On Saturday 4th September starting at 22:00 BST we will be migrating all websites on the current web1 server in London to a new server in Manchester. All customer’s should have received a notice detailing the procedure for the migration and a method to check to see if they are affected.

Update 04/09/2010 @ 22:00 - The backup process has started.

Update 05/09/2010 @ 01:30 - The backup process finished at 01:20 so we are running around 1hr 20mins behind schedule.

Update 05/09/2010 @ 04:00 - The migration is now complete.

We will be upgrading our primary mail server to SmarterMail v6 on 12/08/2009 between 00:15 and 00:45.

Expected downtime is between 5-10mins maximum. Full backups will be taken before the upgrade is started.

During the upgrade the backup mail servers will hold inbound email until the primary server is back online.

Update 00:35
The SmarterMail upgrade has now been completed, total downtime 8mins.

If you experience any problems please contact support by email or phone.

We need to reboot both web1 (sgc.gbdns.net) and web2 (daedalus.gbdns.net) to complete the latest round of Windows Updates.

Both servers will be rebooted on 14/06/2009 at 00:40 AM. This will take no more than 3-5mins per server.

All other servers within our hosting cluster were automatically rebooted in the early hours of the 10th June 2009.

Update 14/06/2009 00:50:
Both servers have been rebooted downtime was <4mins per server.

07/06/2009 01:00AM

Servers web2 and web3 within our shared hosting cluster need to be rebooted to complete software installations.

The reboot will take 3-5mins per server.

08/06/2009 01:00

We will be moving all FTP accounts from our current Serv-U FTP Server software to Gene6 FTP Server. This migration is relatively simple as we have created an application to perform the required tasks.

This will cause up to 2mins of interruption to FTP Service’s on web1 and web2.

All usernames and passwords will stay the same and you will be able to manage accounts through Helm as normal.

This work does not affect Windows 2008 users as the servers are already using Gene6.

Server SGC (web1.gbdns.net) will be rebooted on 18/05/2009 at 00:10.

This is to complete the install of the latest Windows Updates.

Downtime will be less than <7mins.

Update 18/05/2009 - 00:22
The reboot is now complete. (Start 00:18 - Finish 00:21)

We have some maintenance to complete on server Daedalus. This involves replacing both hard drives within the Raid 1 set with a new pair.

This work will be carried out in two phases. During both phases there will be a very short period of downtime. This will effect email services and websites hosted on web2.

Phase 1
Start: Thursday 14th May 2009 @ 23:00hrs
End: Thursday 14th May 2009 @ 23:10hrs
Impact: ~10 Minutes

During this window the server will be shut down and the first drive will be replaced. The system will then be booted up to Windows as normal. The Raid Array will re-sync itself during the early hours of Friday morning.

Phase 2
Start: Friday 15th May 2009 @ 23:00hrs
End: Friday 15th May 2009 @ 23:10hrs
Impact: ~10 Minutes

During this window the server will be shut down and the second drive will be replaced. The system will then be booted up to Windows as normal. The Raid Array will re-sync itself during the early hours of Saturday morning.

Update 14/05/2009 - 23:19
The server is currently shutting down and should return within approximately 10mins.

Update 14/05/2009 - 23:33
The server shutdown completed at 23:23.

The first new drive has been installed and the server has been booted to Windows. The Raid Array is currently re-syncing with the new drive, this will take 3-4hrs to complete and will be done in the background.

Update 15/05/2009 - 23:13
The server is currently shutting down and should return within approximately 10mins.

Update 15/05/2009 - 23:29
The server shutdown completed at 23:16.

The second new drive has been installed and the server has been booted to Windows. The Raid Array is currently re-syncing with the new drive, this will take 3-4hrs to complete and will be done in the background.

We will be performing a reboot of web3.gbdns.net on 10/04/2009 at 00:45 this should take no longer than 3-5mins to complete.

During the reboot all websites hosted on web3 will be unavailable along with MSSQL 2008 databases.

12/03/2009 00:15-00:30AM GMT

We will be rebooting all Windows 2003/2008 servers within our shared hosting cluster this evening. This will take no more than 3-5mins per server.

This is to complete the latest round of Windows Updates and also correct a problem with IIS Password.

Update - 00:30
All servers have now been rebooted.

IIS Password is now working correctly on all Windows 2003 Servers.

On 27th February 2009 at 00:05 we will be rebooting web1 and web2 within our Windows 2003 cluster. This is to complete windows updates and alter some system configuration settings.

The reboot should take no longer than 3-5mins per server.

Update - 00:25
Both servers have completed their update / reboot cycle.