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Forum downtime - Jan 13th - Jan 16th

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SchmitzIT

Member
Staff member
Hello,

The forum is going to be moved to a new host and a faster server, starting Thursday (or Wednesday or Friday, depending on where in the world you are). Prior to the move, a few things will happen:

* The forum will be closed pending the migration. This means no new topics can be created, no replies can be made, and you will see a message stating the forum is undergoing maintenance. Do not panic. This is normal. Make sure you have your towel somewhere closeby.

* Content and database copies will be made and uploaded to the new server. I have taken backups of everything over the past weekend, and will repeat the exercise some time soon (tm) in order to capture whatever changes were made since the last copy.

* DNS records will be changed. This means the IP-address currently associated with www.cyreneforum.com will be replaced with the IP-address of the new server. You will still use the same URL to get to the forum, it simply will be pointing somewhere else.

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This is by far the most nerve-wracking part of the migration, as once we initiate the transfer (which will be done from the Create Kingdom office in Dubai), things are mostly out of our control. What actually happens in the background is explained (very high level) here: https://cyreneforum.com/threads/short-downtime-next-week.8020/

* Once I can verify everything looks okay, I'll have to make a few minor adjustments to address some technical background issues with naming conventions. No biggie, really.

* Once all that is done, the forum will be upgraded to the latest version of the forum software for version 1.*. I'm not very aware of exactly what new functionality is added this way, but it will include bugfixes, security patches, and maybe a few shiny new buttons.

* The forum will be reopened and there will be much rejoicing!

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* Ed will send over a nice bottle of Scotch (I guess I should have told him this is a pre-requisite, I guess. I do not want to get visited by Chris Hansen, though, so please ensure it's at least 18 years old, Eddrick!)
 
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Jambon

New Member
As someone who has done that type of stuff for the last near 20 years. Biggest tips I can offer are:

1. Make sure you have set the TTL (Time To Live) and SOA settings for the DNS all to 5 minutes on your existing host. This should be done now so it comes into effect before you do the actual move. This will ensure all DNS resolvers don't cache the IP tied to the domain for longer than 5 minutes. (default is 5-7 days). So every 5 minutes they'll check to see what IP should be associated with that domain.

2. After doing the move, set the DNS A records on the old host to all point to the new IP. This will force that anyone that still resolves to the old host will be directed to the new host.

These 2 things will help smooth the process and remove the need for people to try flushing the DNS resolver via command line after the move. Which often doesn't work since it's their ISPs nameserver resolver that's often the problem with delayed propagation.

Best of luck with the move! :D
 
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SchmitzIT

Member
Staff member
Jambon said:
As someone who has done that type of stuff for the last near 20 years. Biggest tips I can offer are:

1. Make sure you have set the TTL (Time To Live) and SOA settings for the DNS all to 5 minutes on your existing host. This should be done now so it comes into effect before you do the actual move. This will ensure all DNS resolvers don't cache the IP tied to the domain for longer than 5 minutes. (default is 5-7 days). So every 5 minutes they'll check to see what IP should be associated with that domain.

2. After doing the move, set the DNS A records on the old host to all point to the new IP. This will force that anyone that still resolves to the old host will be directed to the new host.

These 2 things will help smooth the process and remove the need for people to try flushing the DNS resolver via command line after the move. Which often doesn't work since it's their ISPs nameserver resolver that's often the problem with delayed propagation.

Best of luck with the move! :D
Click to expand...

Thanks :) Step 2 is something I do. Unfortunately my host doesn't allow me to do step 1, though. The portal they use for me to administrate things has some limited functionality, so while I can update individual settings, TTL is not one of the options I can tinker with.

Seeing we need a third party to update the nameservers, things are a bit more complicated than if I'd have full control over everything. Hopefully things will go smooth, though. I do anticipate it to take far less long than indicated in the thread, but wanted to rather have too large a window, than be overly optimistic.
 
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SchmitzIT

Member
Staff member
Well, that took longer than expected, and I'm proud to announce my mom was right when she said I'd never amount to anything in life.

We're still on the old server for the time being, while I pull whatever last hairs remain on my head. We'll try again soon (tm).
 
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tBANNA

Active Member
SchmitzIT said:
Well, that took longer than expected, and I'm proud to announce my mom was right when she said I'd never amount to anything in life.

We're still on the old server for the time being, while I pull whatever last hairs remain on my head. We'll try again soon (tm).
Click to expand...
good luck on your journey !
 
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