Making Software Changes to a Web Site

Background

It is desirable to minimise the time a Web site is unavailable. However it may be necessary to bring a Web server down in order to carry out essential maintenance. This document lists some areas to consider if you wish to minimum down time.

Planning

The key to any form of critical path situation is planning. Planning involves being sure about what needs to be done and being clear about how it can be done. Quality Assurance is vital at this stage and final 'quality' checking is often the last act before a site goes live or a new release is launched.

Prior to Down Time

• Collect statistics on your site and find out what time and on what day it has the least number of visitors and activity. If it is possible (staff allowing) choose this time to take the site offline.
• Before bringing the site down hold a meeting. At this draw up a schedule of what needs to be done and who will complete each task. Create a checklist of testing to be done.
• If the whole site will be offline post a maintenance page stating that your site will be down temporarily. Make sure this page is created in advance.

During Down Time

• Make all modifications to the site such as installing new software, changing databases etc.
• Review all configuration settings and check that the correct files are in place.
• Check all server services are running. Ensuring services such as secure sockets layer (SSL) are running is vital if you are working in a business environment.
• Check any INI, property files, or other configuration files that may have been changed. A list of configuration file that may change could be created prior to down time.
• Use the checklist to check all other relevant change areas. You should look at:
  • Visual changes - you could add icons to new pages
  • Functionality changes
• Run some general user tests, such as ordering a book, retrieving information from the database, submitting a form. It is worth anticipating in advance some scenario-specific check areas that can be looked at.

After Down Time

• Again run some general user tests. These should be run from inside and outside your firewall and on a variety of PCs, browsers, etc.
• Check that all links to third parties are working correctly.
• Keep an eye on how the site runs for the next few days and watch for cracks.
• It is important that all the technical support team are notified of any changes that have been made and a problem reporting system is in place.
• Have some form of software or system installed that can inform you of unexpected down time or errors [1].

Conclusions

Advance preparation is vital if you want to minimise time your site downtime and avoid confusion when installing new releases.

References

1. Error Detection on the UKOLN Web site, QA Focus, UKOLN,
   < http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/case-studies/case-study-14/>