Update 11:18 PM Pacific time: The maintenance described below was completed successfully.
Over the last year, we’ve been slowly upgrading our servers from Debian Linux version 7 (codename “wheezy”) to version 8 (codename “jessie”). We’ll be finishing that process over the next few weeks, with brief scheduled maintenance on each server.
The upgrade requires that each hosting server be taken offline for a few minutes over a three hour maintenance window and then restarted, causing brief scheduled “downtime” for websites and email on that server. The total downtime for any server should not exceed ten minutes during this three hour period.
Mail arriving while a server is being restarted will be queued and delivered after a short delay. No mail will be lost.
This coming weekend, we’ll be updating some (not all) web servers:
- Friday, February 23, 9:00-11:59 PM Pacific: servers ending in digits “0” and “9” (completed)
- Saturday, February 24, 9:00-11:59 PM Pacific: servers ending in digits “8” and “7” (completed)
So, for example, the “web10” server will be updated on February 23, and the “web07” server will be updated on February 24. This page explains how to find which server a site is on.
(Additional servers will be updated the following weekends; we’ll post separate announcements about that.)
Although the final step of the upgrade modifies hundreds of software packages on the server, we have tested it extensively don’t expect most customers to notice any change. Your website and email should continue working as they always have. However, if you do have any trouble, don’t hesitate to contact us.
The PHP scripting language offers an SNMP extension “for managing remote devices via the Simple Network Management Protocol”.
It’s unlikely that any of our customers use this extension, but if you do, it may no longer work correctly on very old PHP versions before PHP 5.6. (The reason is technical, and involves forthcoming updates to the SNMP library on our servers.)
Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve updated the AWStats software we use to generate website statistics. The statistics beginning today use the latest version 7.7, which fixes several bugs. Customers should not notice any other changes.
We should probably mention that if you’re relying on AWStats for information about the behavior of human visitors, you can usually get more accurate statistics using Google Analytics, which works in a different way than simply analyzing log data after the fact. We have a page explaining more about the difference between AWStats and Google Analytics.
The PHP developers recently released version 5.6.33 that fixes several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 5.6 series on our servers as a result.
This change should not be noticeable, but in the unlikely event you experience any trouble, don’t hesitate to contact us.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.0.27 and 7.1.13 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.0 and 7.1 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.0.26 and 7.1.12 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.0 and 7.1 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
Update Nov 29: It turns out these new versions of PHP both contain a bug that can cause rare crashes of a handful of scripts, including the NexGEN Gallery plugin for WordPress. We’ve temporarily reverted back to PHP 7.0.25 and 7.1.11 until this is fixed by the PHP developers.
Update Dec 4: We’ve applied patches from the PHP developers to fix the bug and re-deployed the fixed versions.
The PHP developers recently released versions 5.6.32, 7.0.25, and 7.1.11 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 5.6, 7.0 and 7.1 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.0.24 and 7.1.10 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.0 and 7.1 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.0.23 and 7.1.9 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.0 and 7.1 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.0.22 and 7.1.8 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.0 and 7.1 series on our servers as a result.
In addition, ionCube Loader is now available for the PHP 7.1 series, so we’ve made that an option you can enable in our “My Account” control panel.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
