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July-September 2006

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APCUG Web Hosting and Changes
By Jay Ferron jferron@apcug.net
and
Linda Moore lmoore@apcug.net

We have great news for everyone; we are the recipient of a donation - a new APCUG Server and hosting infrastructure, and are making some new functionality available to all of our members. First of all, the Online Services (OLS) committee has been hard at work on network infrastructure and defining new processes (if you are interested in helping in this effort, please contact Linda Moore at lmoore@apcug.net).

A new server has been donated with the following key specs:

Along with the new server and new operating system, we can now offer several new/improved services to our members, including:

1. New email functionality, including POP, Web access to email through Outlook Web Access and / or Direct-Push to Windows Mobile devices.

2. SharePoint sites for each user committee and user group to enable better collaboration and sharing of pertinent information.

To facilitate the changeover to the new server, we are going to follow a migration strategy. The biggest impact will be on the websites that are currently being hosted on the APCUG server. The current server will continue operating normally until November 15th. On the 15th, we will temporarily suspend all updates on the hosted web sites by disabling the FTP Service on the old server (the only affected service will be FTP, and the server will continue all of its other functions normally). If you have any planned changes for the hosted sites that are required before December 1st, they will need to be made prior to November 15th.

Between November 15th and December 1st, all of the websites and user accounts will be migrated/copied onto the new server, and testing will commence on the new server.

On December 1st, the new server will be brought online and made publicly accessible and the old server will be decommissioned. Some of the new features and functionality will be available on December 1st, and you will be able to resume updates to your websites at that time. All of the existing user accounts will have been migrated, and you will be able to add new users and accounts once the new server is up-and-running.

Depending on how your website is hosted at APCUG, you may need to make some changes to your DNS entries to facilitate the Server swap. First of all, if you are hosting your website at HTTP://UserGroupName.apcug.org, no changes or action on your part will be necessary.

If, however, your domain name resembles HTTP://www.UserGroupName.org, then you will need to make a change to your DNS entries to point to a new IP Address: 67.158.96.30. The new server uses Host Headers to determine which website to send you to, so nothing else should need to be changed. You still need to validate that your URL begins with ‘WWW’, or else the Host Header redirection will not work correctly – the hostname has to be fully qualified. We will have more information on the specifics as we get closer to the changeover.

The APCUG Database application the CDB (Common Database) is also being migrated into SharePoint, and will be ready when the new server is launched on December 1st. One new goal is that you will be able to create your own SharePoint sites, and customize them to work the way you want. This will facilitate communication between the groups, and also help motivate you to keep your Web sites up to date and relevant for your members.

One more exciting announcement: we will be offering Linux-based hosting beginning in 2008.

If you have any interest in helping with these efforts, please contact OLS committee at ols@apcug.net.