******SERVICE IMPACTING UPS SYSTEM MAINTENANCE******

On Thursday, March 19th starting at 07:00 hrs PST and ending at 18:30 hrs PST, we will perform maintenance on our UPS systems. This maintenance will include replacing the batteries in UPS 1 and upgrading the capacitors in UPS 3.

******Impacted Services******

Our FileMaker 3, 4, 5, and 6, Lasso 3, 4, 5, and 6, and legacy Mac shared web hosting environments will be taken offline for 30 minutes in the morning at approximately 08:00 hrs PST and again for 30 minutes at approximately 18:00 hrs PST.

******************
For the duration of this maintenance our datacenter electrical load will be transferred to generator power.

This combined maintenance window has been selected based on factors to provide the greatest degree of protection for our clients. These factors include the availability of the most senior technicians from our UPS vendor and the ability to mobilize parts and additional service personnel in the very unlikely event of a component malfunction or failure during the maintenance. Additionally, by servicing both UPS systems during the same maintenance window, we eliminate an additional operation of our maintenance bypass switch thus limiting exposure to a potential voltage drop to datacenter critical equipment.

The schedule for this maintenance is as follows:

07:00 Datacenter Temperature Reduction: We will force the temperature of the datacenter toward the lower portion of the ASHRAE allowable envelope prior to transferring power to the back-up generator. When the transfer takes place our HVAC systems will power-cycle causing a small (2 to 4 degree Fahrenheit) thermal inclination in the datacenter. By lowering the overall space temperature we can be assured that equipment temperatures will not be adversely impacted by the 10-minute restart period of the HVAC systems.

07:00 to 07:30 Generator pre-flight evaluation: Check fluids, connections, air inlets/exhaust, fuel supply, fuel lines, filters and separators. Log results and announce startup to internal staff.

07:30 Generator start-up and warm-up: Start the generator and monitor performance stats, check for fluid leaks, supply artificial load and evaluate voltage, amperage, frequency and engine stats against established baselines.

07:45 FileMaker 3, 4, 5, and 6, Lasso 3, 4, 5, and 6, and legacy Mac shared web hosting environment shutdown: We will begin shutting down the shared hosting environment at this time. The shutdown will be complete by 08:00 hrs and server environment restarts will begin shortly after 08:00 hrs.

08:00 Transfer from grid power to generator power and wrap power around UPS: Manually operate the ATS and UPS maintenance bypass to force the datacenter electrical load to the generator. At this time our HVAC system will power cycle as described above.

08:00 to 12:00 Replace batteries in UPS 1: The UPS system must be completely powered off for life safety while the batteries are removed and replaced. During this operation UPS 3 will remain online and provide UPS power to clients with A+B power.

12:00 to 12:30 Power on UPS system and perform artificial load testing: Following the removal and replacement of components, the UPS systems will be powered on and connected to an artificial load (not datacenter equipment, servers or other infrastructure) for testing. With this equipment we will test the transfer process and mechanism as well as simulate a load of 80% of the UPS system capacity.

13:00 Transfer datacenter load back to UPS 1: Once the process and mechanism has been validated we will transfer the datacenter load back to UPS 1 though power will continue to be supplied to the UPS from the back-up generator.

13:30 to 17:30 Replace capacitors in UPS 3: The UPS system must be completely powered off for life safety while the capacitors are removed and replaced. During this operation UPS 1 will remain online and provide UPS power to clients with A+B power

17:30 to 18:00 Power on UPS 3 and transfer datacenter load: Once the capacitors have been replaced and charged we will transfer the datacenter load back onto UPS 3.

17:45 FileMaker 3, 4, 5, and 6, Lasso 3, 4, 5, and 6, and legacy Mac shared web hosting environment shutdown: We will begin shutting down the shared hosting environment at this time. The shutdown will be complete by 18:00 hrs and server environment restarts will begin shortly after 18:00 hrs

18:00 Transfer Datacenter live load back to grid power: Once all testing has been completed and both UPS systems are online and functioning within specifications, we will transfer the datacenter live load back to grid power.

