KnowledgeBase Articles » PerfectMail Updates and Upgrades

Friday, November 23, 2012, 11:45

PerfectMail Updates and Upgrades

Category: General

Solution ID: 00000199

Summary:

How does PerfectMail perform upgrades and data updates?

Answer:

- KB: PerfectMail Software Development Process - KB: PerfectMail Updates and Upgrades

PerfectMail is an actively developed product with regular releases to rules, signatures, block-lists and code updates.

Updates: Updates to PerfectMail occur on a regular and ongoing basis. Your server will check for updates to its spam and virus settings every 10 to 15 minutes to quickly adjust how it reacts to spam threats.

Upgrades: Periodic code releases are made to add more tools or make improvements to our anti-spam engine.

Notes on Upgrades

It takes approximately 30 seconds to apply a PerfectMail upgrade; no e-mail will be lost. The upgrade process consists of: a download phase, where the new release is transferred to your server; and an upgrade phrase, where the new release is installed. We have structured the upgrade process to minimize downtime and take advantage of existing e-mail practices to make the upgrade process invisible to your users and e-mail peers.

1. PerfectMail support staff will be available for 72 business hours after an upgrade.
2. Normally, PerfectMail upgrades will be made between Monday morning and Wednesday evening; ensuring the availability of PerfectMail support staff, customer support staff and a user population to identify any issues that may arise. However, if a significant bug is found we may opt to publish a maintenance update outside of this window. In any case, support staff will be available for 72 hours after the upgrade.
3. Your PerfectMail server will send you an upgrade notification e-mail after the upgrade.

The Upgrade Process

We provide a 72 hour post install support availability window, where staff must be available to deal with any upgrade issues.

The upgrades themselves occur seamlessly on your PerfectMail™ server. The latest upgrade is downloaded to your server; after which mail services are suspended and the upgrade is applied. The total downtime is usually about 30 seconds, with no loss of e-mail.

After the upgrade is finished your PerfectMail™ server will send you an e-mail notification.

Staggered Upgrade Scheme

We have a staggered upgrade release schedule to minimize any disruption to your Mail Server. Prior to general release PerfectMail is tested on our Development, Alpha and Beta sites. After successful deployments through these three server groups it becomes available for general release, being pushed to upgrade groups: 'A', 'B' and 'C' in a progressive release schedule.

'A' sites receive their updates on the Monday of the general release; 'B' and 'C' sites receive their upgrades later in the week, or even in the following week.

At any time, if there are any reported issues they are assessed and appropriate actions are taken.

Tags: perfectmail, antispam, e-mail, code, program, package, data, update, upgrade, procedure, notify, notification

Link to this article: https://perfectmail.com/kb/perfectmail_upgrades_updates

Updated: Friday, November 23, 2012, 11:45

-- David Rutherford