Home stretch for FR-SD2 closure and migration

We’re happy to announce that our newest datacenters in the Paris region, FR-SD5 and FR-SD6, are now available! They join FR-SD3 in our new datacenter architecture and offering for this region. Together, they replace our former datacenter in Paris, FR-SD2, which we have operated for the past 10 years.

We’re taking this opportunity to sum up the current status of the FR-SD2 closure and migration plan.

 

Two-click migration now available for all servers

You can now migrate all servers still running at FR-SD2 in a couple of clicks, with the exception of servers attached to virtual private networks (more information below). Servers that are attached to Web Accelerators can also be migrated (more details below, as well).

We invite you to perform the migration as soon as possible. However, please check if your servers match one of the two cases describe below, in which case they’ll need special attention before you perform the migration.

1. For servers using an HVM-labeled kernel

As we announced a few months ago, we have deprecated our HVM platform in favor of our Xen platform.

HVM kernels:

• 3.12-x86_64 (hvm, deprecated)
• grub (hvm, deprecated)
• raw (hvm, deprecated)
• 3.18-x86_64 (hvm, deprecated)

If your servers use one of the above listed kernels, you’ll need to adapt their systems to the Xen platform before migrating them to the new datacenters.

Follow the steps detailed in our documentation to complete this operation.

Warning: If you go ahead and perform the 2-click migration before going through these steps, your servers will boot in “rescue mode” and you’ll lose access to the emergency console.

It’s also important to note that, in rare cases, some services running on your servers might not be compatible with this “rescue mode”.

2. For servers running old operating system versions

Older versions of Linux distributions aren’t as secure and powerful as their more recent counterparts. In some cases, we don’t even offer kernel versions suitable to run older systems on our new datacenters.

If you’re running older systems, we strongly recommend that you upgrade your operating system, following the steps detailed in their own official documentation.

 

Updates to our mandatory migration schedule

Our team will migrate any servers still running on FR-SD2 and that haven’t been migrated by their owners according to the schedule below. Servers will be migrated in batches at arbitrary dates and times.

This means that, unless you perform the migration yourself using the 2-click method, you won’t be able to decide exactly when your servers will be moved, nor control their downtime.

The mandatory migration schedule was initially announced for November 29th, 2017, but we split the migration schedule into 3 phases, depending on the datacenter where servers are due to be migrated to. We strongly recommend that you perform the migrations yourself as soon as possible and don’t wait for our team to migrate your servers for you.

• Servers scheduled for FR-SD3: Mandatory migrations start on December 4th, 2017
• Servers scheduled for FR-SD5: Mandatory migrations start on December 15th, 2017
• Servers scheduled for FR-SD6: Mandatory migrations start on December 22nd, 2017

We remind you that, in this scenario, you won’t have any control over your servers during the migration period. However, your servers should not be unreachable for more than 30 minutes.

In addition, you should note that servers running HVM kernels will be automatically booted with a Xen kernel at the new datacenters. As noted above, you’ll lose access to the emergency console and possibly experience service disruptions unless you follow the steps detailed in the documentation and adapt your server to Xen.

 

Web Accelerator migration details

You can already migrate servers that are attached to our Web Accelerators to FR-SD2. Requests will be routed to servers running on the new datacenters in FR-SD* region transparently and you don’t need to make any changes to your DNS records prior to migrating.

The Web Accelerators themselves will be migrated by our teams later, at which point you’ll need to update your DNS records. We will contact impacted customers with detailed information, including the new IP addresses and hostnames that can be used to replace their existing A, AAAA or CNAME records. There will be a time period during which both the existing and the new DNS records will be valid, which we’ll also detail in the email. During this overlap period, you’ll be able to change your DNS records without impacting your server’s reachability, even accounting for DNS propagation delays.

 

Private network migration details

Our team will directly contact customers that are operating private networks during December.

For complex cases, we will propose and discuss a plan and schedule that is convenient to you (for example, when individual servers are connected to multiple private networks, or when a private network running at FR-SD2 includes servers that are scheduled to be migrated to different datacenters).

If possible, we highly recommend that you perform this operation yourself. You simply need to disconnect the servers from their private network at FR-SD2, migrate the servers using the 2-click migration, then recreate the private network at the new datacenter. Otherwise, please wait until our team reaches out to you.

 

Contact us in case of doubt

We invite you to contact our Customer Care team if you have any questions at all. We’ll do our best to help you and accomodate any special needs.

A large number of customers have contacted us recently, and we haven’t always been able to reply as quickly as usual. Please know that we’re working relentlessy to answer every question and provide actionable information to all customers.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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