Jan 04

COMPLETED: Planned Maintenance: Updates and Migrations of all Shared and Reseller Hosting

Shared and Reseller Hosting Services

Server Migrations and Upgrades

What is being done:

  • upgrade to new version of Web Host Manager (whm)
  • upgrade to new version of cPanel
  • upgrade to MySQL/MariaDB versions
  • upgrade add-on packages & script installers
  • migration to new hardware

In order for the updates to take effect all services will need to go through a shutdown, move, update and reload

These are long maintenance windows each weekend covering approximately 60 hours in total.

Each individual server/service will take between 30 and 90 minutes to upgrade/update/replace/migrate during which time there will be periods of sites, email, databases and associated file access showing as unavailable.

On completion of each server, services will return to normal and the next machine will be started.

Who is affected:

All Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Media Hosting, ShoutCAST Hosting, File Hosting, Email Hosting, WordPress Hosting and E-commerce Hosting services on all shared servers.

When is this maintenance:

05/02/2021 21:00 – 08/02/2021 09:00
12/02/2021 21:00 – 15/02/2021 09:00
19/02/2021 21:00 – 22/02/2021 09:00
26/02/2021 21:00 – 01/03/2021 09:00

Why do we need to do this:

It is important for the continued uptime, performance and overall security of your websites, blogs, shopping-carts, email and related services that each of the systems are upgraded regularly to the latest versions.

New protocols/rules relating to SSL certificates require a change to a new operating system to ensure website visitoirs who uipdate their browsers can still access your sites

Additionally CentOS have withdrawn support and updates for C8 (and end-of-lifed all versions except C7) meaning urgent moves to a new platform are necessary

On completion of the initial hardware and control panel maintenance a process of server migration to new hardware for any remaining legacy sites/systems (hshere, plesk, dnp and WHM pre v90) will be scheduled.

Nov 18

Completed: Planned Maintenance: Hosting Control Panel Upgrade cPanel/WHM

cPanel Hosting Services

Control Panel and Associated Packages Upgrades

What is being done:

  • upgrade to new version of Web Host Manager (whm)
  • upgrade to new version of cPanel
  • upgrade to MySQL/MariaDB 10.3 versions
  • upgrade add-on packages & script installers
  • changes to SSL validity periods and trust-chains

In order for the updates to take effect all services will need to go through a graceful shutdown/restart/reload.

This will take approximately 45 minutes during which time any “active” connections may temporarily disconnect but be able to reconnect/continue immediately afterwards.

Who is affected:

All Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Media Hosting, ShoutCAST Hosting, File Hosting, Email Hosting, WordPress Hosting and E-commerce Hosting services on shared servers:

  • Shared Hosting: cPanel07
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel10
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel11
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel12
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel14
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel15
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel16
  • Shared Hosting: cPanelA2

 

When is this maintenance:

Starting: 11/12/2020 17:30
Completing: 11/12/2020 19:30

Why do we need to do this:

It is important for the security of your websites, blogs, shopping-carts, email and related services that each of the server(s) involved providing your hosting has the most current control panel security updates, patches and improvements.

Oct 13

COMPLETED: Major Engineering Works – Services at Risk

DataCenter Major Engineering Works

Power Testing, Upgrades and Replacements

What is being done:

  • Replacement of faulty UPS
  • Checking of Breakers and Wiring
  • Failover Testing of Power Systems

Following the unexpected power issues at Level3/CenturyLink on 8th and 12th of June which caused major disruptions to all datacentre tenants, they are performing major testing and remedial works to identify, isolate, replace and live-check the UPS, power failover and on/off breakers to the 2nd (data-carrier) and 3rd (colocation) floors.

As part of this testing power will be going on and off, hopefully in a controlled manner, throughout the weekend.

This is a significant work, and there is possibility of widespread and *without-notice* power fluctuations, power cuts/terminations, and power related issues such as reboots, systems being depowered, and over/under voltage problems (brownouts).

Astutium staff will be onsite to minimise any outages, reroute power, shutdown and restart (where possible under controlled conditions) and rewire/migrate systems as necessary during the 2 days of engineering works.

It is unfortunate that power may be removed *without warning* from any/all systems as either a repeat of the fault, or as part of the investigation and remedial works, in order to return the datacentre to the redundant and capable levels expected.

Who is affected:

All clients are potentally at risk during this work, as systems/racks/services (and upstream providers/routers) may lose power at an time for any amount of time. This includes

  • Shared Hosting
  • Reseller Hosting
  • Virtual Private Servers
  • Virtual Dedicated Servers
  • Backhaul/Transit Clients
  • Managed Dedicated Servers
  • Colocations
  • VoIP/Telephony Systems

which are all at risk.

When is this maintenance:

Starting: 13/10/2020 22:00
Completing: 15/10/2020 10:00

Why do we need to do this:

It is important for the continued provision of power to the datafloors that the faulty systems which have cause 2 periods of outages to some Astutium systems be checked, replaced and tested to prevent or limit future recurrences and escalating power related problems.

