Preparation for BurgmanUSA migrating to a new server

[billmeek]

Because of changes at our hosting provider, BurgmanUSA will soon have to move to a new server. As part of that move all of the IP addresses used by the server are going to change also. When we last moved to a new server, I provided a small bat file so that members could access the new server without waiting for DNS replication. For any member that used the bat file (or manually edited the hosts file), they will need to make a change to their hosts file prior to moving to a new server again.

Under Windows XP, the hosts file can be found at: \windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

If the hosts file contains the line "72.36.211.180 burgmanusa.com", simply remove the line and save the file.

Please note that this is critical that you make this change. Once we move to the new server, if you have this entry in your hosts file you will not be able to access the BurgmanUSA website.

[Colchicine]

Is this only for those that were provided with the BAT file? I did not get one so I should be able to access the new server?

[Jim]

When will this happen?

[billmeek]

If you didn't use the the bat file or manually edit the local hosts file, then there's nothing you have to do when we changeover to the new server. There will be a small amount of downtime while migrating to the new IP addresses.

It will be a few days before we're ready to start the migration process. But we hopefully will have the move done in about a week. I'll post a notice once the date and time of the move are confirmed.

[Travelin Man]

And what of us Mac users?

[polyian]

Sounds complicated...Don't we just go to WWW.BURGMANUSA.COM ? The domain name to IP address resolution is not something I hard key. I am confused by talk of bat files and such. I have not used a bat file since I forgot everything I knew about DOS.
Am I reading that typing the url will no longer work? Or just that there will be some delay in the DNS resolution process before it works. Won't Google find it?
Call me stupid but ....Thanks.

[billmeek]

Unless you were on the forums during the last server move which was on June 7, 2007 AND you made changes to the host file either manually or via the bat file I provided, you can ignore this thread. This issue only affects those who made changes to the host file so they didn't have to wait for DNS replication during the last server move.

During this move, since we have complete control of both servers, I'll be making changes that should minimize DNS replication time. We didn't have this option during the last server move.

Since the IP addresses of the server are changing, just going to the home page wouldn't make a difference since you wouldn't be able to access the home page because it's IP address is changing too. All IP addresses on the server are changing including MajestyUSA.

[ted clement]

Haven't the slightest notion of what "Bats, Dos, Replication, etc" mean to me. Guess when it happens
either I'll know it, or won't, and can hopefully find the Burgmans via search and then bookmark it.

[billmeek]

I'll try to provide a simplified explanation:

Computers don't actually understand web addresses (like BurgmanUSA.com) but instead need the IP address to access the content. When you put a URL in your web browser, the computer then requests the IP address of that site from a DNS (Domain Name System) server. Most Internet service providers have their own local DNS servers to provide the lookup capabilities. These DNS servers are not instantly updated. Instead, they update over time which can vary from a few minutes to 72 hours. This update process is called replication.

What a host file does is provide the same lookup capability as a DNS server for a small number of entries. Any entries in the hosts file are given priority over a DNS server. So if you have an entry for BurgmanUSA in your hosts file, it'll be use that rather than trying to look it up from the DNS server.

The last time we moved servers, we offered members the option to use the hosts file so they could immediately access the BurgmanUSA server right after the move without waiting for the DNS servers to replicate. The problem we have is that if you made that change (and the IP address changes as it's about to do), any time you put BurgmanUSA.com into a web browser it's going to point to the old IP address and never find the server. Searching via Google will only give you the URL (BurgmanUSA.com) and not the correct IP address. The web browser will expect DNS to provide the updated IP address.

So it's very important that if you have BurgmanUSA.com (or MajestyUSA.com) listed in your hosts file with the current IP address, that you remove that entry from the hosts file so when the IP address changes, your machine will lookup the new IP address from the DNS servers.

The reason I'm mentioning this in advance, is so that hopefully most people that made the change to the host file will have a chance to remove the BurgmanUSA entry before we move to a new server.

[TheBlackMoon]

And what of us Mac users?

You have a mac, so why do you even ask? You shouldn't tease the Windoze users just because you can. Bad Boy!

