Server Maintenance & Migrations

[Callum603]

A couple of days ago our host gave notice that our current servers will be taken offline within the month due to them phasing out support for the OpenVZ virtualisation.

As a result TLO will be undergoing server migrations and maintenance over the next few weeks, most of the moves should go unnoticed as old servers hand over to new, though you may notice brief periods of server downtime due to the way DNS propagates.

The TLO website will be moving to a new server also, and I will announce within the next 48 hours the plans for the site migration as this will cause downtime as old databases are made read only to prevent any data loss during the move.

Below is a list of servers that will be moving and their current status:

• Minecraft | Awaiting Migration
• Mail Server | Migrated
• TLO Discord Link/Bot | Migrated/Requires Code Update
• Website | Migrated
• RPG-X - Spicy | Migrated
• Holomatch | Migrated

Any servers currently migrating may experience performance loss, downtime, and brief periods of limited availability due to DNS, servers awaiting migration are running on the old servers, and servers migrated should be functioning normally at their new home.

I am taking this opportunity to also update server OS' and software to the latest long term support options to prevent us having any planned extended maintenance again in the near future.

I will keep this thread updated with any relevant information regarding the migrations.

[Callum603]

Website Migration Update:
Planned website outage for migration to new server on Thursday 1st September @ 11AM BST lasting 24-48 hours depending on DNS propagation.

The TLO mail server will be down during this time also for migration to the new server.  TLO Mail account holders may notice they lose previous emails saved in their inbox, this will only be temporary and they should all be restored after the maintenance is complete, if there are any emails you'd like to backup please do so yourselves before this date, though no data loss should occur.

[Callum603]

Minor service disruptions will be beginning from now, mainly focused on the mail server side of things.  No full outage of the site or services will happen until 11AM.

[Callum603]

Migration Update:

Site migration mostly complete, just tidying up and squashing a few bugs, expect instability for roughly 12-24 hours, please report any bugs you notice to me.

Mail Server migration in progress, currently no TLO mail is being sent while I continue to configure the server.  All accounts and mailboxes are now on the new server, it's making them all work as they should.  Hoping to have full mail server functionality restored in the next 24-48 hours.

[Callum603]

Mail Server Update:

If you sync your TLO mail account to a desktop client or your phone, you will need to update your IMAP and SMTP server host.  It will now only sync/send mail when both are set to spicy.last-outpost.net

No other changes to the configuration were made, once the above change is made in your client you should once again be able to send/receive mail.