Server upgrade underway [Completed]

February 6, 2013 13 Comments

As previously announced we’re now taking down one of the application servers in order to upgrade it.

Most likely only some users will be affected while others can keep using the email service normally while the upgrade takes place.

We will keep you updated here as the work progresses.

UPDATE 08:22 CET: We have installed the Flash Cache and are rebooting the server.

UPDATE 08:32 CET: We’re reconfiguring the server to work with the new Flash Cache.

UPDATE 09:00 CET: We’ve encountered some complications and will try a couple more things before reverting.

UPDATE 09:41 CET: We have problems with the upgraded kernel/network card combo and are trying to solve this now. We apologize for going outside the scheduled downtime window.

UPDATE 10:24 CET: We’re now installing a new network card to resolve incompatibilities.

UPDATE 11:01 CET: We’re still working hard to resolve remaining conflicts. Meanwhile, you can use the new Runbox 6 Webmail at https://rmm6.runbox.com, but note that some users won’t be able to open messages until we finish the upgrade.

UPDATE 11:17 CET: We are back up and fully operational again. Our apologies for any inconvenience caused by the prolonged downtime. 

UPDATE 13:50 CET: It seems we forgot to remove the redirect on runbox.no. This is fixed now! www.runbox.no

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Server upgrade and scheduled downtime

February 2, 2013 Leave a comment

In order to improve the performance of our email services we will perform a server upgrade with the scheduled downtime window:

*** Wednesday, February 6 at 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM CET ***

(7:00-8:00 GMT / 2:00-3:00 AM EST / 11:00-12:00 AM Feb 5 PST)

This means that the Runbox email services to be unavailable for up to 1 hour while the upgrade take place.

The downtime should be outside business hours for most of our customers, but we know you depend on your Runbox email and we will work as efficiently as possible. It shouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes, but the downtime window is set to 1 hour to be safe.

Incoming email will be queued on our servers and will be delivered once our system is fully operational again.

What you can do

If you usually check your email during this time, please log on either well before or after that interval on Wednesday.

To keep updated you can check our Blog at http://blog.runbox.com and Twitter at
https://twitter.com/Runbox.

What we are doing

We are installing a Flash Cache on one of our application servers to improve the performance of disk access when email clients open email on the server.

This is done as a measure to increase the I/O (input/output) capacity of the server until we acquire new and more powerful servers.

We apologize if the upgrade causes any inconvenience for you and appreciate your understanding!

Thank you,

The Runbox Team

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[Resolved] Email services down because of DDoS

January 25, 2013 10 Comments

Our email services are inaccessible and we’re working to find out where the problem is.

We’ll keep you posted and apologize for the service interruption.

UPDATE 00:45 CET: We seem to be under a DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, flooding our servers with requests and preventing legitimate logins to our services. We’re working to block the attackers now, so stay tuned.

UPDATE 01:45 CET: We’re still working to block the attackers on several levels of our network and we expect to be back up soon.

UPDATE 03:45 CET: The attackers changed tactics but we’re regaining control over our network now, and our services should be accessible again.

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[Completed] Scheduled database replacement and downtime

December 20, 2012 17 Comments

7:00 AM CET: We are now stopping all email services in order to complete the database server replacements.

We will redirect www.runbox.com and beta.runbox.com to this blog so you will be able to follow our updates.

8:05 AM CET: The work is almost complete and we’re getting ready to start the new database servers that will take over.

8:12 AM CET: We have started the new database servers and will start the email services now.

8:16 AM CET: Everything looks good, and all email interfaces are operational. The email queued during the downtime has been delivered. We’ll remove the redirection to this blog now.

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Server replacements and scheduled downtime

December 19, 2012 Leave a comment

In order to complete improvements to our email services we are scheduling the following downtime:

*** Thursday, December 20 at 6:30 AM to 8:30 AM CET ***

(5:30-7:30 GMT / 12:30-2:30 AM EST / 9:30-11:30 PM Dec 11 PST)

This means that the Runbox email services to be unavailable for up to 2 hours while the work takes place.

The downtime should be outside business hours for most of our customers, but we know you depend on your Runbox email and we will work as efficiently as possible.

