29 December, 2007

cPanel Bug

There's cPanel bug which caused cPanel not loading from 9:30AM today on Platinum, Silver, Gold server. We're working on debugging and will inform clients here once it's back to normal.

It does not affect any function of hosting accounts though, so no worry, your email and web site are working fine.

Sorry for inconvenience caused and thank you for kind understanding.

Update 8pm: it's back to normal.

03 November, 2007

Upgrade to PHP 5

We will upgrade Silver, Tina and Platinum servers to PHP 5 tonight (3/11/2007, Sat). There won't be disruption to service, if everything goes smoothly.

Gold server had been upgraded to PHP 5 on 18/10/2007 and it is working fine.

Still, we would like to remind all clients to make sure all your PHP applications/scripts are version 5 compatible.

If your PHP application was broken after the upgrade, touch wood, please refer to PHP migration guide and consult your programmer:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration5.php

We are not able to troubleshoot your PHP scripts as we know nothing about it. It's your web designer/programmer's responsibility to make it PHP 5 compatible.

Than you for your attention.

18 October, 2007

SingTel Maintenance on 10 Nov & Gold Server Maintenance on 18 Oct

This is to inform you that:

1)SingTel EXPAN data center will be having their power system maintenance scheduled on 10 Nov 2007 at 2200 hr till 11 Nov 2007 at 1200 hr.

The following are given by SingTel EXPAN:
============================================================================
Reason: To facilitate Annual Genset On-Load Testing at Comcentre III.
This is part of SingTel commitments to ensure resilience of the power
systems.

Impact: No impact is expected. However SingTel recommend you to back up
your critical data and/or divert your service if necessary.
============================================================================

Please do backup your data.

(In fact, all clients should do regular backups).

2)We are going to replace hard drives on Gold Server and upgrade PHP/MySQL tonight (18 Oct 2007) after midnight (19 Oct 2007 early morning).

There will be around 4 hours of downtime while we replace HDD and reinstall new OS.

Since all servers will have to be upgraded to PHP5 by end of this year:

http://sghosting.blogspot.com/2007/07/go-php-5.html

we do it together with HDD change for Gold server.

MySQL will be upgraded to version 5 as well accordingly.

(If your using MySQL with different character set from default, the database may not work after upgrading from MySQL4.0.27 to MySQL5 as MySQL changed the way to handle character set. Please consult with your programmer on how to fix the character set issue.)

Thank you for your attention and cooperation.

30 August, 2007

Scheduled Maintenance on Gold Server

Update 1 Sep 2007, 7AM: We have to arrange another time for the maintenance. Started accounts backup from 10:20PM last night till now, unfortunately it's still not completed yet. It would cause too long downtime (estimated 10 hours+) this way. We will find a better solution and arrange another time. Will keep you informed.

Please be informed that we are going to replace hard drives on Gold Server and implement hardware maintenance on this coming Friday night, 31st Aug 2007.

As you know, no hardware can last forever, so normally we replace HDD every 18-24 months on all servers as routine maintenance.

Now it's time for Gold Server.

Another reason that we decided to carry out hardware maintenance on Gold server now is that Gold server has been having hardware problems this month. Our investigation shows that possible causes include:

1)HDD bad sectors
2)Kernel bug
3)BIOS needs to be updated
4)Combination of above

To be honest, hardware failure is unavoidable as you can understand, but the worst thing this time is the bad timing.

Our original plan was to move as much accounts as possible to new server before we change HDD to avoid or reduce service disruption. However, the new server ordered has not been delivered till now and we don't expect it to arrive in next 1 or 2 days.

We simply cannot wait anymore considering current situation. So we decided to go ahead ASAP.

But, updating BIOS is a bit risky. If anything went wrong, the whole server would be spoiled and become useless. In it did happen, we must change the whole server. Therefore we bought a server from other hosting company, at rather high cost.

Please rest assured, we will try our best to complete the maintenance and keep servers in good shape.

The hardware maintenance for Gold Server is scheduled on 31st, Aug 2007, from around 11PM to 5AM next morning, 1st, Sep 2007 .

