Scheduled Maintanence cp.hsphere.cc 3/21 and 3/22

[admin]

At 12:30 AM Monday Morning (March 21, 2005), the CP will be taken down for approx. 3 - 6 hours while we run a full vacuum on the database. This is basic maintanence that must be done to keep H-Sphere's database running at top speed. This is also being done for the upgrade. Sorry for the inconvenience.

At 12:30 AM Tuesday Morning (March 22, 2005) we will be taking the CP down to upgrade to H-Sphere 2.4.2 Patch 3. The CP will be down until the upgrade is done; this should take approx. 3 - 6 hours due to a backend database upgrade that must be done for the upgrade. This will fix a few bugs with the system and should make it more stable. We will also be adding a support selector and webmail selector so that you can run your own webmail and support system if you would like.

[zulfer]

Hay guys....thats going to be bad news to me.... Im running a Cpanel and Hspere account. After Saturday's incident with Cpanel, my company's good will have really gone down... With this schedule maintainance ....I really dont know what to tell my cusomers.

Monday/ Tuesday 12:30AM is really peak hours in our country. Is there anything u could do ?

Z

[Revolution]

...snip...so that you can run your own webmail and support system if you would like...snip...

I thought we already had the ability to use different webmail as it is - other than the available defaults. What other could we run / that you recommend.

What sort of Support System ?... osTicket hopefully ?... or the one that Vortech uses - which I've only used a couple times.

Will it have the ability for people to respond to support tickets via email ?

Is the Support System only for Vortech customers (us) - or is it available for "our" customers.

Thanks,

Pierre

[jmbeach]

Originally Posted by Revolution

I thought we already had the ability to use different webmail as it is - other than the available defaults. What other could we run / that you recommend.

I think this means we can have a custom launcher from HSphere to our own webmail if we wanted. Sure you can use your own now, but it has no connectivity to HSphere.

Originally Posted by Revolution

Is the Support System only for Vortech customers (us) - or is it available for "our" customers.

Your customer CAN NOT use the same support system we enjoy. Since we are resellers, we have to take care of our own customers. We aren't to allow them to come to this forum either.

[Revolution]

Originally Posted by jmbeach

Your customer CAN NOT use the same support system we enjoy. Since we are resellers, we have to take care of our own customers.

I've been trying to figure out how to get osTicket to work with HSphere... haven't had much luck so far. It seems to only support cPanel... and their customer service (osTicket) hasn't really tried to make it work with HSphere.

I've found a decent support system - developed in Cold Fusion... but it is a bit pricey. osTicket is open source / free.

Does anyone know how to make osTicket work with HSphere ?

Thanks,

Pierre

[canada]

Hello Brad,

Is that mean that all the websites will be DOWN due to this maintenance or just the control panel. Appreciate a quick response. Thanks

[DigitalSkyline]

Just Re-read the post

(its the CP)

[Spirited]

I would like to throw something out for consideration. I appreciate you folks at Vortech doing your best to stay on top of things. There is a way to lessen down time, that mission critical folks have been using for eons. At first this appears daunting simply because people are not used to it. Once you get the hang of it you find that it gives you a tremendous amount of latitude to do many things. Out of the pressure mode.

Take an extra, preferably new computer totally configure and load, and test out. Then switch the old out and the new in. Clean up the old computer and use it for the next purpose.

I can hear minds a turning and some generating reasons not to do this before people even get to this line. That is fundamentally fear of the unknown. For anyone that says that has already been done then I question the what degree? To the nth degree then it would be so seamless that it would be totally unnoticeable. That nth degree would be too costly for Vortech. On the other hand, two 3-6 hours periods, plus time for the unknowns is too costly for our businesses. Most of us are seeking overseas customers, so during the early morning hours is not a break


The upsides:

1. A much more stable and efficient system.

2. Freedom to take your time and work mores things in.

3. Avoiding the panicky brush fires that come with every update and change. When you get on line

4. Once you get the hang of how to do this, lives becomes a lot less stressful during these periods.


The down sides

1. It takes a different mindset to ones approach.

2. Often takes a little more research to understand some of the inner workings.

3. The first time is going to be a struggle, it a considerable amount of forethought. There will be grumblings from the impatient. Everyone involved has to go into this believing or self-fulfilling prophecy will cause failure.

4. It takes the discipline of extensive testing. What so many people dislike. Me included!

[basim]

:Please:
What about the Domain SPF record support !!! ... i thought it will included in the next release .

[Revolution]

I would like to throw something out for consideration

To most extent - I agree with this approach. This is similar to the process we had in place while I was employed at NASA, and IntelSat.

We never removed a component from a "live placement" - without first fully testing a "live replacement".

Though totally unimaginable (while a mission is in progress)... consider the replacement of a guidance control system (a mission critical component) without first testing a replacement module. This never occurs at NASA, or IntelSat - because they already know what can happen if the replacement module fails... or if the upgrade itself fails.

In the past - I've witnessed quite a few upgrade processes which failed - and could not be reversed. This occurred several times while I was a VP at AOL. The worst issue started with a projected downtime of 30 minutes -(to be run @ midnight EST) which eventually came to a conclusion 4 days later.

