Just letting everyone know that if you were having trouble reaching TheBeachcats.com over the weekend it wasn't your fault. I know there are a lot of fellow nerds here so I'll give some details on what happened.
I upgraded to a new dedicated web server. The old one was going on seven years old, it was functioning but it's OS software (Cloudlinux) could not be upgraded to the latest version. So I spec'd out a new server at the same datacenter where the old one was located. the servers both use the WHM/cPanel control panel which includes a ttransfer tool to clone the content and settings to the new server.
That went well and I was able to test the site functions using the IP address of the new server. All looked well so I changed the name servers to point to the new server IP.
DNS propagation is a dicey thing since DNS servers all over the world have there own policies. Some update quickly and others use extended cache times and can take a couple of days.
I wasn't very worried about down-time since the old server was still online and figured that anybody who's dns server didn't point them at the new server, would still see the old one.
After I started getting texts from members who couldn't get to the site I realized there was a problem (I could see the site, but others could not.).
After a bunch of investigation and trouble tickets with the datacenter it turned out that DNSSEC was the problem. I had forgotten that when using DNSSEC hashes to verify the DNS, that the hashes had to be cleared and updated to reflect the new DNS server IP address.
After that was fixed the site started propagating better, but slowly, around the world. Even now there are many that haven't updated.
So spread the word that TheBeachcats.com lives!
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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN
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