On Friday October 4th at 6pm - 3am PST and Saturday October 5th at 6pm - 3am PST, we will be moving all servers to new data center floor space. We highly suggest informing your website visitors that your website will be down or intermittent during the appropriate maintenance window. For most customers this will be on Friday October 4th. If you are a former Mallsoft customer (you will know), or have been informed otherwise, you will be moved on October 5th. Customers on October 5th will experience an IP change which will occur on October 6th and October 7th at 6pm PST per our previous announcements. Otherwise, your IP address will NOT change.

Please see: Server Mover Announcement

Frequently Asked Questions:

What do I need to do?

Unless you have received a number of emails from us in the last few days indicating you will be required to make changes during the move- there is nothing you need to do. We will handle all updates and return your service to normal as quickly as possible.
Will everything be down until 3am PST on the respective days? Why start at 6pm PST
No, this is an over-estimate in the event that time is needed due to an unforeseen issue. We are beginning at 6pm PST to prepare, but service will not be powered down until 8pm PST on the respective day. There is no universally convenient time for all customers. We have customers 22 countries and our customers have website visitors worldwide. Our goal is to ensure adequate time for our staff and the availability of facility staff. Customers moved on October 5th will experience a longer wait as we have to transport servers to the other facility 10 miles away.

How can I tell what day I will be moved?

If your CURRENT website IP address begins with 64.87.X.X you will be moved on October 4th. Otherwise, you will be moved on October 5th. To determine your current IP address open a Command Prompt (PC) or Terminal (MAC) window any type the following without the quotes which will display your IP address: "PING www.one-of-your-domain-names.com". If you see 64.87.X.X you will be moved on October 4th. If not, on October 5th.

Will mail services be down during the move?

Mail will be down briefly (for everyone) during the move on October 4th. We expect no more than 15 minutes of downtime as the mail servers will be the first to be moved. Any mail sent to you during those 15 minutes will be redelivered to you by the sending mail server (typically within 30 minutes), or if you are using our premium MX service, by the backup queue. 

What will happen to my website visitors during the move?

Our INTENT is to have a maintenance page for your website visitors during the move. We have improved the logistics of the move in such as way to reduce downtime and intermittent activity during the move. However, this means maintaining the current infrastructure as much as possible while servers are moved. A temporary DNS redirect will be costly in terms of DNS propagation time due to DNS caching despite low Time to Live (TTL) values. A router and firewall change to force traffic to an alternate address is potentially risky as it introduces core changes that may affect the end result- getting you back online quickly.

Can I postpone the move?

Our apologies, we are contractually obligated with our bandwidth providers to complete this move. It will not be possible to postpone the move for any customer but we can make arrangement for any customer needing additional assistance.

Will customer service / technical support be available during the move?

All calls and emails (support tickets) will be routed to our secondary support team. However, it will not be possible for us to provide individual status report updates during the move.

If you have any additional questions please do not hesitate to send an email support@ephost.com prior to the move.

We are excited to announce that we have provisioned new data center floor space within our existing facility. The added room and upgraded infrastructure will be a big benefit for all customers.

We are officially announcing that in two weeks on October 4th from 6:00pm - 3:00am and October 5th from 6:00pm - 3:00am we will move all physical servers to the new space. The move is being made into 2 parts for the least disruption & downtime to the network. The first part will be the bulk of all customers and the second part on October 5th will include all former Mallsoft customers.

For the majority of our customers this will be a seamless move requiring no special changes on your part aside from some unavoidable downtime while the servers are re-racked. If you are a former Mallsoft customer (you will know if this is the case) this will also involve an IP address update. All former Mallsoft customers will be contacted individually so that we can assist in the arrangements with the new IP addresses.

The new space will include upgraded power (from 120V to 208V power), the availability of 2N power (simultaneous A & B side power circuits), continued availability of N+1 power (failover power) and the implementation of NetScreen Routing Protocol (automated firewall failover). Additionally, former Mallsoft customers will enjoy the added benefit of access to many of our common services (e.g. SmarterStats) as both networks now will be combined.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1) When?

