[Toolserver-l] [IMPORTANT] toolserver.org; new login server; new stable server

[River Tarnell]

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hi,

over the next couple of weeks (hopefully) a couple of changes will be
made to the toolserver that affect users.

1. toolserver.org

the toolserver will move to the new domain "toolserver.org".  this
will have the following effects on the names of things:

- - URLs for users' public_html directories, i.e.
  http://tools.wikimedia.de/~<username>/, will change to
  http://toolserver.org/~<username>/.

  the old URLs will redirect (HTTP moved permanently) to the new
  address.

- - services under *.ts.wikimedia.org will move to the same name
  under toolserver.org.  for example, http://wiki.ts.wikimedia.org/
  will become http://wiki.toolserver.org/.

  this does not apply to stable.ts.wikimedia.org; please read below
  if you have projects on the stable server.

- - email addresses for toolserver users will be of the form
  "<username>@toolserver.org".  existing addresses of the form
  "<username>@ts.wikimedia.org", "<username>@tools.wikimedia.de"
  and "<username>@hemlock.ts.wikimedia.org" will continue to work.

  (please remember that these addressses are only to be used for
  purposes directly related to the toolserver, they are not
  general-purpose forwarding addresses.)

some things will not change: the mailing lists (which will remain at
lists.wikimedia.org), the ts-admins support address (which will
remain at wikimedia.org).

2. new login server

a new login server will be added; hemlock (the existing login server)
will become the web server. no name has been chosen for the new
server, but rather than logging into the server by name, a new alias
will be added: login.toolserver.org. this is the host users should
connect to via SSH to log in. (this should have been done when hemlock
was installed; sorry for the inconvenience.)

it will still be possible to log in to hemlock for the sole purpose of
diagnosing problems with CGI scripts; running any other tasks on that
server will be forbidden.

migration from hemlock to the new login server is expected to take
less than a day, during which both servers will be inaccessible. other
than the name, the new server will appear identical to hemlock;
crontabs will be copied, an identical set of software will be
installed, etc.

changes to the login server (e.g. software installation) will be made
to the web server at the same time, so there should be no problems
with developing scripts on one system and running them on the other.

3. new stable server

the current stable.ts.wikimedia.org is a virtual server on vandale.
we will be installing a new server to replace this.

the new server will have an identical configuration (in terms of
software, user/project setup, etc.) to the current stable server.
however, home directories and projects will not be copied over
automatically.  rather, the old server at stable.ts.wikimedia.org
will remain up, and the new server will be called
stable.toolserver.org.  when a project is ready, it will be moved to
the new server and an HTTP redirect (if applicable) added on the old
server.  projects can be moved by an administrator, or by a project
developer, whichever is easier.

other than the move, there will be no downtime for tools hosted on
the stable server.

- ----

there is no fixed timeline for these changes.  the move to
toolserver.org will happen soonest; Arne should have assigned the
domain to us by today (Tuesday) at which time i will begin the
migration immediately.

as the load on hemlock is more urgent than the stable server, this
will happen next, depending on when the server is set up at the colo
(hopefully that will be this week). i'll send another mail to the
list when we're ready to start on this.

the new stable server will be set up after the migration to the new
login server is complete.

if you have any questions about these changes, please reply to
toolserver-l (not my personal address).

        - river.
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