[NOVAC announcement] Upcoming NOVAC web and email service outage

[Phil Wherry]

Fellow NOVAC members,

I'm writing to alert you of an upcoming project that will affect NOVAC's web and email services.

We're preparing to deploy a new server to replace our 2006-era equipment. This will improve website performance and provide us with additional flexibility and power as we continue to expand our club's online presence.

Barring unforeseen problems, I'm planning to deploy the server tomorrow (Sunday) beginning around midday. My best guess is that the resulting outage will last around an hour.

The migration process has been planned carefully to ensure that no data will be lost, and that there's always a way to go back to the old system if things go terribly wrong. Email messages sent to NOVAC lists during the outage will be delayed but not lost, and should be delivered normally after service resumes.

Phil


For those interested in the technical details: the migration process will work something like this:

- The new server will be installed in the data center with a temporary IP address.
- All external access to the old web server will be blocked at the data center firewall, beginning the planned outage of NOVAC web and email services.
- A final file synchronization will be performed to move data from old web server to the new one. The new server is already periodically being mirrored from the old one, so this final step in the process that should take only a few minutes.
- The old server will be shut down. It will remain available for at least the next couple of weeks in case major unforeseen problems arise.
- The new server will be configured for the primary NOVAC web server's IP address and then restarted.
- A series of functional tests will be performed to ensure that the new server is operating as expected.
- ARP caches on switchgear will be flushed to ensure all traffic is directed to the new server.
- The traffic block at the firewall will be removed, ending the web and email service outage.
- Additional testing will be performed to make sure outside-the-firewall access is behaving as expected.