We shall this evening be upgrading the primary Windows mail server and relocating all user mailboxes to a new dedicated server. We apologise for the short notice for this work but it has become necessary as the current server is starting to show signs of instability and we would rather act now to resolve the issue quickly thus avoiding any unnecessary disruption to your service.
The work will involve moving all user account currently hosted on server IS-3712 to our new server IS-11329. There will be no changes required by you as we will be migrating the mailboxes and data as well as moving the current mail IP address to the new server. We have already synchronised the mailbox data to the new box to ensure the migration is as smooth as possible.
In addition, whilst the migration is being carried out, mail will be delivered to our backup mail server and once complete, will be delivered as normal to your mailbox to ensure no mail is lost in the transition.
The anticipated time line and updates is shown below. You can also follow updates via out twitter account http://twitter.com/openmindhosting
Please note that you will only be affected by this work if you have a shared or reseller Windows hosting plan. All dedicated mail server clients and Linux plans will NOT be affected.
Anticipated Schedule
Please note this is a planned time line for this work and may be subject to change. All actions will be carried out this evening, 26th April 2010:
- 19:00 – The mail server will be stopped and access to the Helm control panel/webmail access disabled for the duration of the move. We shall then begin a final synchronisation of the mailbox data. This synchronisation will take approximately 30 minutes to complete.
- 19:30 – We will carry out some final checks on the data and reconfigure the new mail server to use the existing mail IP address.
- 19:45 – Once the mail data has been synchronised we will begin to restore accounts on the new server. Each domain takes between 5 and 20 seconds and the domains are restored alphabetically. There are approximately 1,300 domains to restore on this particular mail server. As each domain is restored, mail will start flowing into the new mail server and will also start arriving from the backup mail server. We anticipate, and this is a very rough estimate, that the restoration of accounts will take about 4 hours to complete.
- c. 23:45 – The mail restoration should be complete. Helm will be restarted and access to webmail will be restored.
Please note that the above timings are subject to change but we will keep you updated throughout the move both here and on our twitter account at http://twitter.com/openmindhosting