This is a major maintenance
We are working to update all the backend systems.
New infrastructure is now up, all code revisions has been tested, and we are now testing the migration procedures.
In case this is not completed today, this will be completed early in the upcoming week.
How will i know when it's going on?
Current site's dynamic portions will be put into "maintenance mode"; Meaning no ticketing, no billing access, no data updates etc. as the migration starts.
Static portions will be served normally.
DNS needs to be updated, and some providers doesn't want to follow the rules & standards; That might take for those unfortunate people 48-72hrs to update. This is mostly an legacy issue, remnants from 90s and we are not sure if there are any ISPs running that old DNS servers anymore.
It's also possible for browsers to cache DNS requests, so if this gets prolonged, try different browser / restarting your browser. CTRL+F5 (Force Refresh) / Deleting Cache sometimes helps too, some browsers are adamant to cache and show stale pages sometimes (despite being told not to!).
Once done, you will notice some billing portal updates.
Why?
There are a lot of bugs in current billing system, and the base systems in the backend are now really old. January 2015 old. So a server update every 9 years is in order indeed.
This will enable us to push out new features in rapid succession, and for example curb on the helpdesk spam (quite literal and bad) which has been slowing support down for a while now.
This will also allow seamless transitions to newer hardware, or more performance shall we need it.
These updates are quite necessary for continuous improvement of our services.
How long does this take?
For those of who have modern DNS nameservers; We expect the downtime to be around 60minutes. This is the time it takes for all the backend processing, database migration, updates etc.
Our database is fairly large so it does take quite a bit of time to process the migration.
Static portions will be served normally.
DNS needs to be updated, and some providers doesn't want to follow the rules & standards; That might take for those unfortunate people 48-72hrs to update. This is mostly an legacy issue, remnants from 90s and we are not sure if there are any ISPs running that old DNS servers anymore.
It's also possible for browsers to cache DNS requests, so if this gets prolonged, try different browser / restarting your browser. CTRL+F5 (Force Refresh) / Deleting Cache sometimes helps too, some browsers are adamant to cache and show stale pages sometimes (despite being told not to!).
Once done, you will notice some billing portal updates.
Why?
There are a lot of bugs in current billing system, and the base systems in the backend are now really old. January 2015 old. So a server update every 9 years is in order indeed.
This will enable us to push out new features in rapid succession, and for example curb on the helpdesk spam (quite literal and bad) which has been slowing support down for a while now.
This will also allow seamless transitions to newer hardware, or more performance shall we need it.
These updates are quite necessary for continuous improvement of our services.
How long does this take?
For those of who have modern DNS nameservers; We expect the downtime to be around 60minutes. This is the time it takes for all the backend processing, database migration, updates etc.
Our database is fairly large so it does take quite a bit of time to process the migration.
There's a lot of things to recheck, especially since many of the settings are stored in the same database we are migrating and updating; We cannot do them before hand as the changes would be lost on the migration.
Future updates should be much smoother, we rebuilt the infrastructure partially to allow for more swift and easier updates without downtimes for years to come.
Feedback is requested
We would like to hear if you had any issues, or have any feedback of the overall process or the updates.
If you notice any glitches or bugs, there will be rewards for quickly letting us know so we can fix those.
So anything at all, feel free to send us email, open a ticket, tell us in discord, DM on Twitter/X etc.
Ticketing will be back online quickly after migration, and emails sent to helpdesk/ticket system should be imported once we are back online.
Saturday, January 13, 2024
