500servers: Big maintainence

[Redline Guido]

I received that email from our hosting company and would like to let you know too:

As most people here know by now, 500servers have been around for 4 1/2 years.

I'll be honest, When i started all this up i was not expecting to actually last (at the time there was at least 2 server hosters who were out to dominate LFS). For some reason though, those companies folded. and i managed to survive that first year.

Since then things have obviously grown, Unfortunately whilst things have grown i have not been as tidy with the changes as i should have been, Now that bothers me and i feel its time to set things right, As it stands from my point of view i see 1 of the boxes as being overloaded and in a bit of a state. Those on the server have probably noticed below-par performance.

Tonight i intend to put that right, Tonight i intend to re-organise the servers, Control panel and billing system.

so what is going to happen:

   * 500Servers New (an updated version of current) billing system will be installed and all packages / billing details will be transfered over manually (old invoices / records will be available in an archive).

   * TCAdmin Control Panel is going to be re-installed with a new database (will be setting everything back up from scratch) and moved to a new machine, The database for the control panel will also be moved onto the same machine (currently its hosted remotely which makes no sense when the remote server is down and makes the control panel useless!)

   * some server will be wiped clean (don't worry all files / configs will be backed up remotely before hand). Once this is done the servers will be re-configured for use with LFS.

Once all of the above is done everybodys services will be re-installed using the fresh install of the control panel.

What this means?
For the most part you will not notice a difference in the way things look. However you should hopefully notice increased performance abd a tidier (for some at least) File manager

How will this affect me? what about my server IP / Port?
As we will be installing effectively new services and then copying over your configurations your server IP / Ports will be different. However all your server details (IP / Port / Host path / http path) will be available in a new link on your control panel that will have all those details available for you.


What will be backed up:
Server configs (setup.cfg + cfg.txt)
Layouts
Insim applications (all associated files)

What will not be backed up:
Replays
old backups.

when will this happen, how long will it take?

This is happening Tonight between 11PM - 4AM Actual server downtime will be between 10 minutes and 2 hours (effectively depending on wether your surname begins with an A or a Z)


Anymore questions: ask away.

[Motera]

And so it goes on.... this just in!

Hello.

The Big maintainence has been going slowly as many bugs were found which kept causing delays.

We are pretty much ready now and will be doing the maintainence during the day Today (07/06/2010).

What we will do is deal with all Empty servers during the day now. Any servers with users in them will be left until tonight (from Midnight).

During the day the 500servers Control panel will at times be unavailabe.

We hope this will not cause too much inconvenience for anybody.

Thank you for your patience.

Regards,
500servers