For the past few months, work has been underway to upgrade our old Windows web servers to new hardware and software. As with our workstations, it is necessary to move our servers off the Windows NT operating system as it will no longer be supported by Microsoft. It is essential that the web servers be properly maintained and frequently updated, in order to reduce the chance of being hacked.

There are two parts to the upgrade process. The first step is to move all web materials that need restricted access to all SLAC Windows account holders, or a subset, to our intranet server at https://www-internal.slac.stanford.edu.

This has, unfortunately, caused a large number of broken links throughout the SLAC web and probably broken bookmarks as well. We are diligently trying to find and fix broken links. You can help us by reporting these on the form at:
https://www-internal.slac.stanford.edu/serverupgrade/brokenlink.html.

We are also in the process of adding search capability to this server so it will be easier to find information stored on the server.

The second step is the physical move of all the files that make up the webs on the server. We make an initial copy of all the files on a web server to the new hardware and software at a temporary address, and set up all the authoring permissions and database connections. Web authors are asked to confirm that everything is working correctly on the new hardware.

Then, at an agreed upon time, the web server is disabled, a final copy of files made, permissions and function spot-checked, and the new server is set up at the permanent address. For the servers processed so far, the down time has been two hours or less.

We have only two remaining servers to upgrade: www-group.slac.stanford.edu and www-project.slac.stanford.edu. Authors have been or will be contacted regarding their role in the upgrade process.