Server and System Status

Upgrade of NC031 to NC041: Update 1

20 August 2019 06:38:48 +0000

Work on this continues. We will shortly set up a number of domains on the new server that are awaiting a newer version of PHP, but do not need to be migrated. Following that, domains will be migrated from server NC031 to NC041.

At this point we are not anticipating much, if any, down time. However, this is subject to revision. Please contact support if you would like further details as they may apply to your account.

Please note that this maintenance and migration affects only websites. It does not in any way affect email.

Tags: migration, php, web server
Categories: Maintenance, NC031, NC041, Upgrades
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Upgrade of NC031 to NC041

16 August 2019 10:24:47 +0000

We will be finalising work this weekend on setting up a new server on which the latest version of PHP will be available for those web apps that require it. If all goes well, all websites will be migrated in one fell swoop. If there are issues to overcome this will be delayed to some point during next week or perhaps on the following weekend.

Please check back here for updates. Thank-you.

Tags: migration, php, web server
Categories: Maintenance, NC031, NC041, Upgrades
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NC031: Maintenance glitch with back-ups

28 April 2019 06:40:10 +0000

Our apologies, but a missed step in cleaning up after the maintenance on NC031 meant that today’s back-ups did not complete successfully. Everything is properly in place for them to run properly as scheduled tomorrow.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Tags: web server
Categories: Maintenance, NC031
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NC031: Maintenance complete

27 April 2019 20:06:52 +0000

With almost everything going exactly according to plan, the maintenance on NC031 was completed and the server rebooted at 19:59 UTC. All websites are once again up and functioning.

Thank-you for your patience and understanding as we worked to improve our services for you. If you have any questions or concerns about today’s maintenance, or anything else, please let us know.

Tags: down time, reboot, web server
Categories: Maintenance, NC031, Upgrades
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NC031: Emergency maintenance underway

27 April 2019 19:23:19 +0000

The previously scheduled maintenance to add memory to our primary web server (NC031) started at 19:01 UTC, and should take less time than we have scheduled. We will post updates here at the top of every hour.

Tags: down time, reboot, web server
Categories: Maintenance, NC031, Upgrades
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NC031: Emergency server maintenance

26 April 2019 11:02:07 +0000

We will be upgrading server NC031 (the primary web server) with more memory to address memory shortage issues that have been affecting some websites recently. This maintenance is scheduled to start at 19:00 UTC on Saturday 27 April and is expected to take up to five hours, concluding before approximately 23:59 the same day. (Please use the World Time Server to convert this time to your time zone.) It is possible that the maintenance will take less time. During this time all websites (including the main NinerNet website) will be unavailable, for both browsing and editing.

This maintenance will not affect email.

We will post a notice here when the maintenance starts, progress updates on the hour every hour, and when the maintenance completes. We thank you for your patience as we work to improve our network’s reliability. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact NinerNet support.

Tags: down time, reboot, web server
Categories: Maintenance, NC031, Upgrades
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NC031: Web server downtime

14 March 2019 21:34:49 +0000

The database on our primary web server (NC031) went down at 20:20 UTC, and was not brought back up until 21:00 UTC. This means that all database-driven websites were down during this 40-minute period, and would have displayed the message, “Error establishing a database connection”. We are still trying to determine why this happened and why the service was not automatically restarted, as should have been the case. Coincidentally — or perhaps not — at the same time the server was under a heavy load from hundred of thousands of requests on a single website, and we have now blocked the source of that traffic.

We sincerely apologise for this inconvenience. If you have any questions, please do contact support.

Tags: connection issues, database, dos attack, down time, reboot, web server
Categories: Incidents, NC031
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Major WordPress upgrade

19 January 2019 08:35:33 +0000

You may have received automated emails from the web server (NC031) control panel recently advising of the availability of an upgrade for WordPress to version 5.0.3. Normally your installation of WordPress (or NinerNet) would upgrade WordPress for you, but because this is a “major upgrade” — from version 4.x to version 5.x — the automated upgrade process is not activated by WordPress and we also will not automatically upgrade WordPress installations installed through the control panel.

However, as you are no doubt aware, WordPress advises that you should always be running the latest version, and this is standard advice for any software, especially Internet-facing software. In fact, most websites run by web applications (such as WordPress) that are hacked at some point are hacked because they’re running an out-of-date version.

As such we strongly recommend that you upgrade your installation of WordPress to the latest version as soon as possible.

The most straightforward way to do this is to log into your installation of WordPress and follow the instructions there to run the upgrade. Or you can do so through the web server control panel at Install Scripts -> Installed Scripts.

You may take one of the following three courses of action at this time:

Upgrade your installation of WordPress yourself using one of the two methods stated immediately above.
Allow us to run an automated upgrade for you.
Choose not to upgrade. If you choose this course of action, please advise us so that we can exclude your website from an automated upgrade, and confirm that you accept the risk of running out-of-date software.

Please note that if your installation of WordPress was not installed through the control panel, then we cannot upgrade it for you. You can confirm whether or not WordPress was installed through the control panel by logging into the web server control panel, and navigating to Install Scripts -> Installed Scripts. If WordPress is listed there you can run the upgrade from there; if it is not listed, then you or your website manager or designer installed WordPress manually, and will need to upgrade it by logging into WordPress.

Any installations of WordPress that have not been upgraded by their owners by 00:01 UTC on Thursday 24 January will be upgraded by NinerNet through the control panel — unless you have asked to be excluded or your installation of WordPress was installed manually — shortly thereafter. To convert this deadline to your time zone please consult the World Time Server.

Thank-you for your attention to this matter. If you have any questions, please contact support.

Tags: web server, wordpress
Categories: Maintenance, NC031, Upgrades
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NC031: Emergency maintenance complete

26 December 2018 12:18:17 +0000

We took server NC031 (the primary web server) down for eleven minutes today to correct an issue related to memory usage. The server was offline between 10:32 and 10:43 UTC.

We will be replacing this server early next month, and migrating all websites to the new server.

Our apologies for this inconvenience. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact NinerNet support. Thank-you.

Tags: down time, hardware, migration, performance, reboot, web server
Categories: Incidents, Maintenance, NC031
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NC031: Database overload incident

14 December 2018 05:51:47 +0000

On 13 December (UTC) the database server on server NC031 (the primary web server) failed twice, the second time resulting in our deciding to reboot the server. We believe this to be the result of a marked increase in denial of service and hacking attempts against this server over the last few days.

The database server went down at 01:55. We immediately logged into the server to determine the cause, and restarted it at 02:37. Shortly after that the problem manifested itself again, we did a full reboot of the machine at 03:03, and the server was again online and fully functional at 03:06.

The database failure resulted in database-based websites — e.g., WordPress websites — generating “error connecting to database” errors.

This issue highlights an issue on this server that we intend to address very early in the New Year, that being a necessary upgrade of our firewall system to better handle such attacks in the future.

We apologise that this issue occurred. If you have any questions, please contact NinerNet support. Thank-you.

Tags: connection issues, database, dos attack, down time, reboot, web server
Categories: Incidents, NC031
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System	Status	Ping
NC023	Internal	Up?
NC028	Internal	Up?
NC031	Internal	Up?
NC033	Operational	Up?
NC034	Internal	Up?
NC035	Operational	Up?
NC036	Operational	Up?
NC040	Internal	Up?
NC041	Operational	Up?
NC042	Operational	Up?