Server and System Status

On Friday night / Saturday morning we completed the migration all websites from server NC031 to NC041. There are a couple of minor improvements for you:

• We have doubled the disk space available to you from 10 GB to 20 GB, and
• All websites that didn’t previously have an SSL certificate now have one.

In order to take advantage of encrypted connections to your website (and therefore see a green padlock in your browser) you will need to access it at https://yourdomain.com. All of your web pages will also need to call included items — such as images, style sheets, JavaScript files, etc. — over HTTPS connections as well. If they aren’t, a web browser will only show some sort of insecure or semi-secure indication — e.g., a non-green padlock with some sort of alert icon. If you need help with this, please consult your website manager.

All websites that can use it are now running version 7 of PHP. This is required by the current versions of some web apps. If your website is quite old, especially if it accesses a MySQL database, it made not be coded to be able to use PHP 7. If this is the case for your website it is running under PHP 5. However, version 5 will not be available forever, so your website will eventually stop working. In order to fix this you will need to engage someone to update the code for your website, or create a new one. We suggest that you consider doing this as soon as possible, but definitely within the next year.

The control panel for the new web server continues to be available at web.niner.net:10000. Some websites are still available on the old server; if you need access to the old control panel within the next 48 hours, please let us know. After that it will no longer be available.

All web apps that are installed through the control panel have been updated to their latest versions. If your web app — e.g., WordPress, os Commerce, Moodle, Mediawiki, etc. — is not installed through the control panel, please take steps to upgrade it as soon as possible to reduce your website’s exposure to being hacked.

Finally, if you have a contact form or some other process on your website that sends email to you or your users, please be aware that this server is on a “new” IP address that is relatively unknown to the world’s mail servers and blacklists. As a result we’re seeing that some outbound emails are being delayed. We strongly recommend that you configure such features to send email to a domain hosted by NinerNet rather than an external domain (especially gmail.com).

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact NinerNet support. Thank-you for your patience and ongoing patronage.

At the risk of being repetitive, work on this continues. We’re in no rush to get this done too quickly, especially as shortcuts taken under pressure when setting up server NC031 (the current web server) led to some inconsistencies in how some accounts were set up that we’re only now able to deal with fully, and this is the best opportunity. Once those are sorted out we will do a test migration of some non-client test domains, and only when it is clear that the test migrations work flawlessly will we move client domains.

For this reason we’re not going to commit to finishing the migration to NC041 this weekend. We are, however, alive to the issues that have prompted this migration in the first place, and we are working diligently to get it done without undue delay.

That said, we have set up some clients on the new server if they happen to be in the process of setting up a new website anyway, and others that are new clients. If you’re in the unique position of being on the cusp of setting up a new website and would prefer to abandon your old website on the old server and start afresh on the new server, please contact us and we will do that for you immediately.

Thank-you.

Work on this continues, but instead of a straight migration we have set up the new server from scratch. We’re in the process of adding domains that will not be migrated from NC031 to NC041.

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.

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.