then resume transfer. About another hour needed to complete 41.204.209.166-167.
Update Sunday 01:20 GMT
Had to give the secondary name server another kick again (increased the swap space) before it would return to normal.
Almost done with 41.204.209.166-167 and will move on to 41.204.209.164-165 shortly.
Update Sunday 02:30 GMT
We have completed the transfers. A few minor DNS checks (and corrections) remain.
We experienced no significant problem with the transfer other than ‘n hiccup with the secondary name server.
Please check website and email and report any problems by opening a support ticket.