Wed Dec 15 17:21:31 PST 2004 — Kernel Security Updates. We are upgrading the Linux kernels on all of our production servers to resolve two recently announced kernel exploits. While each server is rebooted some customer may notice small server outages while the clusters failover. -Kelsey, Scott, and Kevan.

Wed Dec 15 16:24:49 PST 2004 — Mail Issues. For a short time yesterday a small percentage of mail was incorrectly rejected due to being on the SBL spamhaus.org RBL. We disabled the use of this RBL in our MTA filters so we could track down the problem which appears to either be a bug in our custom software or our internal DNS servers. It was not due to hosts being incorrectly listed in the SBL. This only affected people using the SBL to filter their inbound mail – part of our default filter set – and did not affect anyone who had specifically turned it off. We’re going to re-enable the SBL once we’ve added some additional checks to our code. -Kelsey, Russ and Kevan

Wed Dec 15 15:28:40 PST 2004 — PHP upgrade on new web cluster. The new web cluster has been upgraded to PHP 4.3.10 which addresses some security issues present in earlier versions. The upgrade went smoothly and there was no interruption in service. -Kevan

Wed Nov 24 15:26:59 PST 2004 — More Kernel Updates. We’ve identified a bug in the 2.4.28 linux kernel’s arp subsystem that causes some significant problems during the booting of our servers. While we continue to track down this bug we’ve back ported the security updates to 2.4.27. Unfortunately this means we have to reboot a large number of servers again. -Kelsey, Augie, Kevan and Nathan.

Tue Nov 23 17:35:43 PST 2004 — Kernel Security Updates. We are in the process of upgrading the Linux kernels on most of our servers to resolve a potential security problem. Thanks to clustering of our major services these upgrades usually go unnoticed; however, we’ve had a increased call volume in response to some minor issues associated with the reboots. –Kelsey and Augie

Fri Nov 12 12:51:05 PST 2004 — Domain Locking FAQ. It has come to our attention that misleading notifications are being mailed to domain name owners regarding new ICANN policy and domain registration transfers. These notifications warn that malicious interlopers can assume control of domain names without confirmation from the domain’s rightful owner unless a registration lock is put in place. These notices are based upon a misinterpretation of new policies going into effect on November 12, 2004 which should have no adverse impact on the security of your domains. More information is available at sonic.net/support/faq/advanced/domain_locking.shtml online. Please disregard messages encouraging you to purchase or otherwise enable registration locking services. — John F

Thu Nov 11 10:52:23 PST 2004 — Cluster migration note for cgi-bins. If you don’t know what a “cgi-bin” is, please disregard this notice — if you do, please read on. This effects anyone running cgi-bin’s on the new web cluster, including folks running cgi-bin’s on www.sonic.net.

The new web servers’ environment is not hospitable to very old programs. cgi-bin’s compiled many years ago may need to be recompiled to work properly on the new web cluster. If you need to recompile a cgi-bin, and are having trouble doing so, please post to the Sonic.net newsgroup news://news.sonic.net/sonic.help.www We apologize for any inconvenience. -Scott

Wed Nov 10 16:16:10 PST 2004 — www.sonic.net migration complete. www.sonic.net is now served off of Sonic.net’s new web cluster. The new web cluster is faster and more up-to-date, offering customers a modern, high-performance environment for web hosting. Additionally, FrontPage 2003 is supported.

Discussion of the upgrade project is occurring in the Sonic.net newsgroup news://news.sonic.net/sonic.help.www -Scott, Kelsey, Nathan, and Eli

Tue Nov 9 17:04:39 PST 2004 — www.sonic.net migration postponed until 11am tomorrow (Wednesday). The migration of www.sonic.net to the new cluster has been postponed due to a process that is taking longer than expected. The process is looking for Berkeley DB files to be upgraded as part of the migration. We had hoped to have this done this afternoon — however, there is still an estimated 8 hours to go before the process completes. We apologize for any inconvenience. -Scott

Fri Nov 5 20:53:06 PST 2004 — Network maintenance tonight. At midnight tonight, we will be putting the last of our new Juniper routers into the network. Traffic will be routed around Equinix during this work so no major interruptions should occur. There may be minor, momentary delays as different parts of the network re-converge. We estimate the work will take until 2 AM, but it may go somewhat later. -Nathan and John

Update Sat Nov 6 05:35:39 PST 2004: Network maintenance complete. Sonic’s backbone now runs on Juniper routers. We also added a Gig-E link between Santa Rosa and San Jose tonight to dramatically increase the speed of our fiber ring around the bay area. We now have over two gigabits of capacity leaving Santa Rosa, a huge upgrade from the 150 megabits we had a few months ago! -Nathan and John