18:00 to 18:30 Generator Cool-Down and Post-Flight Evaluation: Following the operation of our generator we will perform the same evaluations we performed during the pre-flight as well as allow the generator to cool prior to shutting down.

One to two weeks following this maintenance, we will perform a battery preventive maintenance on UPS system 1 to validate the condition of the new batteries and replace any questionable jars. This preventive maintenance will follow the same procedure as above but require significantly less time to complete. A notice will be posted to our support blog prior to this future maintenance.

digital.forest remains committed to providing our customers with the highest level of service, the greatest degree of protection, and the most transparent communications. If you have any questions or concerns about the above maintenance, please contact your account manager. Our account management staff is available Monday through Friday from 08:00 hrs PST until 17:00 hrs PST at 877-720-0483 Option 2.

******Update, Thursday March 5th, 08:11 hrs PST******

The scheduled maintenance on our UPS system has been cancelled due to complications with a vendor.

As always, protecting our clients remains our first priority. When a planned procedure cannot be carried out according to plan, our responsibility is to evaluate the situation and make a determination as to the safest course of action. In this situation the safest course is to reschedule the maintenance for a near-term future date.

Once rescheduled we will update the support blog with the new date and time and will follow essentially the same schedule as outlined below.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and will continue to provide the most up-to-date information available.

If you have any questions or concerns about the above notice, please contact your account manager. Our account management staff is available Monday through Friday from 08:00 hrs PST until 17:00 hrs PST at 877-720-0483 Option 2.

******UPDATE******

The below schedule for "Tuesday, March 5th" should read "Thursday, March 5th"

The UPS system maintenance will occur on Thursday, March 5th.

******SERVICE IMPACTING UPS SYSTEM MAINTENANCE******

On Tuesday, March 5th starting at 06:00 hrs PST and ending at 18:30 hrs PST, we will perform maintenance on our UPS systems. This maintenance will include replacing the batteries in UPS 1 and upgrading the capacitors in UPS 3.

******Impacted Services******

Our FileMaker4, 5, and 6 hosting environment will be taken offline for 30 minutes in the morning at approximately 08:00 hrs PST and again for 30 minutes at approximately 18:00 hrs PST.

******************
For the duration of this maintenance our datacenter electrical load will be transferred to generator power.

This combined maintenance window has been selected based on factors to provide the greatest degree of protection for our clients. These factors include the availability of the most senior technicians from our UPS vendor and the ability to mobilize parts and additional service personnel in the very unlikely event of a component malfunction or failure during the maintenance. Additionally, by servicing both UPS systems during the same maintenance window, we eliminate an additional operation of our maintenance bypass switch thus limiting exposure to a potential voltage drop to datacenter critical equipment.

The schedule for this maintenance is as follows:

06:00 Datacenter Temperature Reduction: We will force the temperature of the datacenter toward the lower portion of the ASHRAE allowable envelope prior to transferring power to the back-up generator. When the transfer takes place our HVAC systems will power-cycle causing a small (3 to 5 degree Fahrenheit) thermal inclination in the datacenter. By lowering the overall space temperature we can be assured that equipment temperatures will not be adversely impacted by the 10-minute restart period of the HVAC systems.

07:00 to 07:30 Generator pre-flight evaluation: Check fluids, connections, air inlets/exhaust, fuel supply, fuel lines, filters and separators. Log results and announce startup to internal staff.

07:30 Generator start-up and warm-up: Start the generator and monitor performance stats, check for fluid leaks, supply artificial load and evaluate voltage, amperage, frequency and engine stats against established baselines.

07:45 FileMaker 4, 5, and 6 hosting environment shutdown: We will begin shutting down the FileMaker shared hosting environment at this time. The shutdown will be complete by 08:00 hrs and server environment restarts will begin shortly after 08:00 hrs.

08:00 Transfer from grid power to generator power and wrap power around UPS: Manually operate the ATS and UPS maintenance bypass to force the datacenter electrical load to the generator. At this time our HVAC system will power cycle as described above.

08:00 to 12:00 Replace batteries in UPS 1: The UPS system must be completely powered off for life safety while the batteries are removed and replaced. During this operation UPS 3 will remain online and provide UPS power to clients with A+B power.