Incoming email will be queued on other servers and will be delivered once the system is fully operational again.

What you can do

If you usually check your email during this time, please log on either well before or after that interval on Thursday.

To keep updated you can check our Blog at http://blog.runbox.com and Twitter at https://twitter.com/Runbox.

What we are doing

We are completing work started last week, switching to new and powerful database servers. This replacement will improve both the performance and reliability of our email services.

Why it is being done

This is part of our server upgrade plan in which most of our servers are being replaced and/or virtualized.

By replacing or virtualizing our servers we greatly improve the reliability of our email services since we will not only be running better hardware, but will be able to move services across our servers much more easily.

We apologize if the upgrade causes any inconvenience for you and appreciate your understanding!

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[Postponed] Scheduled database replacement and downtime underway

December 15, 2012 2 Comments

We’re getting ready to stop all email services in order to switch to the new database servers.

We will redirect www.runbox.com and beta.runbox.com to this blog so you will be able to follow our updates.

Once we have stopped the services we will import into the new database the records that have been added/changed since the full import we did last night,

Then we will move the database service address to the new servers, and start them up. If all goes well, the email interfaces will be started shortly thereafter.

UPDATE 07:10 AM CET: IMAP and POP services stopped. Stopping database services.

UPDATE 07:19 AM CET: Starting import of database records that have been changed since last night’s full import.

UPDATE 08:09 AM CET: During the import we discovered records that will need to be converted to another format. The safest solution is to revert to the old server and reschedule the switch once the conversion is done. We will inform everyone when this will occur.

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Server upgrades and scheduled downtime

December 5, 2012 Leave a comment

In order to improve our email services we will perform server replacements with the scheduled downtime:

*** Wednesday, December 12 at 6:30 AM to 8:30 AM CET ***

(5:30-7:30 GMT / 12:30-2:30 AM EST / 9:30-11:30 PM Dec 11 PST)

This means that the Runbox email services to be unavailable for up to 2 hours while the replacement take place.

The downtime should be outside business hours for most of our customers, but we know you depend on your Runbox email and we will work as efficiently as possible.

Incoming email will be queued on our servers and will be delivered once our system is fully operational again.

What you can do

If you usually check your email during this time, please log on either well before or after that interval on Wednesday.

To keep updated you can check our Blog at http://blog.runbox.com and Twitter at https://twitter.com/Runbox.

What we are doing

We are switching to two much more powerful database servers which will improve both performance and reliability of our email services, since the second server can take over in case the first one goes down.

This server replacement is one of the last on our system that will need extended downtime.

Why it is being done

This is part of our server upgrade plan in which most of our servers are being replaced and/or virtualized.

By replacing or virtualizing our servers we greatly improve the reliability of our email services since we will not only be running better hardware, but will be able to move services across our servers much more easily.

We apologize if the upgrade causes any inconvenience for you and appreciate your understanding!

Thank you,

The Runbox Team

UPDATE 12.12.2012 7 AM CET: Please go to the main page at http://blog.runbox.com for updates.

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IMAP improvements

November 14, 2012 5 Comments

We are currently tweaking the IMAP configuration on our servers to allow more concurrent logins, which should improve responsiveness for email clients such as Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Outlook, and smart phones.

We appreciate feedback on how we are doing!

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Runbox listed by backscatterer.org

October 10, 2012 Leave a comment

Some users may have had mails bounce recently  with an error referring to a blacklist called ips.backscatterer.org, or no clear error at all. This is caused by the sole blacklist runbox’ mailserver IP address is on, which is a list which only blacklists mail servers for handling mail bounces in certain ways. Many other mail servers does it in the same way we do, but our large volume and problems with the IMAP bandwidth quota (now solved) have probably caused us to be on this list on and off for years.

This is NOT a spammer blacklist in other words, and it is irresponsible and uninformed to bounce mails based on any single IP blacklist, but especially this one. And recently, it seems that far more services use this list in such a manner. If your mails have bounced from a domain where you have contacts, we recommend sending them the following link:

http://www.backscatterer.org/?target=usage

We may become delisted as of Oct 12, and will update this post then if so.

UPDATE: We are currently delisted, but will update this post if we are re-listed.

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