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Got this message from Gary over at Aussie Host. This effects all of those people with accounts on the server named Bondi, which includes those who started their service in Feb '04.
Here's the message:
Here's the message:
Hello
This message is to let you know about a period of scheduled maintenance coming up this Tuesday for Bondi.
Date: Tuesday, 19 April 2005
Start time: 9am AEST
Duration: See procedure notes below
Actual Downtime: Approx 1 Hour
The following link will display 12:00pm Brisbane time, in your own local timezone:
The following procedures will be carried out:
1) Perform Plesk dump (could take up to 6hrs)
2) Transfer Dump to new machine (1-2hrs)
3) Restore dump (2-3hrs)
4) Implement forwarding rules (10 minutes)
Please do not attempt to log in to Plesk during this time. We will send out a message when the work is finished, and ask that if you notice any issues that you then log a ticket on the Helpdesk.
The following are suggestions based on past experiences with Plesk transitions:
- bear in mind that whilst the Plesk developers try to produce faultless upgrades, they cannot possibly test all environments and sometimes problems occur that were unforseen and have become apparent once the upgrades reach the mainstream users.
- if you have any custom DNS records, that you make a note of these and check (or fix as required) them after the upgrade.
- if you have any *vital* email on the server, that you poll the mailserver prior to this work commencing. You should never rely on a single backup copy of important email, and you should never leave mail on a shared server for any lengthy period of time. Take the mail off the server, and back it up locally.
- if you require copies of any log file, please take these off the server before the work commences.
- if you have a large address book in your preferred webmail system, take a backup at least of any important contacts that you don't have any other records of. If these databases are damaged during the upgrade we can generally recover them on a per mailbox basis, but this would be a low priority task as you have been advised to ensure that you have a backup of this data.
- if you have any auto-responders, custom mailbox sizes/quotas, or "catch-all" mailboxes in place, that you check that these are still in place after the work has been completed. (this was a common problem with the last upgrade, with some mailboxes being arbitrarily reset to "0" megabyes and mail was not subsequently not being delivered)
- *important* more often than not, Plesk upgrades will result in non-default file and folder permissions and ownership settings being reset. If you upload a file via FTP, it will be owned by your system UID and set to 644, and a folder will be set to 755. If you subsequently change these settings for a file/folder, or if you are running an application that then generates its own fils/folders (and subsequently becomes owned by Apache), these will generally get reset. It is your responsibility to be aware of exactly what you are running on our servers, and to know what (if anything) needs to be reset (and why) should the upgrade affect the operation of your website. Our technical staff shouldn't need to troubleshoot any scripts that become non-functional. If this situation presents itself, please make sure that you have noted any non-default settings before the work commences, and lodge a support ticket if necessary to have these settings put back in place. Though you can generally reset files/folders that still belong to your UID yourself via FTP if need be.
We hope that the information above leads to a smooth transition to Bondi's new server. This work has come about due to some mySQL issues on the current build, so if you face any mysql issues after the work has beeompleted, please lodge a support ticket and we will work through them with you.
Should any problems occur, we ask for your patience whilst we resolve them. We take uptime very seriously, and whilst upgrades such as these are for the long-term good we realise that even a minute of "downtime" can affect certain users, but it needs to be done and we'll get in and finish as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Regards
Gary Meadows
Aussie Hosts
This message is to let you know about a period of scheduled maintenance coming up this Tuesday for Bondi.
Date: Tuesday, 19 April 2005
Start time: 9am AEST
Duration: See procedure notes below
Actual Downtime: Approx 1 Hour
The following link will display 12:00pm Brisbane time, in your own local timezone:
The following procedures will be carried out:
1) Perform Plesk dump (could take up to 6hrs)
2) Transfer Dump to new machine (1-2hrs)
3) Restore dump (2-3hrs)
4) Implement forwarding rules (10 minutes)
Please do not attempt to log in to Plesk during this time. We will send out a message when the work is finished, and ask that if you notice any issues that you then log a ticket on the Helpdesk.
The following are suggestions based on past experiences with Plesk transitions:
- bear in mind that whilst the Plesk developers try to produce faultless upgrades, they cannot possibly test all environments and sometimes problems occur that were unforseen and have become apparent once the upgrades reach the mainstream users.
- if you have any custom DNS records, that you make a note of these and check (or fix as required) them after the upgrade.
- if you have any *vital* email on the server, that you poll the mailserver prior to this work commencing. You should never rely on a single backup copy of important email, and you should never leave mail on a shared server for any lengthy period of time. Take the mail off the server, and back it up locally.
- if you require copies of any log file, please take these off the server before the work commences.
- if you have a large address book in your preferred webmail system, take a backup at least of any important contacts that you don't have any other records of. If these databases are damaged during the upgrade we can generally recover them on a per mailbox basis, but this would be a low priority task as you have been advised to ensure that you have a backup of this data.
- if you have any auto-responders, custom mailbox sizes/quotas, or "catch-all" mailboxes in place, that you check that these are still in place after the work has been completed. (this was a common problem with the last upgrade, with some mailboxes being arbitrarily reset to "0" megabyes and mail was not subsequently not being delivered)
- *important* more often than not, Plesk upgrades will result in non-default file and folder permissions and ownership settings being reset. If you upload a file via FTP, it will be owned by your system UID and set to 644, and a folder will be set to 755. If you subsequently change these settings for a file/folder, or if you are running an application that then generates its own fils/folders (and subsequently becomes owned by Apache), these will generally get reset. It is your responsibility to be aware of exactly what you are running on our servers, and to know what (if anything) needs to be reset (and why) should the upgrade affect the operation of your website. Our technical staff shouldn't need to troubleshoot any scripts that become non-functional. If this situation presents itself, please make sure that you have noted any non-default settings before the work commences, and lodge a support ticket if necessary to have these settings put back in place. Though you can generally reset files/folders that still belong to your UID yourself via FTP if need be.
We hope that the information above leads to a smooth transition to Bondi's new server. This work has come about due to some mySQL issues on the current build, so if you face any mysql issues after the work has beeompleted, please lodge a support ticket and we will work through them with you.
Should any problems occur, we ask for your patience whilst we resolve them. We take uptime very seriously, and whilst upgrades such as these are for the long-term good we realise that even a minute of "downtime" can affect certain users, but it needs to be done and we'll get in and finish as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Regards
Gary Meadows
Aussie Hosts