Here is a rough description of the process:
- At 01:00 CEST all functionality of EBT will be shut down. Anyone trying to access EBT will be shown a placeholder page saying that the data is being transferred to a new server.
- A full backup of the databases (EBT, forum, webmail) will be done, and the backup files will be transferred to the new server (currently here at home) over network. This will take around 2 hours.
- The databases will be loaded on the new server. This will take around one hour.
- Emails will be transferred from the old server to the new server. We will also be changing/updating some email software at the same time, so some testing will be needed to make sure everything still works properly with the new software.
- If everything went fine, the servers will be powered down. If not, there's still a few hours to fix things.
- Now it's time to haul the new server to the ISP.
- The old server will be removed from the rack, and the new server will be installed. If everything goes well, EBT will be available again at around 09:30 CEST.