Possible List Downtime

[evan]

I can think of a few messages from OTHER people that I'd like you to remove. 
:)


--- Jay West <jwest at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> There is a chance (homelife schedule permitting) that I will be moving the 
> drives from the temp classiccmp server to the new (old) classiccmp server 
> this weekend. If I do get around to it, it would be during the day - 
> slightly more likely sunday than saturday. Then again, I may not get to it 
> at all this weekend. We'll see. Wanted to give a heads up in any case.
> 
> When I do this, the list will be down for an hour or so if all goes well. If 
> it doesn't go well.... could be much longer :)
> 
> Bear in mind a few things:
> 
> 1) There WILL be bumps. There is at least 63 separate software packages that 
> are installed & configured on the server that provides the classiccmp 
> services. You can bet that I (and YOU) will find snags and things will be 
> broken for a bit (days or weeks afterwards, depending on urgency and my 
> ability to fix). Some of the packages have been tested thoroughly, some of 
> them I simply cant really test until they go live. You can expect some 
> problems.
> 
> 2) When I moved subscriber lists from the old server to the new server a few 
> weeks ago, there is one setting that mailman doesn't migrate with subscriber 
> export/import - the "no mail" flag that many of you use. So if you subscribe 
> to both lists (silly) or have your account temporarily set to "no mail" 
> you'll start getting mail to both until you go back and set your no mail 
> flag. I'm not going through 1000 accounts individually by hand to preserve 
> the nomail flag.
> 
> 3) Mailman also doesn't transfer passwords it would appear. I will try to 
> remember to force mailman to send out a password reminder after the upgrade, 
> so hopefully you'll get your mailman password sent via email. I may forget 
> to do this, I'm a forgetfull guy. Give me a shout if you get stuck.
> 
> 4) There are a lot of classic computer related websites that I host on the 
> classiccmp server for people at no charge. It is entirely likely that during 
> this time period of being "half on one server, half on another"... that 
> files & content you put on your website went to the wrong server and you'd 
> notice it after the switch. If so, give me a shout and I'll get the content 
> fixed for you. If the files are on one of the two servers, it's a lot faster 
> for me to copy them than for you to reupload them. The "old" drive will be 
> put up in a different machine on the same network, so I will be able to copy 
> stuff easily that got stranded. Keep your shirt on. See #1 above.
> 
> 5) Many chunks of the archives have been located on the drive. However, I am 
> sure there are holes of missing posts. This really torques me off. Someone 
> who did list maintenance before me had moved the defacto copy of the list 
> archives into a different spot on the server and I didn't realize they were 
> in an area I routinely mess up and later clean up. It's possible I deleted 
> them, but in any case I can't find them. Again, many of them have been 
> located but not all. After I finish the server drive migration, I will be 
> regenning all the html archives from scratch - going against the original 
> mbox files. If there's any posts in the archives that you want me to remove 
> (from time to time someone posts their home address by mistake, etc etc.) 
> now is the time to let me know and I'll clean the archives. After the 
> archives are completely reassembled, you can be damn sure I will be copying 
> them to DVD and sticking a copy in my vault off-site.
> 
> 6) The newer version of mailman has a pretty much revamped logic for 
> handling bounces and automatic subscription disables due to bounces. It will 
> be interesting to see how that part works.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Jay West
> 
> 
> 
>