Scheduled Maintenance, Saturday 09/13/2003. Servers/Equipments move.

[FH-Dave]

This notification will be sent to all customers (shared, resellers, VPS, collocation and dedicated).


Dear Valued Customers,

Since we started offering web hosting to the public, Fluid Hosting has experienced a substantial growth. We would like to thank all of you for your trust and support as one of the main reasons for our growth.

We have currently exceeded the use of our full cabinet on the data center and are in need to expand more by reserving the use of three additional cabinets. Unfortunately, Internap can not assign us adjacent cabinets. To simplify our operation in the future, we have scheduled a time with Internap to move our current cabinet to the new cabinets assignment. During this time, we will move all of our servers, our customer's servers, and all equipments. Because of this move, there will be a total loss of connectivity for some period of time, unfortunately.

We will be scheduling the move on Saturday, 09/13/2003 at 2AM EDT local time (GMT -04:00). Please plan accordingly.

We expect no further complications during the move. However, we have also planned for the worst, in the event the move does not go as smoothly. On/around the specified time above, we will do a hot-cut our ethernet drops and swing them over to the new cabinets. All connectivity will be lost once these ethernet drops are disconnected from our core switch. We will then move our core switch to the new cabinet. Next, we will move our main DNS/Email/Control Panel server which also hosts our main web site, http://www.fluidhosting.com/. We expect the main server to be accessible again within 15 minutes.

We have also retrieve all customer's (shared hosting, VPS, collocation and dedicated) email address. In the unlikely event that the move is prolonged and our main server is down longer than expected, we will be communicating with you through your contact email address on our record. Please make sure that you update your contact email address. Preferably, your main contact email address is difference then the domain you host on our server/network. A yahoo/hotmail email address will be a good example of a contact email address to use. If our main server is down longer than necessary, you may contact us at fluidhosting@hotmail.com. Our techs/admins will also be monitoring this mail box during the move.

Furthermore, we are currently moving our main forums (currently on a VPS account) to this main server temporarily. Once the main server is up, we will try to keep you updated about the whole progress in the forum. Please access our forum at http://www.fluidhosting.com/forums/ _instead_ of the usual URL (http://forums.fluidhosting.com/). We will then move our other servers one by one in the order of preference to be determined later.

All collocation and dedicated server customers will need to give us your root password to each and all of your servers. Please send your root password and any other information pertaining to your servers to admin@fluidhosting.com by the end of Friday.

We have reserved around three hours to complete all the move.This, however, does not mean that all servers will go down for the whole three hours as some servers will be brought up earlier than other servers.

We apologize for any inconveniences/troubles this may have caused you. Should you have any further questions and/or concerns about this scheduled work, please contact us at support@fluidhosting.com.

Sincerely,
Administrator
Fluid Hosting LLC

[nvphone]

I for one can understand your growth !
No matter what time day or night, if I have a question you are there.
I am going to bed tonight and not even going to worry about it.
That is what hosting is all about!
Bill

[FH-Dave]

Update: We are still preparing our new racks and the movement process has not been started yet.

[Skibum]

1. If the move has not started yet, why are all the sites down?
2. If you have not yet started, and it is now daytime, will you continue, or wait till the low traffic time of the night?

[Skibum]

Could you please give a REALISTIC idea when the servers will be back online....It has been way longer than previously announced.


I'm starting to shake.....:banghead:

[FH-Dave]

We have started the move at around 5AM EDT local time and most servers are back up now (including this forum)

Please be patient while we bring everything else up.

[Skibum]

Sorry for my impatience, Jim.

As usual, Fluidhosting had everything well under control.

[nvphone]

My domains are up at 5:37 AM Arizona time and even faster!

[cafeOui!]

I've been monitoring closely this morning. My web server just came up but my CP is still down.

Since I have been through this before, i.e., when I recently swithched to FH, "I feel your pain."

I am sure most of us understand one of the fundamental rules of this business: "Migrations never go as smoothly as anticipated."

Thanks for your efforts.

[FH-Dave]

All servers (shared, resellers, VPS, dedicated, and colo) should be up and running, including reseller's control panel (assigned the ethernet cable to the wrong NIC!). Please contact support[at]fluidhosting.com if you experience any problem after the move.

Please accept our sincerest apology for the delay in starting the move and the short delay in finishing up. Yes, there was something unplanned coming up. When I have taken some rest, I will write up a small report and perhaps sharing with all of you the new look of our cabinets :)

I appreciate all of your patience and understanding. I wish you all a good week end.

On behalf of everybody at Fluid Hosting,
-dave

[cafeOui!]

Thanks, Dave.

Job well done!

Get some rest.

[woodyw]

As one who has been on your side of the task a few times, I want to thank Fluid Hosting for a job very well done. The planning and implementation of this change was the best.

Where else but here could I receive advance notice of a change - and then have it work out pretty much as I was informed. I appreciate it and my users appreciate it.

Thanks!!!!!

Clarence

[ComputerBob]

Thanks, for your continuing efforts, Dave, Jim, and FH Staff! Like many others, I an happy to have been able to go to bed last night and not even think about the move until this morning, when it was all done.

[Graeme]

We need pictures Dave... We really need pictures :baghead:

Cheers for the smooth move guys, well done :thumbup: :grouphug:

Graeme

[Richard]

Move? What move? ........... did someone say move?

:dunno:

[Graeme]

Originally posted by Firelogic
Move? What move? ........... did someone say move?

:dunno:
You must have blinked and missed it :no: ;)

[FH-John]

Yeah, they got those servers moved pretty quickly.

[theOG]

I did not notice my sites down... hmm... must have been quick... old GH customers: see how a move is suppose to go! He, he... had to put that in.

Thanks FH on a job well done.

[FH-Dave]

As promised, some pictures (http://forums.fluidhosting.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=1621#post1621) :D