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Planned timeline of server upgrade

Timeline of events for planned server upgrade on Friday, 12th November

Like we announced not long ago, ShoutWiki is planning a major server upgrade to address ongoing performance issues that stem from many new wikis moving in from Wikia. At this point we can announce a pretty confident timeline of events.

The whole operation will take place on Friday, 12th of November, starting in the morning (UTC time) and will take most of the day:

  • First, to ensure database consistency, all wikis will be set to read-only mode, i.e. no edits and other operations will be possible (except reading) and will remain in this state for the duration of the day.
  • Wikis will begin copying to the new server.
  • Once the process is sufficiently advanced, DNS records will be updated to point to the new server. Wikis which have not been copied until this point will temporarily show the “No such wiki” page. Validation of destination server begins (errors, bugs, missing dependencies).
  • Once copying is complete, all wikis are in place, a GO/NO-GO decision will be made. If it’s, hopefully, a “GO”, wikis will be unlocked for editing. Otherwise, we would revert DNS records to the old server.

While the operation is ongoing, you may expect live updates both on our #shoutwiki IRC channel as well as ShoutWiki Twitter status.

Misza, Chief Technology Officer

By Jack Phoenix

I'm the head of ShoutWiki's Customer Support Team.

19 replies on “Planned timeline of server upgrade”

Why are wikis going to be in places that decide weather they stay or not? If the wiki is in a no-go, then all the import is cancelled?

I can make a “no-go” decision if despite all wikis being successfully copied, something else is so messed up (like some critical bug suddenly manifests itself on the new server) that we cannot continue. In that case, we’d go back to how things are now and try again on another day. But I hope it won’t come to this – most of the staff will be supervising the process all along and we’ll fix whatever needs fixing on the way.

Something bad like a bug… or a page that already exists being messed up when the page moves? Could that make the process stop?

I think you’re obsessing about this scenario unduly to its likelihood. I’m talking a major bug like missing or misconfigured software on the server that renders all wikis unusable and for which there would be no fix. But like I said, that’s unlikely because we have already tested the migration on a few sample wikis, small as well as big ones, and they looked *exactly* the same, only loaded much faster.

Can you tell us approximately about when you think all ShoutWiki wikis will be unlocked?

If not I understand, Wikia is becoming selfish and greedy and I can just imagine how many wikis are moving to new wiki farms.

It’s weird. The Wikisimpsons sitenotice says it’s over while all other wikis still have the “migration in progress” notice.

Yes, official confirmation is that it was a “GO” on the new server – there were a few bugs discovered when people started viewing pages on the new server, but I have fixed them eventually.

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