Power sensitive systems (which required physical replacement/repair last time) will be off during any obvious UPS changeovers, tp limit “power shock” causing repeat hardware failures.

IF staff are provided notice by the datacentre at each stage of testing (as we expect and as we have people onsite to try and ensure) then systems will be professionally closed down and restarted cleanly rather than simply power-cycled, which will minimise possible data loss.

We apologise in advance for this issue, and for the inevitable downtime (no matter how minimal) that will occur – this is completely unavoidable and beyond our control.

Oct 05

COMPLETED: Planned Maintenance: Hosting Control Panel Upgrade cPanel/WHM

cPanel Hosting Services

Control Panel and Associated Packages Upgrades

What is being done:

  • upgrade to new version of Web Host Manager (whm)
  • upgrade to new version of cPanel
  • upgrade to MySQL/MariaDB 10.3 versions
  • upgrade add-on packages & script installers
  • changes to SSL validity periods and trust-chains

In order for the updates to take effect all services will need to go through a graceful shutdown/restart/reload.

This will take approximately 45 minutes during which time any “active” connections may temporarily disconnect but be able to reconnect/continue immediately afterwards.

Who is affected:

All Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Media Hosting, ShoutCAST Hosting, File Hosting, Email Hosting, WordPress Hosting and E-commerce Hosting services on shared servers:

  • Shared Hosting: cPanel11

 

When is this maintenance:

Starting: 09/10/2020 17:30
Completing: 09/10/2020 19:30

Why do we need to do this:

It is important for the security of your websites, blogs, shopping-carts, email and related services that each of the server(s) involved providing your hosting has the most current control panel security updates, patches and improvements.

Sep 02

COMPLETED: Planned Maintenance: Hosting Control Panel Upgrade cPanel/WHM

cPanel Hosting Services

Control Panel and Associated Packages Upgrades

What is being done:

  • upgrade to new version of Web Host Manager (whm)
  • upgrade to new version of cPanel
  • upgrade to MySQL/MariaDB 10.3 versions
  • upgrade add-on packages & script installers
  • changes to SSL validity periods and trust-chains

In order for the updates to take effect all services will need to go through a graceful shutdown/restart/reload.

This will take approximately 45 minutes during which time any “active” connections may temporarily disconnect but be able to reconnect/continue immediately afterwards.

Who is affected:

All Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Media Hosting, ShoutCAST Hosting, File Hosting, Email Hosting, WordPress Hosting and E-commerce Hosting services on shared servers:

  • Shared Hosting: cPanel10
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel12
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel14
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel15
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel16
  • Shared Hosting: cPanelA2

All Reseller Hosting including Media/ShoutCAST, File Hosting, Email and Web Hosting services on reseller servers:

  • Reseller Hosting: cPanel07

Internal services/systems on client facing servers:

  • Astutium: Service Status Blog
  • Astutium: Company News Blog

When is this maintenance:

Starting: 25/09/2020 17:30
Completing: 25/09/2020 19:30

Why do we need to do this:

It is important for the security of your websites, blogs, shopping-carts, email and related services that each of the server(s) involved providing your hosting has the most current control panel security updates, patches and improvements.

Aug 03

COMPLETED: Planned Maintenance: Server/Service Upgrade and Restart

cPanel Hosting Services

Control Panel and Associated Packages Upgrades

What is being done:

  • upgrade to new version of Web Host Manager (whm)
  • upgrade to new version of cPanel
  • upgrade add-on packages & script installers

In order for the updates to take effect all services will need to go through a graceful restart

This will take approximately 15 minutes during which time any “active” connections may temporarily disconnect but be able to reconnect/continue immediately afterwards.

Who is affected:

All Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Media Hosting, ShoutCAST Hosting, File Hosting, Email Hosting, WordPress Hosting and Ecommerce Hosting services on shared servers:

  • Shared Hosting: cPanel07
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel10
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel11
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel12
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel14
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel15
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel16

All Reseller Hosting including Media/ShoutCAST, File Hosting, Email and Web Hosting services on reseller servers:

  • Reseller Hosting: cPanel07

When is this maintenance:

Starting: 21/08/2020 18:00
Completing: 21/08/2020 19:30

Why do we need to do this:

It is important for the safety and security of your data that each of the server(s) providing your hosting has the most current control panel security updates, patches and improvements.

Jul 11

COMPLETED: Major Engineering Works – Services at Risk

DataCenter Major Engineering Works

Power Testing, Upgrades and Replacements

What is being done:

  • Replacement of faulty UPS
  • Checking of Breakers and Wiring
  • Failover Testing of Power Systems

Following the unexpected power issues at Level3/CenturyLink on 8th and 12th of June which caused major disruptions to all datacentre tennants, they are performing major testing and remedial works to identify, isolate, replace and live-check the UPS, power failover and on/off breakers to the 2nd (data-carrier) and 3rd (colocation) floors.

As part of this testing power will be going on and off, hopefully in a controlled manner, throughout the weekend.

