SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted January 16, 2012 SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 16, 2012 Good morning. OK, I have a bit of news to post. As you may or may not be aware, over the last six months or so we have made a number of major changes to SnowJapan. First of all there was these new Forums back in September, followed by us launching new functionality like Route Finder, and then the new SnowJapanResorts website. There are some more big changes ahead, actually very likely they will be the biggest changes so far, and in preparation for these things we need to make a server move. This will be a pretty major upgrade to our home environment, which should see us good for the coming years. That move is going to take place this week. Without getting into the techical details, during this week there may well be some issues on the main snowjapan.com site - a few things may go wonky for (hopefully) a short period of time as nameserver stuff gets sorted out. Most likely, things like the weather forecast data, snow depth data and the timing of the Now reports. There may well also be a bit of site downtime, but we will do all that we can to keep that to a minimum. We are really hoping that there will actually be no downtime at all, but there's always a chance of things happening in a complex move like this. We may also be turning the Forums off when we need to. Obviously, in lots of ways this is not the best time of the year to do this move, but circumstance means that we need to get it done now. Anyway, sorry in advance for any disruption to 'normal service' and hope that in the end it will be an almost invisible change to everyone viewing the site. Gambarimasu! Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Gambatte! Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Sounds exciting!! Good luck with it all! Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted January 16, 2012 Author SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 16, 2012 Thanks Mick. You won't actually get to see any of it until September or October, but we are busy working away at lots of new stuff. Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 By which time I may have started my blog! Link to post Share on other sites
norcal 5 Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 What am I supposed to do with no SnowJapan??!! Facebook? that's so 2011! lol Good luck! Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted January 18, 2012 Author SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 18, 2012 Hopefully there will be no downtime at all... Hopefully the only strangeness on the front end will be some late-updating reports and forecasts. Will only be temporary. We are waiting on a few things at the moment, so not really sure when the big switch - and possible wonky-ness - is going to happen just yet. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Not noticed any disruptions so far. Good luck with the move. :0) Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted January 18, 2012 Author SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 18, 2012 Thanks Mamabear. No issues yet, we need to sort a few issues out before making the switch. I will post here again as we do that. Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted January 20, 2012 Author SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 20, 2012 Update: still waiting on a few things, if all goes well any disruption will be over the weekend. Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted January 21, 2012 Author SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 21, 2012 Just a bit of an update here. We have now set up our new server with all the content of the site and are in the process of checking and making sure that everything is working and set up correctly. There's a lot to check and test. We'll get that done as quickly as we can, but it may take a few days or even more. Possibly less. Once we are satisfied that everything is good to go, we will make the change so that people going to 'snowjapan.com' will be taken to the new server rather than the (current) old one. For the most part this will hopefully be seemless. But, any photos uploaded to the main site (http://www.snowjapan...oto_gallery.php) while we do this will not be transferred over to the 'new' site, and will effectively 'disappear' once everything clears up and this process is finished. So, if you intend to upload photos to the main site, we ask that you please hold off doing that for a few days while we do this work. This does not affect photos uploaded to the Photos section on the Forums (http://www.snowjapan...ex.php/gallery/), so you can go about doing that as normal, uninterrupted. Hope that makes sense! Thank you. Link to post Share on other sites
hellyer 216 Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Will we notice any difference with the new server or it just all to do with "growing pains" Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted January 21, 2012 Author SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 21, 2012 You hopefully will - or might not - notice snowjapan.com to be faster, as the new server is considerably more powerful and hi-spec than the current one. (These Forums and indeed our other sites are on different servers). Other than that, it's a planned move for the future. Like I said before, we were hoping to do it before or after the season, but circumstance meant we needed to get it done. Once it's finished, we'll be very happy. It's not been a fun week. Link to post Share on other sites
Ross 4 Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Doing agreat job hope fully its time to sit back and enjoy a well deserved beer lad's Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted January 22, 2012 Author SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 22, 2012 Thank you. OK, tonight is the night that we are going to make the switch over to the new server. Once we change those settings, it might take up to a day or so before everyone online is seeing the site on new server.... there will be a period when some people see the old one while some see the new. Once the switch has been made, there may well be some issues/problems with some pages/sections on the main site - stuff that was difficult to check in test state. Tomorrow, we will be working to fix up any problems up and get it all working as normal as quickly as possible. So, the next day or two is when any wonkiness will happen. Please bear us as we work on this and get it all sorted. Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted January 22, 2012 Author SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 22, 2012 The process has now been put into action. Hopefully it will be cleared by tomorrow morning and then we will be going through the site checking to make sure everything is working properly. Sorry for any strange stuff that may go on. We'll get things sorted as soon as we possibly can. Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted January 23, 2012 Author SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 23, 2012 We're currently in that state when some are seeing old and some seeing new. Please hold off on sending us any emails over the next few hours as the system is 'confused' for want of a better word as this process finishes up. Bob posted a fun topic that lets you see what you are viewing here: http://www.snowjapanforums.com/index.php/topic/21241-bob-the-tech-dude-says/ Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted January 24, 2012 Author SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 24, 2012 OK we have been checking things and all seems to be ok, just a few small issues we are chasing up on remaining. If you notice any strange things going on, it would be a big help if you please let usk now. Hopefully you find the main snowjapan site to now be faster and more responsive than before. You may not because it all depends on network connections, etc, but the new server is a nice big upgrade and will take us nicely into the next few years. Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted January 26, 2012 Author SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 26, 2012 OK we seem to be pretty much all done now with the move. Not a fun two weeks, I can tell you! If you do happen to find any problems on pages on the main site, please do let us know. Thank you. Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 Hope you guys can take some sort of rest now, at last! Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted January 26, 2012 Author SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 26, 2012 Not really muika, but it's - hopefully - much more fun and exciting stuff for the next few months now. Link to post Share on other sites
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