On Friday October 4th from 6:00pm - 3:00am we will move the majority of all customers which will involve several hours of intermittant downtime. No special changes or considerations will be required of customers involved in this part of the move.

On Saturday October 5th from 6:00pm - 3:00am will be be moving all physical servers form the SDTC facility (former Mallsoft customers only) to new data center floor space (FADC) which will involve several hours of intermittant downtime and a chnage of IP addresses.

2) Web Site Traffic?

During the migration windows all traffic will be routed to a "maintenance" notice informing your website visitors.

3) Email Service?

Email will be the first thing moved and we only expect 15 minutes or less of email downtime. No loss of email is expected as the sending mail server will reattempt delivery within 30 minutes.

4) Postponement?

We regret that we are unable to re-schedule this migration. Please contact us if you have a concern about not being available during the migration windows. For most customers no action is needed on your part. Only former Mallsoft customers will need to be prepared for an IP change. All other IPs will remain the same.

5) IP Address Change?
 
Your IP address wil not change unless you are former Mallsoft Customer (you will know if this is the case). 

6) New Power Voltage?

We will be replacing the power cables on all servers, including colocated equipment, at noi charge. This is necessary to to transition form 120V to 208V. 


Former Mallsoft Customers ONLY (you will know if this is the case):

1) If you are former Mallsoft customer please perform the following update we previously postponed PRIOR October 1st.

DNS Update Required - Former Mallsoft Customers Only

2) If you are a former Mallsoft customer and currently self-manage your DNS service we will provide you with your NEW IP addresses well prior to the move. However, they should NOT be implemented until October 5th at 6:00pm. It is important that you are staged and ready to go. Otherwise, if we manage your DNS we will update the addresses for you.

3) We will perform a search and replace of IP addresses on all files in all servers immediately following the move. To avoid any issues it would be best for you and your developers to identify areas in your database which may contain the OLD IP address and wouldn't show up on a search of the files.

4) If you are former Mallsoft customer we will contact each company individually to setup a migration plan.

We are very excited to be able to offer this new level of service you you. If you have any questions please send an email to support@ephost.com

Former RosArt / WebJuris Customers Only

On Sunday, April 21st at 3:00pm PST we will begin the process of upgrading your mail services. If you do not use our mail services please disregard this email (e.g. you host your own mail server or use Gmail). The process will require some minor downtime and some small changes for you on Monday morning.

PLEASE MAKE THE FOLLOWING CHANGES TO YOUR EMAIL ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

On Monday morning please update all devices that connect to email to use the following new incoming and outgoing mail server settings for the domains using mail here.

Incoming Mail Server: mail.ephost.com
Outgoing Mail Server: mail.ephost.com

If you are adventurous and wish to make additional changes please refer to the following knowledgebase article:

http://www.ephost.com/support/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/40/0/email-settings-pop3--imap

The new service will feature substantially higher disk space limits, a new web mail interface, new mail synchronization options (e.g. Microsoft ActiveSynch, CalDav, CardDav, and Exchange Web Services) and SSL encrypted email. 

Web Mail Access Starting Monday April 22nd:

http://mail.ephost.com

Additionally, we have recently completed integrating our control panel system into your website. Using the username and password we sent you initially you can now login to your account and then to the control panel system. Note your email accounts will not be displayed in the control panel until Monday April 22nd.

If you have any questions, please contact us Monday morning by sending a support request to support@ephost.com or by calling 858-433-2818 x101 or x140.

This latest release of our mail server software now includes synchronization (mail, contacts and calendars) between our web mail service, your mobile devices, and now the desktop version of Outlook 2013 (PC) and/or Outlook 2011 (Mac) - for complete end-to-end synchronization between them. Microsoft Active Synch is available for $2.00 per email address per month and supports multiple devices. Exchange Web Services for Outlook 2011 (Mac) is free. Additionally, Windows 2008's default mail client is also supported. EWA and EAS work over ports 80/443 so you don't have to mess around with SMTP servers regardless of the network you are using. This simplifies setup for people on the go. You can look forward to additional options that are either partially supported or expected early next year such as viewing the availability of other users and conference room scheduling on connected devices. When compared to the cost of MS Exchange it's an easy decision.