CCGI Platform Maintenance - UPDATE
Quote from: MauriceC
Quote ...............we ran in tangent alongside the old offering......
I hope this was a slip in typing Bob and that you really meant ...in tandem...
We really don't need things going off at a tangent at the mo?
That'll teach me to contribute to forum threads this late on a Friday!
Quote from: cso Except you didn't flip DNS - you ruined everyone's existing links to cgi.username.plus.com at the time, so let's hope we don't do that this time?
I don't remember that Colin, don't suppose there's some archived forum discussion about it anywhere?
Quote from: Bob The thinking at the moment is that we do something similar to what we did last time. For those that can't remember that far back this involved having a second hostname for the new platform that we ran in tangent alongside the old offering. We then allowed a certain period of time for customers to move their content across before flipping DNS.
So the existing ccgi boxes are not being upgraded, what is happening is that a new platform is being provided running up to date versions of all the software. I presume that this means that shell access is never going to be restored to the current ccgi platform and anyone needing shell access will have to move across to the new platform.
Are we talking about a similar change to the one we had when we went from cgi to ccgi? If so what is the new sub-domain prefix going to be? (back to cgi?)
Will PHP5 be running in safe mode on the new CGI box?
Quote from: jelv The service status posted at the top of this topic sort of implied that things would be moving along fairly quickly.
Quote from: Chris We're looking to perform the first backend stages of the upgrade within the next few days. We'll advise you of any further timescales once they are available.
Once we have any further updates on this platform or more details of the upgrades we will post a service status update.
Have the first backend stages been completed or (as I guess a few of us suspected) it's going to be quite a while before the work is completed and the cshell access restored? (My feeling is that we will be fortunate if this completed this side of Christmas given the tone of Gricey's post which says the options are still being investigated)
I think an update with realistic timescales is overdue.
Quote from: Bob jelv, we're hoping to have something to play with next week. Once we're happy with the new build we can unleash it on the masses.
Then today we get another service status announcement:
Quote Service: CGI Services
Posted: Thu, Oct 15 2009 at 14:50:18
Subject: CGI Platform Maintenance - UPDATE
This is an update about the state of play with our CGI hosting platform.
Development of a replacement CGI platform is unfortunately taking longer than we initially anticipated. Some refinements and further testing of the replacement servers is required before we can open the platform up for customer testing.
SSH and telnet access remain disabled for those accessing the existing platform.
We would like to thank customers for their continued patience and apologise for any problems that this situation may be causing you.
Kind Regards,
Bob Pullen
Customer Support
So from the original announcement on 25th August 2009* we are over 7 weeks on and they still are not able to give us a date when it will be opened up for testing. How long from then until it's sufficiently proved to be considered a live server?
My pessimism is beginning to look more and more like realism:
Quote from: jelv My feeling is that we will be fortunate if this completed this side of Christmas
I'm working hard on getting one domain with website and forums ready to be moved away from Plusnet hosting, once that's done I've got some personal projects to do that need php on my personal domain - and that I fortunately have on the PAYH 'trial', so I'll then be totally free of CCGI - YAY!
I'd urge anybody who is reliant on their website on CCGI (especially if it is a commercial site) to urgently look at moving to a proper hosting provider.
Quote from: jelv I'm working hard on getting one domain with website and forums ready to be moved away from Plusnet hosting, once that's done I've got some personal projects to do that need php on my personal domain - and that I fortunately have on the PAYH 'trial', so I'll then be totally free of CCGI - YAY!
I'd urge anybody who is reliant on their website on CCGI (especially if it is a commercial site) to urgently look at moving to a proper hosting provider.
I'm a bit confused by this statement to be honest. You cite that your personal domain is on the PAYH servers but they don't offer shell access either, meaning that they're not worlds apart from the Plusnet CGI servers as they are now
What's the basis for you suggesting that customers urgently move their hosting away? I'm struggling to see how you've justified that. Is it because we're taking longer than we originally speculated to provide customers with an upgraded platform? (something that a few months ago we had no intention of doing any time soon anyway).
PAYH (Plesk) has a file manager that means I can edit files directly on the server. It also allows me to use cron to do loads of other things including unpacking tars.
PAYH is a better platform and it looked like you had a good plan until someone scuttled the idea.
At least we get honesty from some Plusnet staff:
PAYH is a better platform and it looked like you had a good plan until someone scuttled the idea.
At least we get honesty from some Plusnet staff:
Quote from: Gricey While I can't speak for the product guys or management here, the feel from the networks team is that the CCGI platform is very hard to maintain and until this work which has been driven by external factors, very out of date which compounds the problem.
There are a number of options being investigated - personally I'd rather see us resolve any PAYH issues and move in that direction than maintain two similar platforms - PAYH from our perspective is more maintainable and easy to keep current.
(to be honest, I'm a rose-tinted fan of the CCGI platform having lived with it since 2001, but increasingly as a dept. we are having to think more in terms of long-term maintainability, keeping things current and reliable).
M
I've never underestimated the work involved and was stunned at the optimistic tone of the posts when the new CGI platform was announced. From what you've said it looks like availability of the new platform is still some weeks away; that's why I think people should be looking elsewhere.