12:00 to 12:30 Power on UPS system and perform artificial load testing: Following the removal and replacement of components, the UPS systems will be powered on and connected to an artificial load (not datacenter equipment, servers or other infrastructure) for testing. With this equipment we will test the transfer process and mechanism as well as simulate a load of 80% of the UPS system capacity.

13:00 Transfer datacenter load back to UPS 1: Once the process and mechanism has been validated we will transfer the datacenter load back to UPS 1 though power will continue to be supplied to the UPS from the back-up generator.

13:30 to 17:30 Replace capacitors in UPS 3: The UPS system must be completely powered off for life safety while the capacitors are removed and replaced. During this operation UPS 1 will remain online and provide UPS power to clients with A+B power

17:30 to 18:00 Power on UPS 3 and transfer datacenter load: Once the capacitors have been replaced and charged we will transfer the datacenter load back onto UPS 3.

18:00 Transfer Datacenter live load back to grid power: Once all testing has been completed and both UPS systems are online and functioning within specifications, we will transfer the datacenter live load back to grid power.

18:00 to 18:30 Generator Cool-Down and Post-Flight Evaluation: Following the operation of our generator we will perform the same evaluations we performed during the pre-flight as well as allow the generator to cool prior to shutting down.

One to two weeks following this maintenance, we will perform a battery preventive maintenance on UPS system 1 to validate the condition of the new batteries and replace any questionable jars. This preventive maintenance will follow the same procedure as above but require significantly less time to complete. A notice will be posted to our support blog prior to this future maintenance.

digital.forest remains committed to providing our customers with the highest level of service, the greatest degree of protection, and the most transparent communications. If you have any questions or concerns about the above maintenance, please contact your account manager. Our account management staff is available Monday through Friday from 08:00 hrs PST until 17:00 hrs PST at 877-720-0483 Option 2.

We will be taking the following servers offline for about 10-15 minuets each tonight (Tuesday July 1st, 2008) between the hours of 11:00 and 00:00 to apply an urgent security patch released yesterday for these servers.

alder.forest.net
balsa.forest.net
cactus.forest.net
columbia.forest.net
date.forest.net
durian.forest.net
grapevine.forest.net
helpdesk.forest.net
honeysuckle.forest.net
jasmine.forest.net
palm.forest.net
rosemary.forest.net
sage.forest.net
sherwood.forest.net
smtp.forest.net
spruce.forest.net
tangerine.forest.net
thyme.forest.net

Update: The date for these update has been changed to July 2nd, 2008 during the same timeframe.

Just a reminder, tonight at 11 PM we will be performing an emergency maintenance on part of our electrical system. This will have an impact on a portion of our shared web and database servers, and eight dedicated and colocated servers. The shared hosting servers affected are:

acacia, acorn, alder, aralia, arrowwood, ash, aspen, avocado, balsa, balsam, bamboo, banana, banyan, bayberry, beech, bigleaf, blackberry, boojum, boxwood, bubinga, buckeye, cactus, cedar, cherry, chestnut, cholla, cinnamon, clover, columbia, commerce2, commerce3, cork, cottonwood, db, deerwood, dogwood, ebony, elm, evergreen, ficus, fig, filbert, fuji, gingko, grape, grapevine, hackberry, hazel, hemlock, hickory, ironbark, ivy, kentia, kola, kudzu, larch, laurel, lilac, lime, madrona, magnolia, mango, mangrove, maple, mesquite, mimosa, moringa, mulberry, myrtle, newninewire, ninewire2, olive, orchid, palmetto, papaya, pear, pecan, plum, poplar, privet, quince, redbud, sassafras, savin, sequoia, sherwood, snowberry, spiceberry, spruce, strawberry, sycamore, tamarack, teak, truffula, tutsan, walnut, woodpecker, yucca, yulan/fern

Every effort will be made to minimize the downtime. Our electricians have estimated the time required to complete the task at 2 hours.

Thank you for your patience and understanding while we strive to build a better facility.