Expected downtime is 6 hours while we replace HDD, install OS, update BIOS/kernel. Hopefully it will be shorter if everything goes smoothly, but it might be longer.

You can check which server your account is on via IP address:

http://sghosting.blogspot.com/2005/05/how-do-i-know-which-server-my-site-is.html

Sorry for inconvenience caused and thank you for your kind understanding.

02 August, 2007

Problem with Gold Server

Update 12:20PM 29 Aug: It's up now. I know this is unacceptable to have same issue 3 times in one month. This is the worst case we have had in past few years. We're working on compensation plan for clients on Gold server. And most importantly, we will do hardware maintenance asap. More details will be posted when schedule is confirmed. Sorry for the downtime and trouble caused to users.

Update 11:50AM, 29 Aug: Gold server is having same issue again now. We know it's bad. We'll bring it up and update here.

Update 3pm, 21 Aug: Gold server is up now. We're investigating. Will update here if further action/maintenance is needed.

Update on 21 Aug: Gold server is having problem again today from around 11am. We're trying our best to bring it back asap. Sorry for the trouble. Will update here once we have further news.

Dear Customer,

There was problem on Gold server this morning and we managed to bring it up at around 1:55pm. Sadly while we were investigating further on the server, it went down again. Our server admin is on the way to datacenter to troubleshoot.

Very sorry for the inconvenience caused. We will try our best to bring it back as soon as possible.

Thank you for your kind understanding.

Update: It's up at around 5:50pm

There might be problem with hard disk or kernel, we will investigate to see if it's hard disk, if so, we will have to change HDD as soon as possible, most likely tonight or tomorrow night.

Therefore, unfortunately, there might be urgent HDD maintenance and downtime tonight or tomorrow night. We'll make announcement to all clients and post updates here.

Clients on Gold server, please do NOT do backup or upload anything until maintenance is complete.

Again, sorry for inconvenience and thank you for understanding.

24 July, 2007

Go PHP 5

Dear Customers:

We will soon be dropping support for PHP version 4 since PHP developers will discontinue PHP 4 by end of this year.

More details can be read at:

http://gophp5.org/

Please do read details at above site.

PHP officially announced "PHP 4 end of life" on 13 July 2007:

http://www.php.net/

-----------------------------
[13-Jul-2007]

Today it is exactly three years ago since PHP 5 has been released. In those three years it has seen many improvements over PHP 4. PHP 5 is fast, stable & production-ready and as PHP 6 is on the way, PHP 4 will be discontinued.

The PHP development team hereby announces that support for PHP 4 will continue until the end of this year only. After 2007-12-31 there will be no more releases of PHP 4.4. We will continue to make critical security fixes available on a case-by-case basis until 2008-08-08. Please use the rest of this year to make your application suitable to run on PHP 5.
------------------------------

So, kindly make sure all your PHP applications/scripts are version 5 compatible ASAP. We only have less than 160 days to plan for the upgrading. To play safe, we will most likely upgrade before the deadline.

For documentation on migration for PHP 4 to PHP 5, please refer to PHP migration guide:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration5.php

In the past few years, like most of the web hosting providers, we did not upgrade to PHP 5 due to compatibility issues between PHP 4 and 5, but now all of us are forced to upgrade.

No choice, let's move forward together.

Please check your PHP scripts and make sure it's PHP5 compatible.

P.S. We are not able to check your PHP scripts as we know nothing about it. Please check with your web designer/programmer.

15 June, 2007

EXPAN: Urgent Maintenance for UPS & Incident Report for COM3 Level2 UPS Interruption

Dear Customers,

Just received "Urgent Maintenance for UPS & Incident Report for COM3 Level2 UPS Interruption" from Singtel EXPAN. There was UPS fault yesterday afternoon and at this moment (1:00pm) there was problem again.

We are trying our best to get servers back online ASAP. Sorry for the inconvenience.

As indicated in their urgent notice, there will be urgent maintenance activities required for UPS 2-3 & 2-4 on the following date/ time:

Date/ Time: 17/06/07, SGT 1pm to SGT 3pm

Sorry for the late notice as we just received the notice from EXPAN.