This is a significant work, and there is possibility of widespread and *without-notice* power fluctuations, power cuts/terminations, and power related issues such as reboots, systems being depowered, and over/under voltage problems (brownouts).

Astutium staff will be onsite to minimise any outages, reroute power, shutdown and restart (where possible under controlled conditions) and rewire/migrate systems as necessary during the 2 days of engineering works.

It is unfortunate that power may be removed *without warning* from any/all systems as either a repeat of the fault, or as part of the investigation and remedial works, in order to return the datacentre to the redundant and capable levels expected.

Who is affected:

All clients are potentally at risk during this work, as systems/racks/services (and upstream providers/routers) may lose power at an time for any amount of time. This includes

  • Shared Hosting
  • Reseller Hosting
  • Virtual Private Servers
  • Virtual Dedicated Servers
  • Backhaul/Transit Clients
  • Managed Dedicated Servers
  • Colocations
  • VoIP/Telephony Systems

which are all at risk.

When is this maintenance:

Starting: 11/07/2020 08:00
Completing: 12/07/2020 22:00

Why do we need to do this:

It is important for the continued provision of power to the datafloors that the faulty systems which have cause 2 periods of outages to some Astutium systems be checked, replaced and tested to prevent or limit future recurrences and escalating power related problems.

Power sensitive systems (which required physical replacement/repair last time) will be off during any obvious UPS changeovers, tp limit “power shock” causing repeat hardware failures.

IF staff are provided notice by the datacentre at each stage of testing (as we expect and as we have people onsite to try and ensure) then systems will be professionally closed down and restarted cleanly rather than simply power-cycled, which will minimise possible data loss.

We apologise in advance for this issue, and for the inevitable downtime (no matter how minimal) that will occur – this is completely unavoidable and beyond our control.

Jul 03

COMPLETED: Planned Maintenance: Server/Service Upgrade and Restart

cPanel Hosting Services

Control Panel and Associated Packages Upgrades

What is being done:

  • upgrade to new version of Web Host Manager (whm)
  • upgrade to new version of cPanel
  • upgrade add-on packages & script installers

In order for the updates to take effect all services will need to go through a graceful restart

This will take approximately 15 minutes during which time any “active” connections may temporarily disconnect but be able to reconnect/continue immediately afterwards.

Who is affected:

All Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Media Hosting, ShoutCAST Hosting, File Hosting, Email Hosting, WordPress Hosting and Ecommerce Hosting services on shared servers:

  • Shared Hosting: cPanel10
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel11
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel12
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel14
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel15
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel16
  • Shared Hosting: cPanelA2

All Reseller Hosting including Media/ShoutCAST, File Hosting, Email and Web Hosting services on reseller servers:

  • Reseller Hosting: cPanel07

When is this maintenance:

Starting: 24/07/2020 18:00
Completing: 24/07/2020 19:30

Why do we need to do this:

It is important for the safety and security of your data that each of the server(s) providing your hosting has the most current control panel security updates, patches and improvements.

May 29

COMPLETED: Planned Maintenance: Server/Service Upgrade and Restart

cPanel Hosting Services

Control Panel and Associated Packages Upgrades

What is being done:

  • upgrade to new version of Web Host Manager (whm)
  • upgrade to new version of cPanel
  • upgrade add-on packages & script installers

In order for the updates to take effect all services will need to go through a graceful restart

This will take approximately 15 minutes during which time any “active” connections may temporarily disconnect but be able to reconnect/continue immediately afterwards.

Who is affected:

All Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Media Hosting, ShoutCAST Hosting, File Hosting, Email Hosting, WordPress Hosting and Ecommerce Hosting services on shared servers running:

  • Shared Hosting: cPanel11
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel15
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel16
  • Shared Hosting: cPanelA2

When is this maintenance:

Starting: 05/06/2020 18:00
Completing: 05/06/2020 19:30

Why do we need to do this:

It is important for the safety and security of your data that each of the server(s) providing your hosting has the most current control panel security updates, patches and improvements.

May 07

COMPLETED: Planned Maintenance: Server/Service Upgrade and Restart

cPanel Hosting Services

Control Panel and Associated Packages Upgrades

What is being done:

  • upgrade to new version of Web Host Manager (whm)
  • upgrade to new version of cPanel
  • upgrade add-on packages & script installers

In order for the updates to take effect all services will need to go through a graceful restart

This will take approximately 15 minutes during which time any “active” connections may temporarily disconnect but be able to reconnect/continue immediately afterwards.

Who is affected:

All Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Media Hosting, ShoutCAST Hosting, File Hosting, Email Hosting, WordPress Hosting and Ecommerce Hosting services on shared servers running:

  • Shared Hosting: cPanel07
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel10
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel11
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel12
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel14
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel15
  • Shared Hosting: cPanel16
  • Shared Hosting: cPanelA2

When is this maintenance:

Starting: 15/05/2020 18:00
Completing: 15/05/2020 19:30

Why do we need to do this:

It is important for the safety and security of your data that each of the server(s) providing your hosting has the most current control panel security updates, patches and improvements.