Subject: Server Upgrade / Maintenance Outage / Monday December 16th / 1700 GMT

From: Glen <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2019 13:58:23 -0800

Dear IETF Community:

On Monday, December 16th, the IETF production servers will be upgraded
to a new version of the Linux operating system on which they run. The
upgrade brings with it a new Linux kernel, new versions of many of the
open source software packages we've come to know and love, and also
brings with it Python 3.6, opening the door for the Tools Team to work
additional magic with the many software packages they continue
developing for the community.  We're also closing an interstitial
networking bug just recently exposed when we upgraded the physical
cloud fabric on which the IETF servers run.  This particular upgrade
is significant, and will therefore involve the momentary shutdown of a
number of services, a transfer of data, and the activation of new
servers.

While the process itself will begin earlier, there will be a one-hour
outage window beginning at 9AM Pacific Time (Noon Eastern, 5PM GMT,
overnight elsewhere), Monday December 16th.  During this window, some
services will be interrupted at different intervals.  Email and list
transport will down for most of the window, web and Datatracker will
be down for shorter intervals during the window.  The presence or
absence of any one service should not imply expectations of other
services during this interval.  Once we're ready, we will perform a
complete reboot, after which the new servers will be fully online.  As
a part of our testing, we'll send an announcement out again when the
work is completed.

In conjunction with the Tools Team, we've performed the upgrade
process as a test run several times, and believe that this process
will be smooth.  Nonetheless, there may be problems we have not yet
been able to identify.  Both AMS and the Tools Team will be performing
additional checks and testing post-upgrade, and we will work to
correct any identified issues as quickly as possible.  As always, if
you have questions or concerns, you can direct them to the IETF-ACTION
desk ( [email-masked] ) which I supervise, or you can contact me
directly via email or Jabber at:  [email-masked] .

Thank you for your patience as we work together to continue to improve
the IETF's online presence, infrastructure and services.

Glen
--
Glen Barney
IT Director
AMS (IETF Secretariat)