Vortech - itself has had similiar issues in the past - with Cold Fusion. If I remember correctly (feel free to correct me if I am wrong) - an upgrade to HSphere blew away Cold Fusion MX. Thought I don't blame Vortech... my company lost 4 clients because of this.

An approach such as the one recommended... may not be 100% feasible with Vortech's setup (I don't know their setup in detail)... but if successful, this process would reduce downtime to a matter of minutes... instead of hours.

It also helps eliminate "problems" - because testing can be done on the "new" systems - prior to launch... and if a problem occurs after installation - a quick replacement of the "old" system is only a matter of minutes away. Obviously, a full backup of all affected systems would be mandatory.

Eventhough the upgrade is to performed around midnight - much of our traffic (85%) arrives between 9pm - and 4am. For us... this is "prime time".

I can see a much larger impact on non-US customers. Midnight EST our time... is about 6am or 7am in the morning in Frankfurt, Germany. So if the upgrade lasts 3 hours... completion would be around 9am - 10am in Frankfurt.

And of course, Frankfurt is just one of several large cities that would be affected... ie: London, Paris, Rome...

On the reserve end (going west instead of east) - the upgrade affects us again... because (much of) our west coast traffic comes in around 4am EST (server time).

In the future - I too, would recommend a different approach to upgrades. One needs to take into consideration the support of clients in the international community - not just those within the US.

For ourselves - we already follow a similar process for upgrades - though the affect is not as impacting nor as difficult as that of Vortech's. Our philosphy / approach is that of an American company - supporting an International audience.

Hopefully the upgrade will go quickly - and quietly. Thankfully - with Vortech's expertise and persistance... previous upgrades have gone fairly well.

Pierre

[dpyers]

Speaking as someone with a few decades of supporting 7x24 systems for national-infrastructure critical systems, I think sprited's approach only works to the extent that data-base changes (both structural and data) are not tied to the upgrade installation.

[admin]

Spirited and Revolution,

Few things this does not affect web sites at all.

1. This has to do with cleaning the DB for the matince tonight, no way to do this and keep another DB online this would make the old DB out dated.
2. The 2 servers running the CP are about $8,000 to $10,000 each. We have a spare but because of the upgrade there is no way to upgrade H-Sphere and keep it online 24/7. I am sorry.

I really should learn to just close these post, this has been talked about 100 times now, read over the old posts, I really don't fell like saying it all over again and again each time we have to do anupgrade or vacuum on the cp as to why it has to be down and why it's down at the time it's down.

But as always I like to hear your 2 cents and trust me if we could afford to ( and would be really hard with the rates we charge for what we give to have 100's of spare systems do just slap in I would ) or could I would. But it just is not going to happen, we have to keep our systems up todate and a little down time here and there for the CP will happen but this does not affect the workings of your site at ALL, if your customer can't wait a few hours to add a new email address I really am not sure what I could even say to that.

[Pace]

Whatever is being said here, I know one thing. My account on Vortech goes on the blink during the mornings (Indian time) and then resumes after a while. Now, this has been happening for the last 2 days. I dunno why.

Secondly, this message of CP being shut down from 1st April and asking us to go in for a new reseller account on Hspehere. I am dreading telling my customers about this transfer; it means also a couple of expensive manhours spent doing this transfer for which we suffer the loss and customers will not pay!!

Any take on this?

Originally Posted by admin

Spirited and Revolution,

Few things this does not affect web sites at all.

1. This has to do with cleaning the DB for the matince tonight, no way to do this and keep another DB online this would make the old DB out dated.
2. The 2 servers running the CP are about $8,000 to $10,000 each. We have a spare but because of the upgrade there is no way to upgrade H-Sphere and keep it online 24/7. I am sorry.

I really should learn to just close these post, this has been talked about 100 times now, read over the old posts, I really don't fell like saying it all over again and again each time we have to do anupgrade or vacuum on the cp as to why it has to be down and why it's down at the time it's down.

But as always I like to hear your 2 cents and trust me if we could afford to ( and would be really hard with the rates we charge for what we give to have 100's of spare systems do just slap in I would ) or could I would. But it just is not going to happen, we have to keep our systems up todate and a little down time here and there for the CP will happen but this does not affect the workings of your site at ALL, if your customer can't wait a few hours to add a new email address I really am not sure what I could even say to that.

[redhorns]

Your mail said the cpanel will be down but why all of my websites hosted on your server are down??????????????

[generic]

Originally Posted by Revolution

I've been trying to figure out how to get osTicket to work with HSphere... haven't had much luck so far. It seems to only support cPanel... and their customer service (osTicket) hasn't really tried to make it work with HSphere.

I've found a decent support system - developed in Cold Fusion... but it is a bit pricey. osTicket is open source / free.

Does anyone know how to make osTicket work with HSphere ?

Thanks,

Pierre

i have it working on a windows box just fine.

exactly where does it go wrong for you.. dont forget to get the php.ini file.