Vivio works very hard to provide support for every possible configuration our clients could request, not only for their server hardware, but the software as well. As a result, we often retain support for legacy software long after that software has reached its end of life, or lost support with the larger hosting community. Obviously, it is important to keep your software up to date whenever possible, but we do not wish to impose that on our clients unless it is absolutely necessary.

Unfortunately, there comes a time when a piece of software gets so far out of date that it either becomes a risk to our clients or our network, or our underlying technology no longer supports it.

This has now become the case for Ubuntu 8.04 which reached its end of life back on May 9^th, 2013. Ubuntu 8.04 is no longer supported by our underlying technologies and as a result, we are requiring that all clients be updated to at least version 10.04 by December 31^st, 2017.

 

What does this mean to me?

If you currently have a VPS which is running on Ubuntu 8.04, you will need to update your operating system. We recommend updating to Ubuntu 16.04 if possible, but at this time updating to at least Ubuntu 10.04 is all that is necessary. The farther you update, the longer it will be before another update becomes necessary, so we recommend that you plan ahead accordingly.

 

How can I go about updating?

There are a couple of methods available for updating. You can update the operating system in place on the existing server, or you can have a new server created with a newer OS and migrate  your site and applications to the new server. In general. Vivio recommends migrating to a new server over updating in place, as migrating generally has several advantages.

 

What is Vivio doing to make this feasible for me?

Migrating:

If you decide to migrate to a new server, Vivio will work with you to select the appropriate service plan and options for the new device, and we have a few options available to make dealing with the migration itself more feasible.

Option 1: If you do not wish to perform the migration yourself, you can have Vivio perform the migration, and we will do so for a small migration fee. If Vivio performs the migration, you will not be billed for the second server until we have completed our end of the migration. Once the data has been moved over we will begin invoicing for the new server, and ask you to review your site for functionality. With a large jump in OS version it is sometimes necessary to update aspects of the site code, which is something that we cannot complete on your behalf.

Option 2:  If you wish to complete the migration yourself, you can do so and may be eligible for migration credit. Migration credit provides you with a credit for the hosting costs of the new server for up to a full month. The credit is provided either after the migration has been completed and the old server has been canceled, or after the new server has been running for a full month. Once the migration is complete, or a full month has passed, just contact our Billing Department to request the credit. Some terms apply, so please contact our Billing department for further details on this offer.

 

Updating:

If you prefer to update in place rather than migrate to another device, you can attempt to do so or you can request that Vivio perform the update. We recommend that you allow Vivio to perform the update, as the process often requires console access. Generally, system updates are completed without issue, but in some cases issues may arise. For example, a system update may introduce a new version of other software, such as a new version of PHP, which may not be compatible with your site data. In such cases the issues are usually fixable by Vivio, but if resolving the issue requires development to update you site data or something similar, Vivio cannot assist with this. If the update is determined to be impossible to complete satisfactorily, it may be necessary to instead opt in to migrating to a new server instead.

 

Wrapping up

We will be reaching out to individual clients effected by this change directly over the next few weeks, so please keep an eye out for those notices. If you believe this will affect your server and have not heard from us yet, please feel free to reach out to our Support Department to check. It is important to us that changes like this go as smoothly, with as few issues as possible, for our clients and we are happy to work with you as much as possible to make this an easy change. If you have questions please reach out to us as soon as possible.