The year 2019 ushers in a refreshing upgrade to the infrastructure that supports the Web Management System (WMS). As part of the Web Service Group's plan to improve WMS performance, the database servers and software that underlie the platform are being modernized. More specifically, the MySQL database is being upgraded and migrated to new servers.
One thing to keep in mind is that some downtime will be scheduled for the WMS due to the technical considerations involved in migrating data from the old servers to the newly-configured servers.
The migration is expected to take between 3 to 5 hours, during which time Site Administrators, Site Managers, Site Editors, and Channels editors or contributors will not be able to create or edit any WMS web pages or Channels news and events. In addition, site users will not be able to submit webforms. Notification of the date and start time for the migration will be communicated in advance to those affected and care will be taken to minimize any inconveniences by scheduling the work during off-peak hours in the evening.
Throughout the migration period, there will be read-only access to the WMS. This will preserve and protect the database integrity during the transition, while still allowing end users to access and read information published on all the sites. Searching the WMS will also continue to work as usual.
An undertaking of this scale cannot be achieved in isolation. The upgrade is made possible thanks to close collaboration between multiple units in IT Services. Special shout-outs are in order for our partners in:
- Enterprise Application Services
- Systems Management & Integration
- Network and Communications Services
- Network Infrastructure
- Core Infrastructure Applications
- Information Security
- Project Management Office
