Planning The Migration - Input Requested

[Gary Lewis]

It looks like we will get to move to the AWS servers in the next few weeks. So I'm thinking through what the process is, when to do it, how to alert people that it is going to happen, etc. And I'd love your input. First, the process looks to be something like this:

1. Lock Forum: I have to lock the forum to ensure no one posts while we are doing the migration or their post(s) will be lost
2. Take Backup: I click a link to start a backup being generated, and this usually takes ~30 minutes
3. Download Backup: An email will be sent to me to let me download the backup, and that can take 1 - 2 hours depending on network traffic.
4. Upload Backup: Then I have to upload the backup to the AWS servers, and this takes 2 - 4 hours as my upload speed isn't nearly as fast as my download speed.

Meanwhile I'll be redirecting the garysgaragemahal.com URL to the AWS servers, modifying some macros, and doing other minor housekeeping to have us ready to go.

So that says we could be down 6 hours or so. I'm wondering what day and hours would be best to do that. Maybe starting at 6:00 PM on a Sunday night here in Okiehoma? That would make it 4:00 PM for those on the West Coast, midnight or later for those in the UK or Europe, and Monday morning for those in New Zealand or Australia.

What do y'all think? Is that a reasonable day and time to be down? Is there a better one? And what's the best way to let people know we will be down?

Wait! I just had an idea. I could put a banner on the web page that the forum is on a few days before the move and explain in the banner when we will be down. Then, while we are down I can put this in place of the forum:

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, I've found a scrolling banner that seems to work.  I put it at the top of the forum page briefly to see what it would look like, and the screenshot below  shows that.  Each page or thread of the forum would have that at the top and/or the bottom of the page for a few days ahead of the migration just so everyone knows what is going on.

And if you want to see what it looks like in reality go to Bullnose Forum/Test Forum and you can see the banner in action.  Hover over it and the scrolling stops.  Click on the arrows to go to the right or left.

And I also put in the RCA Indian-head test pattern on that page.  Many of us old timers saw that before or after a TV station's programming was on the air - back in the black and white era.    I'll put it in place of the forum for the time that we are down as otherwise the page will come up but there won't be a forum on it.

[85lebaront2]

Gary, the test pattern was the first thing that caught my eye. You do realize it had a definite purpose don't you?

[Gary Lewis]

Didn’t the central place for each of the networks send it and then the local stations used it for alignment?

[1986F150Six]

Gary, I think the hours for the outage, as posted, should be fine. No time can be "best" for all and we can adjust.

Thanks for all the time and effort you have put into this undertaking!

[85lebaront2]

That and the old TVs needed tweaking fairly frequently. I can remember my dad getting up early or staying up so he could adjust the horizontal and vertical size and linearity. Some of the adjustments required moving the yoke coils to eliminate a bow in the top and bottom of the screen.

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks, David.  

Bill - Yes, if a set had been moved it needed to be adjusted.  There was height, width, and pin cushioning, IIRC.

[kramttocs]

1986F150Six wrote

Gary, I think the hours for the outage, as posted, should be fine. No time can be "best" for all and we can adjust.

Thanks for all the time and effort you have put into this undertaking!

Agreed on all counts

[85lebaront2]

Gary, whenever it is best for you and the people you are working with. We can/will adjust to the outage.

[grumpin]

^ What they said!

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, thanks guys.  Sounds like we have a plan.  Now we just need to have a security certificate so we can execute said plan.

[85lebaront2]

I notice (don't recall seeing it before) https://www preceding garysgaragemahal now. Does this mean there is a security certificate for the site?

[Gary Lewis]

Yes!  When we were moved to the S1 servers on Nabble they couldn’t get things working correctly so we could log on to the embedded site.  So after I complained LOUDLY they turned httpS on and that solved the problem.

Now we are awaiting Pedro figuring out how to get us a certificate for the AWS servers and we’ll be ready to move.