UPDATE (Oct 9, 5am EDT): The upgrade is complete and we are back up, you can log into your ManageWP dashboard.
This weekend we’ll be taking down ManageWP Orion for some major upgrade that’s long overdue. The 48h downtime will start on Saturday, October 8th at 3am EDT, and last until Monday, October 10 at 3am EDT.
Why the Whole Weekend?
ManageWP Orion is on Amazon cloud infrastructure. It allows us to infinitely scale it without sacrificing performance. Unfortunately, the database does not scale that easily, and in the past several months it caused a couple of short downtimes. So far we’ve been MacGuyvering fixes, but for a permanent solution we need to take it down and perform a major upgrade.
The upgrade will ensure a smooth and consistent experience in the next year (we’ll figure something else to tinker with by then). The actual upgrade should take less than 20 hours, but we’d rather underpromise and overdeliver, than the other way around.
If you want to go into more technical details, we’re mainly looking to resolve the scaling issue where we would be able to add more servers without a drop in performance. Right now the database scales inefficiently, i.e. if we double the server power, we only get a 10% increase in the capacity. We need to redesign the distribution process and dump/reimport the database, which will take up a huge chunk of the downtime.
What’s Going to Be Down?
We’re putting the Orion dashboard in maintenance mode. Classic dashboard will be unavailable as well, since it partially relies on the Orion database. The website itself will be up, but signup and registration will be disabled.
It’s important to note that ManageWP services will not be running during the upgrade. It effectively means that Uptime Monitor will not notify you of up/down events, and that scheduled backups and checks will not run. If you’re not already storing backups on your own off-site storage (it’s good practice to have backups on two separate locations), I recommend downloading a backup to your computer, so you could be ready to restore your website during the ManageWP downtime.
Needless to say, the upgrade will not affect your websites in any way.
How Can I Reach You If Orion Is Down?
Our Customer Happiness team is here for you. Our contact form will be working, and you can reach us directly at helpdesk@managewp.com
What’s the Downtime in My Time Zone?
worldtimebuddy.com is an awesome time zone conversion tool. Just click the link and add your city/time zone to see when the downtime starts.
How Will I Know When Orion Is Up?
We’ll update this article when the dashboard is back online, and also post regular updates on Twitter.
I Hate You.
This upgrade is really important for both you and us, and the sooner we do it, the better for everyone. I understand that this might interrupt your daily flow, and we’ll be happy to give you a bear hug full of love when we meet in real life.
Thank you for your patience and understanding!
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