Update 1:15 AM: The maintenance went very smoothly and was completed in under 90 minutes. We were able to supply alternate power to the few dedicated and colo servers involved in the maintenance. We also took the opportunity to replace some failed parts in a couple of servers (acorn for example whose fan inside the power supply had stopped working.)

Again, thank you so much for your patience during this critical maintenance interval.

On Wednesday, April 29th 2004, at 7:30 PM PST, we will be upgrading Lasso on balsa.forest.net and banana.forest.net to version 6.0.6, the latest version of Lasso Professional 6. The new version provides a fix to the error handling functionality in Lasso, which had been creating some problems for customers designing and debugging new sites. The new version should also further improve performance and reliability.

Update: The upgrade on balsa.forest.net has been delayed until next Wednesday, May 5th 2004.

As a reminder, Lasso Professional 7 hosting is available for interested customers. click here for more details.

No code changes should be necessary, but we recommend checking your site after the upgrade to verify that your site is functioning as expected.

This Friday (February 13, 2004), at 9:00 PST, we will be upgrading Lasso Professional on balsa.forest.net and banana.forest.net from version 6.0.4 to 6.05. A brief restart of the server may be required.

Lasso Professional 6.0.5 includes fixes for security, reliability, and tag functionality issues. No code changes should be necessary, but we do recommend checking your site as soon as possible after the upgrade. Please feel free to contact client support if you have any questions or concerns.

Lasso Professional 7 Hosting is now available. Please contact your account manager if you're interested in upgrading.

Balsa is back up and running. One tape was damaged, and a few files were not recoverable as a result, totalling about one meg of data (out of six gigs). Please check your site and make sure everything is working as expected. Thank you for your patience with this problem.

We are currently in the process of restoring Balsa from the last backup, which is about a day and a half old. As soon as the restoration is complete (which may take several hours, as we're pulling the data from tape), we will install the new disk and it should be good to go.

The Balsa server is presently down for emergency maintenance.

05:58 PDT
We've having some hardware trouble with the Balsa server that's going to take a little while to sort out. Service will be restored within the day.

Balsa seems to have a problem with starting Lasso. We have a tech looking at the error now and we will hopefully have it online again shortly.

Update - Lasso on balsa has been restored. The issue was a corrupt lassoMySQL table.

Balsa is currently down for Lasso and OS upgrades. These upgrades should increase system stability, reliability, and response time.

Thank you for your patience while we complete the upgrades on Balsa; estimated downtime is 1 hour.

Update (9:50pm Pacific Time): The upgrade is taking longer than expected due to data conversion issues involved in the migration from OS 10.1 to OS 10.2. At this moment our technicians place the downtime at one additional hour.

On Friday, March 28 2003 at 7:00 PM we will be upgrading balsa.forest.net to Lasso 6. We will also take the oppurtunity to upgrade the Lasso Manager to the latest version, which offers an easier interface for configuring security and several new features.

Other than the new features in version 6, the primary benefit for customers will be vastly improved startup and reload time and improvements to FileMaker Remote functionality that help ensure more graceful handling of FileMaker server outages (sites associated with other FileMaker hosts that are not down will continue to work properly during an outage, and the system will recognize and recover automatically once a host comes back up). Combined, the improvements should greatly increase stability and overall user expierence.

While Lasso 6 is backward compatible with Lasso 5 code and all security and other information will be upgraded automatically, we do encourage you to take a look at your site after the upgrade to ensure everything is working properly. A Lasso technician will be available via our normal emergency contacts throughout the evening to assist with any customer concerns.

FTP, MySQL and Web services on balsa.forest.net in preparation of an operating system upgrade and Lasso maintenance.

balsa.forest.net had suffered severe catalog and directory corruption -- after trying three different disk utility programs, we were finally able to restore the directory structure and bring the machine fully back online.

In the near future, we will be swapping in a new hard drive as an additional precautionary measure. The swap will be scheduled and coordinated to minimize any downtime.

balsa.forest.net, the Lasso 5 server, is experiencing disk problems. A technician is coming in to the office to make repairs and bring it back online. We will post again when the problem has been resolved.