Notice Archive for SH3
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Nameserver IP address changes
April 3, 2011 13:27 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
The IP addresses of our three nameservers are changing. You don't need to do anything if you've registered your domain name through us, but if you've registered it elsewhere you might need to let your domain registrar know about the change.
If your domain isn't registered through us, you should make sure that you update your nameservers to the following:
- ns1.valcato.com (69.175.12.178)
- ns2.valcato.com (216.119.147.108)
- ns3.valcato.com (109.123.121.155)
The old nameservers will be active until at least the end of April, but we recommend that customers switch to the new servers as soon as they can to avoid any possible disruption.
Emergency Hard Drive Replacement
March 17, 2011 01:11 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH3
We have detected a problem with SH3's hard drive which requires the drive to be replaced as soon as possible. This will require the server to be taken offline.
We do not have a precise time scheduled for this yet, but we will update this notice as soon as we do.
SH3 Unresponsive
March 12, 2011 15:56 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH3
SH3 is currently unresponsive. We're investigating now.
Django Security Update
February 14, 2011 15:04 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
The Django developers have released a security update for Django, which we will be installing this Friday (February 19, 2011). This update contains some backwards-incompatible changes; if you're using Django please see the release notes to find out if this will affect you:
http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.2/releases/1.2.5/
Fantastico installation errors
February 12, 2011 14:22 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
It is currently not possible to install new scripts using the Fantastico option in cPanel. This is due to a bug in Fantastico triggered by last week's cPanel update. We're currently looking into ways to work around the bug.
Any customers who would like to install a new script via Fantastico but are unable to do so should contact our support team and we'll be happy to manually install it for you.
Existing script installations are not affected.
Server Reboots
January 10, 2011 19:22 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
We will be rebooting all three servers this Friday, January 14, 2011 starting at 1300 UTC in order to apply a software update. Each server will be unavailable for approximately 10 minutes while it's rebooted.
sorl-thumbnail With Python 2.4
December 9, 2010 15:04 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
Customers who are using sorl-thumbnail with Python 2.4 may see an Unhandled Exception error in their Django applications. This is due to a change in the latest version of sorl-thumbnail which makes it incompatible with Python 2.4.
Customers can get around the problem by using Python 2.6 instead. To do that, simply change the first line of your django.fcgi file to the following:
#!/usr/bin/env python2.6
Server Reboot
December 6, 2010 14:17 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH3
SH3 will be rebooted this Friday, December 10, at 1300 UTC, in order to apply a software update. Services will be unavailable for approximately ten minutes starting at that time.
Network Maintenance
November 8, 2010 12:44 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
Our network provider will be performing network maintenance on Saturday, November 13, 2010 between 0600 UTC and 1100 UTC. They do not expect this to cause any disruption to service, however there is a small chance that some network traffic could be affected for brief periods.
Network Issues
November 2, 2010 17:14 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, valcato.com, SH3
We've just experienced what appears to be a brief network outage, affecting customers in Europe. This seems to have affected people trying to reach both our web site and customer web sites, which suggests that there was a wider network issue affecting multiple providers (our site is on a separate network from customer sites to try to avoid communication problems in the event of an outage).
Our network provider has acknowledged the issue, and we will update this notice when we have more information, though at this time everything appears to be back to normal.
Regular Maintenance Window
October 7, 2010 10:54 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, valcato.com, SH3
We’ve scheduled a regular weekly maintenance window for Fridays, between 12:00 (noon) and 16:00 (UK time). Any work which we don’t expect to disrupt our services will be performed during that time, without a specific announcement being sent out. Anything that might cause a disruption will still be announced via service notice (but will probably be performed during that same maintenance window as well).
Please see our blog for more details: <http://valca.to/maint>
Internal Server Errors
October 1, 2010 22:18 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
Earlier today we made a change which requires some modifications to some .htaccess files. We attempted to make these modifications automatically, but it seems that some files were missed out. We're working on modifying the files which were missed out, but in the meantime you can fix any of your own files by removing the "FollowSymLinks" option.
Django Admin Media
October 1, 2010 16:00 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
We've made a change to our server configuration for security reasons which may affect any customers using Django. If you make use of the admin application which is included as part of Django, and you have set your ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX to anything other than "/admin-media/" this might affect you. If you are already using that prefix, then you can disregard this notice.
It is no longer possible to access the Django admin media via a symbolic link, but we have configured the server to always serve the admin media files at "/admin-media/" without a symbolic link being present. This means that if you currently use a symbolic link to access the admin media files, you have two choices:
- Change your ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX setting to "/admin-media/".
- Copy the "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/media/" directory to a location of your choice.
Any customers requiring assistance with this change should open a support ticket by logging into your Valcato Account.
Hardware upgrade
September 28, 2010 16:07 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH3
We will be performing an upgrade on SH3 with the aim of improving server performance. This work is scheduled to commence at 0300 UTC on the morning of Monday, October 4, 2010. The server will be offline while this work is performed, meaning customer web sites which are hosted on SH3 will be unavailable during that time.
We do not have a precise estimate for how long this work will take, but we have scheduled the work for a quiet time to minimise disruption.
High loads on SH3
September 21, 2010 19:04 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH3
SH3 is currently experiencing high loads, and the Apache web server has failed. The server is being restarted now, and should be back up within the next ten minutes. We are still investigating the cause of the high loads.
High Loads
September 13, 2010 20:06 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH2, SH3
We are currently investigating extremely high loads on SH2 and SH3, which is affecting server availability.
