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What does "go-live" mean?

"Go-live" refers to the process of replacing your organization's old Web site with the new one (in CMS) or making it available under www.ndsu.edu for the first time if it didn't exist before.

Before go-live, your site is not available under www.ndsu.edu, so it is not likely that visitors will find the site. It enables you to publish content and preview the site without it being seen by visitors.

After go-live, your site becomes available under www.ndsu.edu. Once it is live, any changes to the site are available to visitors immediately after they are published. The login address for authoring live sites remains unchanged from the links listed on the CMS home page.

How to "go live?"

To go live, you should submit a help request with the following information

  • The name/address of the new site
  • All known addresses of your old site. Some sites had aliases so more than one address pointed to the same 'home page.'
    [Note for Ag Ext sites]
  • When go-live should occur, if there is a certain time window you need to work around. If there is a schedule to work around, we recommend submitting your request at least 3 working days in advance

What happens next?

Upon receiving your request, the proxy service will be configured to map your site under www.ndsu.edu . While editing and previewing the site in TYPO3, you may have noticed the URL of workspaces.ndsu.edu/yoursite. This will be mapped directly to www.ndsu.edu/yoursite.

Go-live is generally completed within 2-3 business days. While you wait for this change to occur, you may wish to re-visit the go-live checklist to verify that essential steps are complete.

NDSU Search will be configured to include your new site during the CMS go-live process. It generally takes at least 7-10 days after go-live before your new site will be available using the NDSU Search service. Learn more about CMS + NDSU Search.

What will happen to our old site? Our links?

For now, the old site files (on "Webdev") will not be changed or deleted during go-live. In the event you realize something from the old site was missed during the migration to CMS, you can still connect to Webdev (e.g. by SFTP/SCP) and download the files to your workstation for reference. After go-live they will not be available via a public Web address.

How long will old site files remain on the old Web server?

Webdev is scheduled to be decommissioned on 23 November 2009.

Before the "Webdev" server is retired, you must back up all files or move them to another server. You can attend a SWAT session to get help backing up your files from Webdev.

Details on the status of Webdev have been sent by email to people with Webdev accounts. Information is also embedded in the Pubweb documentation.

What if people visit your old site?

During the go-live process, redirects will be installed to help visitors find your new site (for example, if there are old brochures or Web bookmarks in use that refer to the old site). Next time you order new printed media, be sure to update the printed addresses to reflect your new site URL.

The server administrators will not install redirects for poorly-planned brochures that refer to non-existent Web addresses. Plan early and test often.

Plan ahead for your new site

If possible, alert your colleagues during the early stages of CMS migration that your organization's Web address may change so they can proactively order new media using the new URL.

The one and only URL that your site will have (and the only one that should be published after go-live) is listed on the CMS site status page. No matter what anyone else tells you, this is the only address your organization should refer to as "your" Web address. If it is incorrect according to the status page, you should notify us as soon as possible.

Note for Ag Ext sites

Since many Agriculture Extension Web sites are hosted on AgExt servers, such as www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu, you should communicate your redirect needs to AgComm for processing. Because NDSU-IT does not manage these servers, we do not have access to install any redirects from the sites on those servers to the www.ndsu.edu/yoursite Web pages. Please note that we are working together to identify a solution to make this easier for you and your colleagues in the future.

Last updated: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 6:00:28PM

Site Manager: Web Master
Published by Enterprise Computing and Infrastructure

Enterprise Computing and Infrastructure
Phone: (701) 231-7961
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