overview

The Navigator Hosted array runs nearly all of our customer systems. Since original installation in 2008, the data centre has been growing as our needs increase - to support the number of customers that we have and to maintain reliability and security. This involves a continuous upgrade process to smoothly ensure that we are always ready for the present and the future

During the next few weeks we have a series of upgrades taking place, including :-

• Installation of New Servers
• Deactivating and removing some old servers
• Upgrading the Virtual software set used in the datacentre to the latest versions
• Implementing new "load-balancing" systems
• Reconfigure the network for the higher loads being processed
• Implement up-to-date security measures

Aims

The aim of this upgrade is to double our capacity to allow for at least a further 2-3 years growth in the datacentre without major further upgrades. As part of this, we will be implementing new load-balancing systems to smooth out performance across all systems at all times and installing up to date security measures to help ensure that the Navigator systems are protected by the best layers of security possible.

As always, we are maintaining n+1 levels of implementation - this means that we always have redundancy at any part of the datacentre so that if there is any single hardware failure, there will be minimal downtime as we have sufficient capacity to switch to redundant systems.

Downtime?

We are using our redundant systems to allow us to carry out the upgrade by taking systems offline for upgrade and then bringing them back online afterwards without any effect on the Navigator systems running. Whilst we do not plan to have any office-hour downtime, much of the core work will be taking place in business hours to ensure that we have full support through the upgrade. This means that for the duration of the upgrade, our n+1 capability will be reduced in some areas so our systems are at a higher risk should there be a failure elsewhere in the array.

Also, the upgrade itself involves a level of risk, which we have carefully mitigated to reduce to the minimum.

Part of the update will - at some point - require the upgrade of each and every customer system. This will require a 15 minute downtime window which will take place between the 19th May and the 30th June. This is to allow a reboot of each customer database. The reboots will take place in the early evening (between 7 and 9 pm) and therefore we expect a single short period of downtime to be experienced by each Navigator system - out of working hours. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the upgrade, we cannot predict exactly when each reboot will take place.

Questions

Should you have any questions then please contact the Helpdesk initially at support@dmsnavigator.com or by telephone on 0845 686 2366

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