Topic: having a maitenance window ... and informing before hand

[jnsunkersett]

Hi,

I maintain a website, which is j2ee application (deployed in Tomcat) and fronted by Apache httpd (using mod_jk)

Currently for maintenance/ bug fixes I stop and start tomcat/ apache whenever required - no proper maintenance window.

When this happens, users who might be using my application, suddenly get a 404 or Service not found errors in a black and white page.

Going forward, to introduce some discipline...

A few hours before I want to apply/ deploy a fix (which would require a server stop & start)

I wish to,

1. Show a ticker (marquee/ rolling display) saying maintenance is scheduled for xx:xx.
(this ticker should not be displayed everytime but say 2 hours before the scheduled time)

2. When into the maintenance window, I do not wish that users be able to browse.
They should be politely informed that maintenance is underway and so all functionality is disabled. 'please return later'

My question:

Are the above 2 possible at the Apache httpd level (or will I have to do something in my j2ee app/ tomcat)

if yes, any tips, will be appreciated.

thank you
jeevan

[James Blond]

I have no experience with mod_jk, cause I use mod_proxy_ajp. No clue why there is a 404 instead of a 503 Service Unavailable.

However You could define a custom error page in that case.

ErrorDocument 404 /pathOnApache/error.htm
or
ErrorDocument 404 http://external.example.com/error.htm

I have no clue if that work, but you can give it a try.