04/13/2011 SERVER UPGRADE (gator329, gator235, gator104, gator385, gator431)

[GatorDmitry]

We will be upgrading the following servers between 10:00PM to 3:00AM CDT:

gator329 (ns657.hostgator.com, ns658.hostgator.com)
gator235 (ns469.hostgator.com, ns470.hostgator.com)
gator104 (ns207.hostgator.com, ns208.hostgator.com)
gator385 (ns769.hostgator.com, ns770.hostgator.com)
gator431 (ns861.hostgator.com, ns862.hostgator.com)

We will be emailing the clients on the above servers with the information in this forum post. Other HostGator clients will not be affected. This upgrade will involve migrating all accounts to brand new powerful hardware. Clients will experience a performance and stability boost as a result of this upgrade. During the upgrade we ask that clients do not schedule updates to their sites as these changes may be reverted as we migrate your accounts.

This upgrade will also require changing the IP addresses associated with client accounts. For the vast majority of clients this change will be transparent. A handful of clients using third party name servers will be required to update their custom DNS zones at their third party name servers to reflect the change. We recommend any clients using third party name servers that are unsure about how to make the necessary changes switch to our name servers for their domains. Please refer to the server list above for the correct name servers for your domains. We will also email you with the correct name server information for your particular account.

[Chimpie]

Why are these being put in the General Announcement section and not the Network Status section?

[GatorDmitry]

Originally Posted by Chimpie

Why are these being put in the General Announcement section and not the Network Status section?

For these particular issues we felt that the General Announcement forum would receive more attention. The Network Status forum is really reserved for emergency and planned maintenance caused by immediate necessity. General Announcements fits better for a preplanned change like this.

[reb00tz]

What are the new IP address(es)?

We will obviously need to know these before the due date to enact the DNS changes to allow for propogation delays...

[GatorDmitry]

Originally Posted by reb00tz

What are the new IP address(es)?

We will obviously need to know these before the due date to enact the DNS changes to allow for propogation delays...

That's certainly a very valid concern. If you using 3rd party DNS you will need to make DNS changes during this process. Unfortunately it's not possible to say at this time what your IP address will be. The servers for the 13th are still being provisioned. Once they are provisioned the IPs will be known, however individual assignments will not be predictable. Our servers have multiple shared IP addresses and our software spreads customers evenly between those IP address. Furthermore some customers have dedicated IP addresses which will also change and be assigned by that software.

The good new is that we will keep the original servers online for a week. We will be forwarding all traffic to the new server, so you will be able to make DNS changes once the IP address becomes known. Your assignment will be visible in cPanel and you will be able to correct any DNS issues before the original servers go offline and stop forwarding traffic.

[mulawa1]

I take it that the server names (eg gator104) will not change and so the (eg) secure104 facility will continue as before?

Peter

[GatorDmitry]

Originally Posted by mulawa1

I take it that the server names (eg gator104) will not change and so the (eg) secure104 facility will continue as before?

Peter

You are correct. All existing host names and name servers will be changed to point to the new server during the upgrade (like in your example.) We are using a custom solution to forward network traffic to the new server while DNS changes propagate. The upgrade should be transparent to virtually 100% of our customers. We just ask that site updates are not planned during the window to avoid confusion.

A very small percentage of customers choose to use their own 3rd party name servers and will need to update their DNS records at those name servers. The old servers will continue forwarding data for a week after the upgrade so no downtime should be experienced by these customers. We will also send emails to customers that we detect as using 3rd party name servers during the upgrade to remind them to make the necessary changes. Customers that are unsure of how to make these changes may opt to switch to our name servers instead of updating their own DNS records. Our name servers are listed in the forum posts associated with each upgrade. The emails we sent out also contained the specific name servers assigned to the email recipient's server.

[GatorDmitry]

We have completed 5 out of 5 servers at this time. Servers gator9, gator80, gator160, gator184, gator305 have had the bulk of the transfer process completed at this time. We are finalising some small things, however users should be online, on the new servers at this time.

If you are using your own custom (3rd party) name servers you will need to either:

Change to our name servers:

gator329 (ns657.hostgator.com, ns658.hostgator.com)
gator235 (ns469.hostgator.com, ns470.hostgator.com)
gator104 (ns207.hostgator.com, ns208.hostgator.com)
gator385 (ns769.hostgator.com, ns770.hostgator.com)
gator431 (ns861.hostgator.com, ns862.hostgator.com)

- or -

Login to cPanel with your existing hostgator cPanel login via:

gator329 (http://184.172.141.215/cpanel)
gator235 (http://184.172.141.214/cpanel)
gator104 (http://184.172.141.212/cpanel)
gator385 (http://184.172.141.213/cpanel)
gator431 (http://184.172.141.211/cpanel)

Scroll to the bottom of the page and on the left side you will see: "Account Information -> IP Address". Use that IP address for your 3rd party DNS settings.

- or -

If you are using 3rd party name servers and you're not sure about what IP addresses to use, please open a support ticket. Remember, this only affects customers using their own custom 3rd party DNS servers (very small percentage of customers.) We will be emailing users that have 3rd party name servers shortly to let them know of the needed changes. We will also link them to this forum post.