ibiblio services/changes announcement list

[John Reuning <john AT ibiblio.org>]

Short version:

What: www.ibiblio.org and all hosted domains will be offline during an
infrastructure migration
When: Tues, March 8, 9:00 am EST until whenever we finish (est. is 12-24 
hours)

Long version:

I've included the text of my previous messages below with some new
items of note.

Begin new items

* If you find an error while testing your web site, look in
/public/scratch/logs/www-test/ on login-test.ibiblio.org.  There you
should find log files with error messages.

* If your site has a problem, you've looked at the log files, and you
can't figure it out what's going wrong, try:
 ** search google (<-- This works for me about 95% of the time.  Just
copy/past the error message into google.)
 ** find a techie friend
 ** post a message to the webgroup list with some details and a plea for help

* If your site has a problem, you've looked at the log files, you've
exhausted the 3 options above, and you *still* can't figure it out
what's going wrong, please open a help ticket.  We'll do our best to
figure it out.  I joke about exhausting the options above, but it's
possible we still need to tweak the server configuration or install
some additional software.

* If you maintain DNS for your domain and haven't heard from one of
the ibiblio staff about coordinating the change, please open a help
ticket.

End new items

The current runtime of our longest-running daily data synchronization
jobs is 12 hours.  I'm still looking for ways to speed this
up, but this indicates how long we expect to be down.  Of course, if
things go wrong, it will extend the downtime.

First, here's a list of services included in this migration:

* www.ibiblio.org
* ftp.ibiblio.org
* vhost.ibiblio.org
* All .net, .org, .com, .info, etc. domains hosted by ibiblio
* All mysql and postgresql databases used by the web applications
* Email not served directly by Google (i.e. non-ibiblio.org domains)
* login.ibiblio.org
* User home directories (i.e. /export/sunsite/users)

The file, database, and application dependencies require us to migrate
all of these items as a single chunk.  Because of the number of sites
and volume of data, it's likely going to take a full day to transfer
everything.  I'll have more information on outage duration as we get
closer to the migration.

Below are further details about how to test your sites and what action
may be required.

* The ibiblio servers are moving between data centers, and the IP
addresses WILL CHANGE.  If you have a .net, .org, etc. domain...
 ** ibiblio staff will coordinate changes for domains whose DNS is
hosted by UNC.  No action is required if your name servers are listed
as ns.unc.edu and ns2.unc.edu (or a close variant).
 ** You will be responsible for changes if your domain DNS is hosted
elsewhere.  We sent separate email messages to those in this group, so
please be on the lookout.  If you fall into this category and haven't
received an email, please submit a help request at
http://www.ibiblio.org/help/.

* There's a test server for www.ibiblio.org,
http://www-test.ibiblio.org  Please test your site if you have a
www.ibiblio.org URL.

* You can test a hosted domain (aka virtual host) by adding
".test.ibiblio.org" to your normal URL.  For example, to test
http://www.confluence.org, use http://www.confluence.org.test.ibiblio.org

* Database migrations should be smooth if you use ibiblio.org database
hostnames (e.g. mysql.ibiblio.org, db2.ibiblio.org) instead of
metalab.unc.edu or raw IP addresses.  Database server hostnames ending
in metalab.unc.edu will be retired during this migration.

* If you're non-technical and have a php/perl/mysql web application,
it might help for you to find a trusted web or computer techie to work
with you.  We'll do everything we can to make the transition go
smoothly, but the ibiblio staff is very small.  Having someone sitting
next to you (physically or virtually), helping debug odd problems is a
wonderful thing.  I find a bag of cookies or box of pizza to be
particularly useful in these cases. :)

* Please consider subscribing to the webgroup email list.  This
mailing list is filled with other smart and helpful ibiblio
contributors that may be able to answer technical questions.
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/webgroup

Thank you,

-John R.