Re: server ip address change

[Bob Duncan <duncanr at mail dot lafayette dot edu>]

At 09:37 AM 01/02/2005 -0500, Bonnie Buzzell wrote:
> Finding myself the adminstrator for our innovative system without a
> systems background, I'd especially welcome your wisdom and advice
> regarding changing our III server's ip address.
>
> We are a turnkey site, with the server housed in the University's IT
> department.  As part of the preparation for moving to a new server
> mid-January, the person responsible for IT security has recommended that
> we move to a new subnet.
>
> I have reviewed the FAQ on csdirect, and have found what I can in the
> manual.  It seems to me that this would require significant planning and
> coordination to make sure everything keeps working.
>
> I would like to be able to respond to the ip-change rcommendation
> knowing the pro's and con's of doing so, and with a fairly complete idea
> of everything that we would have to do to accomplish this.
>
> I'd welcome advice from any/all, and would especially appreciate hearing
> from any of you who have changed your ip address.


We just finished a building renovation/expansion project which required 
three server IP address changes;  each change went smoothly.  Advanced 
planning and coordination is the key, and since you're a turnkey site and 
(presumably) not in direct control of the university's network 
configuration settings, planning and coordinating is about all you can 
do.  My recommendations (assuming your turnkey setup is similar to ours):

(1)  Find out from the university IT folks in advance of the change the 
following:
        -  new IP address for the server;
        -  new IP address for the default gateway;
        -  new IP addresses for primary and secondary DNS boxes the server 
will use;
        -  date and time they plan on making the change.

(2)  Open a call with III and provide them the new addresses from #1 as 
well as the date and time IT plans to make the change.  Make sure to tell 
them you want to be able to call in at the appropriate time and have 
someone dial in to make the changes on your system.

(3)  Talk to your IT folks and make sure they know that you would 
appreciate it if they could make all the necessary changes on their end at 
a specific time (around the same time you're calling the III tech who will 
make the changes on your system).  Those changes will include:
        -  changing the DNS entries for your host name;
        -  altering firewall rules to account for the new IP address.

(4)  Send a campus-wide email telling users that the system will be 
temporarily unavailable.  (Depending on the timing of the change, you could 
also give users the new IP address to use until DNS "catches up", but I 
think this has the potential for more confusion than it's worth.)

(5)  When IT gives you the go-ahead, call III and have them make the changes.


Other things you can do ahead of time to make the change smoother:

-  If you have any links on Web pages that use the IP address, change them 
now to use the host name instead.

-  If Millennium clients were installed using the IP address of the server 
instead of the host name (or if you're not sure), have users add 
ip=library.brown.edu to their shortcut targets now (see manual page 100362).

-  If staff use a telnet client which uses a hosts file, either reconfigure 
the client to not use the hosts file, or prepare staff for the changes 
they'll need to make after the server IP address changes.  (If you have any 
non-staff users that you know are still using telnet to access the catalog, 
prepare them as well.)


Bob Duncan


~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Robert E. Duncan
Systems Librarian
David Bishop Skillman Library
Lafayette College
Easton, PA  18042
duncanr at lafayette dot edu
http://www.library.lafayette.edu/