Apache and MySQL updated

We’ve upgraded our Apache Web server and MySQL database server software to cover recent minor security updates. Customers should not notice any changes.

Mail improvements

In the past few months, we’ve made a couple of behind-the-scenes improvements to our mail systems that have improved reliability for our customers.

• Redundant outgoing mail delivery
• Automatic accepting of replies

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PHP 5 updated

We’ve installed a PHP 5 security update. Customers should not notice any changes; the updates just fix several security issues in PHP 5.

Rsync 3 available

We’ve updated rsync to version 3 on our servers. (We’re using Debian version 3.0.3-2, which includes patches from rsync 3.0.4.)

Rsync 3 is significantly faster than previous versions for recursive file transfers (which we use in our backup system). However, the new version is backward compatible with rsync 2.x, so users shouldn’t notice any changes or problems, even if you haven’t updated your own copy of rsync.

Tip for users of Rails 1.1.6 and earlier

If you have a Ruby on Rails application that originally used Rails 1.1.6 or earlier, you might have trouble after yesterday’s Rails update (which also updated several other Ruby “gems”, including the “RubyGems” gem itself).

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Ruby on Rails updated to version 2.1.1

We’ve updated the default version of Ruby on Rails on our servers to version 2.1.1.

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Scheduled maintenance for software updates (completed)

Due to software updates on our servers, most Web hosting customers will experience about ten minutes of scheduled maintenance downtime between 11 PM and 1 AM Pacific time starting on one of the following nights, depending on which server your site is on:

• Friday, August 22 (servers beginning with letter “l-z”)
• Saturday, August 23 (servers beginning with letter “a-k”)

(The servers named “bender” and “lrrr” have already been upgraded, and those customers are not affected.)

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Backups now easily accessible

As you may know, we perform nightly backups of each Web hosting customer’s data, including your Web site, databases, log files, and any e-mail stored on our servers. Until recently, however, you usually needed to write to our support team if you wanted to get something restored.

We’re pleased to announce that we have recently made it easier for you to access your backups. Now you can easily browse through all the backups available for your site and retrieve any files using a simple FTP or SSH connection. In addition, our control panel lets you quickly see exactly which backup sets are available.

See our support page for full details.

Ruby on Rails updated to 2.1.0

We’ve updated the default version of Ruby on Rails on our servers to version 2.1.0.

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WordPress 2.5.1 security update (and mod_security rule)

If you use the WordPress 2.5 blog software on your site, be sure to upgrade to WordPress 2.5.1 as soon as possible. The upgrade contains an important security fix. (We’ve updated our own blog, and it was painless.)

Although all WordPress users should upgrade right away, we’ve also added a security rule to our servers to try and protect our customers who haven’t yet upgraded. Other people may also find the security rule useful if they use mod_security on Apache Web servers. The rest of this post contains more technical details.

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