But seriously, Bill's just saying, in techni-speak (aka Nerd-Speak ), that if you had to go through all of the rigamoral before, when the servers changed (and you know who you are) then pay attention. Everyone else, at worse, for a few hours you won't be able to find the site, but with the internet being the way it is today, most probably won't even notice. He's just warning those who may.

[MyWifeSaidYes]

As Bill said, some Internet providers can take up to 72 hours before their systems will update with the new IP address. Most don't take this long anymore. Many will update once or twice a day.

However, there are some smaller Internet providers out there with systems that can take 8 days to update, and some only update when they manually reboot their DNS server! (Been there. Fixed that.)

IF, after the IP address changes, you can't get on to BurgmanUSA.com OR MajestyUSA.com for more than 3 days, I would suggest calling your ISP.

For many of us here, if we can't get on to BUSA for more than a few hours, we wind up calling a therapist.

[Quilted]

It's only a little Greek to me, mostly, geek speak.

So WE cannot influence our ISP to get the new 206.56,63.xx type number, can we?

If our URL (on our computer) had the new number, we could type that the first time and then remark to BUSA? See, it's confusing, even if one has a little bit of geek in her

[CorkyF61]

I had trouble a few years back (in the good old days) with my ISP in regards to their DNS servers, don't know if that was the problem with accessing a couple of websites I was trying to get to, so I switched to open DNS and haven't had any problems since. We'll see how they handle the migration .

[billmeek]

If you are concerned about the hosts file and don't know if it effects you, I've created a program to remove the entries from a Windows machine. Copy this address into a web browser and run (or save) it when prompted:

Code: Select all

http://burgmanusa.info/CheckHostsFile.exe

If no entries exist, then it'll display "No changes required". If there were entries in the host file, it'll remove them and display "Burgman / Majesty entries removed from hosts".

If you save the file locally (rather than running it during download), you can run it and then delete it and the file it extracts (WBDDA34I.DLL) after it's finished.

[toy]

Thanks Bill for making that exe........
That is so fool proof, I could even do it........

[Jim]

Thanks Bill, works great

[cmarshall]

And what of us Mac users?

Macs running OS X also have a hosts file that works exactly the same way as described in this thread. It is located in the /etc directory. Linux, BSD, and other Unix-like OS's are the same.

Not to get too deep into computers (this is a Scooter forum, after all) but neither the batch file used previously nor the executable provided to reverse the change would work on a Mac or Linux computer. You'd have to edit the file directly with a text editor.

Having leftover "forgotten" entries in the hosts file can be a real head-scratcher for an IT person who is trying to resolve problems accessing an internet resource and doesn't know they exist.

[GJS-53]

So is it all over?

[billmeek]

Nope... the migration hasn't started yet. We're currently waiting on the hosting provider to provision the new server so some of the prep work can be done. Once that's completed, it'll be a day or 2 before the move to the new server actually takes place. We must complete the migration no later than the 15th. Unfortunately, that doesn't give us a whole lot of time for testing prior to the changeover. I want to keep a few days after the move "in reserve" in case of issues.

I posted this notice early so that as many as possible would be aware of the move and make the changes on their end necessary to access the new server once it's in place. Once we're ready to start the move, I'll post an expected timetable and any other additional information needed.

[GJS-53]

If we just accept the fact that we won't be able to access the site for a day or two nothing will change I am guessing. We can still find it via www.burgmanusa.com and use the same passwords, etc correct?

[billmeek]

Everything should be the same from the user standpoint. All the existing links should work, usernames and passwords will not change, and all of your current posts/private messages will still be on the server.

When the migration is ready, the forums will be locked for a few hours to keep any changes from being made while we move all the data to the new server. Once that's done, I'll change our DNS server to point to the new IP addresses. Hopefully, you should be able to see the new server a few hours after the changeover. I

[Elliott Larron]

billmeek , What about Are Gallerys will there still be there or are there on a Different Server..



Elliott,

[billmeek]

Once the move is complete, everything will look the same (from a user perspective) and all changes should be transparent.