Cape Town Data Centre move FAQ

Our Great Westerford Data Centre will be relocating to Open Access Data Centres in Brackenfell, Cape Town. We answer some questions you might have about this move and its impact on your service.


  • When is the relocation taking place?

    The relocation will begin on Wednesday, 8 January until 19 February 2025. 

    Server moves will take place on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights.

    If you are a Web Hosting customer with a database, you will also experience a separate maintenance window with downtime on 18 January 2025 for 120 minutes between 20:30 – 06:00 SAST. Read more in this FAQ.

    You would have received an email in November notifying you of the date your server(s) and/or website(s) will be moved titled: “Date assigned – your move to our new Cape Town Data Centre”. 






  • Where are you moving to?

    We have secured space with Open Access Data Centres (OADC) in Brackenfell (Cape Town) and you will continue to be hosted by us.





  • How will I be affected?

    The maintenance window will be from 22:00 – 06:00 SAST. Servers will be downed from 22:00 and the expected downtime for your service will be up to 120 minutes. The additional time until 06:00 provides recovery time for servers that require manual intervention to be brought back online before regular business hours start.

    If you are a Web Hosting customer, you may experience two downtime periods if your website uses a database. This is because databases are stored on a specialised server, separate from the web server that hosts the website and email. Your database server and web server may be migrated at different times. Database servers will be migrated on 18 January 2025 between 20:30 – 06:00 SAST.

    Downtime can’t be avoided due to the nature of the move, which necessitates the relocation of all servers to the new facility.





  • What should I do to prepare?

    Managed Servers and Web Hosting:

    While we do daily backups on your behalf, we strongly recommend that you have your own, separate backup of your site content and databases. 

    Self-Managed Servers:

    The relocation will require you to power down your server(s) to move it to the new location. If you have not performed this action, we will be forced to initiate the power down at your own risk and will not be held liable for any data loss. 

    We will provide a date and time the server needs to be shut down closer to the time. We highly recommend you perform the following before the move, to ensure the seamless migration of your server(s):

    • Perform a server health check, specifically disk integrity and health and let us know if any replacements are required at least 2 weeks before your scheduled move.
    • You should have a disaster recovery process in place. Ensure backups are up to date and that they can be restored.
    • If you are running Windows on your server, please ensure that all Windows updates have been completed before the scheduled move date and that you have rebooted your server after applying the updates.
    • It is recommended to reboot servers that have not been restarted for some time before the move date to ensure they boot without issues.
    • Suspend/pause/reschedule scripts/processes which may run and fail during the maintenance window i.e. backups, cron jobs.




  • What if the proposed time and date don’t suit me? Can I request a different slot?

    Server moves occur on specific dates and times and we cannot guarantee exact move times. If your server cannot be moved on the scheduled day, you may request a different move date. Our team will assess feasibility and provide available options. 

    Please note that we cannot accommodate specific time slots. 

    Schedule changes must be requested at least two weeks in advance.




  • Why is it important that I power down my Self-Managed Server before my scheduled move time?

    To ensure the safety and integrity of your server and data, we kindly request that you initiate the server shutdown process from your end. A proper shutdown minimises the risk of data loss and system corruption. If you are unable to perform this action, our technical team will need to initiate a hard shutdown, which may potentially lead to damage to your server and operating system.








  • Will I be able to provision new servers in the Cape Town Data Centre?

    • You can provision new servers in the Cape Town Data Centre (Great Westerford) until 30 November 2024.
    • We recommend provisioning new servers in Samrand instead of the Cape Town Data Centre (Great Westerford). Please only use Cape Town if absolutely necessary.
    • All new installations and hardware upgrades will be paused at both the Great Westerford and OADC sites from 1 December 2024 to 31 January 2025.
    • Hardware failures at either location will be handled as normal.
    • Normal operations will resume at the new OADC site from 1 February 2025.




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