Extract from PDF file from EXPAN:

---------------------------------------------------------

Interim IR - Com III UPS Interruption - 14Jun07.doc 1
Restricted only when filled completely
Unless indicated, document is “Uncontrolled” when printed.
Interim Incident Report
Items
Descriptions
Remarks
Reported by:
SINGTEL EXPAN Operations
Site:
COM III Data Center, Level 2
Date of incident:
14/06/2007
Time occurred:
1414hrs
Date/Time Reported:
14/06/2007 at 1414hrs
Date/Time Resolved:
14/06/2007 at 1416hrs
Review by:

Problem Descriptions:
14 June 2007
1414hrs – UPS fault alerts for UPS 2-3 and 2-4 were received by NOC. UPS 2-3 & 2-4 provide power to equipments hosted in COM III, Level 2 EXPAN Data Centre.
1415hrs – Onsite UPS engineer was activated immediately to check on the UPS.
1416hrs – UPS power was restored.
Findings:
Review of the UPS logs shows that UPS 2-3 and 2-4 inverters were off at 14:14:41hrs and 14:14:42hrs respectively and the load was not transferred to static bypass source. The PCB controller (Control and Communication board) is determined to be faulty.
Immediate Resolution:
Immediate resolution to prevent the UPS from going offline is to replace the PCB controller:
1. 2 hrs maintenance window is required
2. Customer loads will be transferred to External bypass source so that replacement of the faulty PCB controller (Control and Communication board) and a complete test of the UPS systems can be carried out.
3. Customer loads on External bypass source will be supported by Raw power source during the maintenance period.
4. Due to the faulty PCB controller, there will be a power disruption of up to 10mins when the transfer of load to external bypass is performed.
5. The proposed maintenance window will be scheduled as stated below:
Date/ Time: 17/06/07, SGT 1pm to SGT 3pm
Recommendations to customer:
1. Customer is required to shutdown all their equipments before commencement of the maintenance window before SGT 1pm. (For those whom have subscribed to manage system services, Singtel will assist in the shut down of equipments on 17/06/07, starting from SGT 11.30am)
2. Once the faulty UPS parts are replaced and complete testing of the UPS systems are carried out, SingTel will inform customer via email/ phone to start up their equipments.
Interim IR - Com III UPS Interruption - 14Jun07.doc 2
Restricted only when filled completely
Unless indicated, document is “Uncontrolled” when printed.
3. After the maintenance is completed, customer is required to start-up all their equipments. (For those whom have subscribed to manage system services, Singtel will assist in the start-up process.)
Remarks:
Feel free to contact us should you require further clarification.
We sincerely apologized for the inconvenience cause.
--------------------------------------------------------

Will keep you updated.

Update: all servers are up by 2:10pm

Again, pls note there will be maintenance on 17/06/07, SGT 1pm to SGT 3pm

01 June, 2007

Scheduled Maintenance on Platinum Server

Please be informed that we are going to replace hard drives on Platinum Server on this coming Sunday, 3rd June 2007.

As you know, no hardware can last forever, so normally we replace HDD every 18-24 months on all servers as routine maintenance.

Now it's time for Platinum Server.

The hard drive replacement for Platinum Server is scheduled on 3rd June 2007, starting from around 10PM-11PM.

There will be around 4 hours of downtime while we replace HDD and install new OS.

You can check which server your account is on via IP address:

http://sghosting.blogspot.com/2005/05/how-do-i-know-which-server-my-site-is.html

Sorry for inconvenience caused and thank you for your kind understanding.

12 March, 2007

SingTel EXPAN ComCenter III Level 2 Power Outage Report

Following are the details sent by SingTel EXPAN datacentre (where our servers are located) regarding the power outage on 11 Mar 2007:

Circuit: SGGS001
Date/Time (SGT): 11/03/2007 0045
Date/Time (UTC): 10/03/2007 2045
Duration: 5 seconds

Reason: Failure of Static Transfer Switch board on UPS system.

Impact: Customers equipment in level 2 data center might experienced power disruption / server rebooting.

Action Taken: UPS Engineers are on-site for investigation & recovery work.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to your operations.