Software Updates (July 2010) - Includes reboot
July 5, 2010 16:08 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
We'll be performing routine software updates on all three servers on Tuesday, July 13, 2010, beginning at 1400 UTC. We will need to reboot the servers at the start of this work, meaning each server will be unavailable for approximately ten minutes. We do not anticipate any other down time, though visitors may notice that web pages load a little slower than usual while this work is carried out.
Software Updates (June 2010) - Includes reboot, Django 1.2
June 6, 2010 16:53 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
We will be performing routine software updates on Sunday, June 13, 2010 starting at 1500 UTC. This will include one update which will require the servers to be rebooted during which time all services will be unavailable -- this typically takes ten to fifteen minutes for each server.
We will also be updating Django to version 1.2.1. Customers who use Django should review the Django 1.2 release notes at <http://valca.to/django12> as this update includes backwards-incompatible changes. Any customers who need to stay on Django 1.1 can install their own copy of Django in their home directories -- customers who would like assistance doing this should contact us before Friday, June 11, 2010 and we will be happy to install it for you.
Secure FTP Connections Required After June 8th
June 4, 2010 15:08 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
Customers who use FTP to upload files to their web sites will be required to connect using SSL/TLS from June 8, 2010. This is an important security measure to prevent passwords being compromised by eavesdroppers. Most modern FTP clients should support this kind of connection, and it should just be a case of selecting the appropriate option in the software.
Customers who currently use an FTP client which does not support encrypted connections should consider one of the following free FTP clients:
Customers can also use SSH, WebDisk or the cPanel file manager instead of FTP.
Software Updates (May 2010) - Includes major cPanel update
April 24, 2010 14:22 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
We will be installing software updates on Monday, May 3, 2010 starting at 1400 UTC. This includes an operating system update which will require the servers to be rebooted, meaning they will be temporarily unavailable for approximately ten minutes.
We will also be updating cPanel to version 11.25, which includes many new features and improvements which our customers should find useful. (Details of the new features will be posted to our blog after the update is performed.) Because of the size of this cPanel update, it will take much longer than normal for everything to be installed. We don't currently have an estimate for how long this will take, but we will post updates to this notice while we work.
Reboot for security update
March 24, 2010 11:57 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
We will be rebooting all three servers for a security update, tomorrow starting at 1500 UTC. Each server will be unavailable for approximately 10 minutes.
Software Updates (February 2010)
February 5, 2010 14:46 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
We will be performing our routine monthly software updates on Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 1000 UTC. There should be no disruptions to services during this work.
Reboot for Security Update
January 23, 2010 16:19 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
We'll be rebooting all three servers tonight starting at 2200 UTC in order to apply a security update. Each server will be unavailable for approximately 10-15 minutes.
High loads on SH3
January 22, 2010 16:02 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH3
We are currently investigating extremely high loads on SH3, which is affecting server availability.
Advance notice: PHP 5.3 and Magic Quotes
January 21, 2010 14:53 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
This is advance notice that soon we will be updating PHP to the latest release of PHP 5.3 (we currently run the latest release of PHP 5.2). PHP 5.3 is not fully compatible with code which was written for PHP 5.2, so it is important that you make sure any PHP scripts you're using will work with PHP 5.3 before this update is performed -- in most cases people will find that their scripts are already compatible, but we strongly advise all customers to make sure that this is the case for them. A full list of the incompatible changes in PHP 5.3 can be found at: <http://valca.to/php53>
We will also be disabling PHP's Magic Quotes feature at the same time, as this feature has been deprecated by the PHP developers and is due to be removed completely in a future release. For now, customers who still need this feature can re-enable it by following the instructions for creating a custom php.ini file at <http://valca.to/phpini> -- however, we recommend against relying on the Magic Quotes feature where possible.
A precise date and time for these changes will be announced closer to the time, but this is provisionally scheduled for the afternoon of March 13, 2010.
Software Updates (January 2010)
January 5, 2010 16:40 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
We will be performing our routine monthly software updates on Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 1500 UTC. There should be no disruptions to services during this work.
Reboot for Security Update
December 16, 2009 18:08 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
A security update is available which requires a reboot, so we will be rebooting all three servers tonight starting at 2200 UTC. Each server will be unavailable for approximately 10-15 minutes.
Software Updates (December 2009)
December 5, 2009 14:57 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
We will be performing our monthly software updates on Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 1500 UTC. We are not expecting there to be any disruptions to service while this work is carried out.
Software Updates (November 2009)
November 10, 2009 21:54 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
We will be performing our regular software updates on Saturday, November 14, 2009 starting at 1600 UTC. We have allocated two hours for this work, and we do not expect there to be any disruption to service while this is carried out.
Server reboot
November 4, 2009 09:26 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
All three servers will be rebooted, starting at 1200 UTC, to apply a security update. Each server will be unavailable for approximately ten minutes.
Connectivity problems affecting visitors in Europe
October 22, 2009 13:59 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
Our service provider is reporting that visitors located in Europe may currently be experiencing problems connecting to their network. They are working on the problem, and we will update this page when this has been resolved.
Server reboot
October 7, 2009 16:57 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
We'll be rebooting all three servers tonight starting at 2300 UTC to apply a security update. Each server will be unavailable for approximately ten minutes.
Software Updates (October 2009)
October 7, 2009 16:51 UTC (closed)
Servers: SH1, SH2, SH3
We'll be performing our regular software updates on Saturday, October 17 at 1400 UTC; we have allocated a total of three hours for this work to be completed. There should be little to no disruption to service during this work.