Switching off an old web hosting admin system after almost two decades
Summary
Manuel Schmitt bids farewell to the admin server admserv, used for almost two decades, and keeps old port 81 bookmarks working. admserv provided the administration interface for web hosting packages. At times the service was known as Siteadmin and Personal.
Ideas
- Admin services used for many years develop their own names, ports and user habits.
- A small compatibility service can resolve outdated bookmarks in a controlled way.
- Even successful internal systems need a planned retirement at some point.
Insights
- Good shutdowns take the users’ memory into account as well as the new architecture.
- A clean decommissioning is an operational milestone of its own and not an incidental deletion.
Facts
- After the shutdown, a small Apache service on port 81 still delivers a notice.
Recommendations
- Take inventory of old entry points before a shutdown.
- Watch access to the compatibility endpoint and only remove it once non-use is proven.
References
Read the original article on Hostblogger
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