Instructure Plans to Move our Instance - Feedback Please!

[kristin_bayless]

We're a large K-12 district (15k students actively using Canvas).  I've been notified by Instructure that they need to move our instance to a different cluster and it needs to be done in the next few weeks.  I was also told that it would break token links and there is the possibility that some links to files will be broken.  We currently have 37k token links.   While a majority of these will be automatically reestablished when the students log in again, there are many (300-400) that I don't know what will be entailed in getting them going again.

We have grading for the next month+.   I've been assured that grades will not be affected, but I'm concerned about our automated loads and LTI setups.

Has anyone gone through this? I would really like to hear about your experiences, esp. with regard to the API processes and other loads. 

Thanks for your assistance!

[kona]

Wow! This sounds like quite a nail biting endeavor! I don't have any experience with this, but will flip it to a discussion (so no fear of looking for a right/wrong answer) and hope that someone will have some experience with this and be able to share.

As a side note, have you talked with your CSM about this and if they have other schools/Admin's you could talk with who have gone through this?

[kristin_bayless]

Hi Kona.  It was my CSM who initially let me know of the impending move.  The first thing I did was to ask for some contacts.  He provided some names, but I have not heard back from them.  Posting here was my other option as Instructure is wanting a date so they can proceed.  Trying to leave no stone unturned!

[kona]

Ah, thanks for the additional information and I hope some of the people you've already contacted respond sooner rather than later! To help get your post more visibility I'm going to share it with the general https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers?sr=search&searchId=7b9dbd92-9335-4457-8f4e-67569fe...‌ and https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/canvas-developers?sr=search&searchId=cf4177f7-7e05-4961-9613-...‌ groups to see if anyone there can help!

[rake_9]

Wow.  That would be nail-biting.  Do you have the impression you could push back and have them schedule this after your grading window?

[kristin_bayless]

Hi Valerie,

Sorry to be so long in replying to your message.  Yes, we were able to have Instructure delay moving our instance until after the year is complete.  We're still in session.  I'll try to remember to come back and post about our experience after the fact in case anyone else is going through this move.

[kristin_bayless]

I thought I'd provide an update for institutions that are told their instance will be moved.  We had a few issues:

- We delayed until after school was out, but while teachers were still working on grades.  We had a few teachers experience error messages when they attempted to log in at the same time the move was taking place.  We elected not to notify our users ahead of time.  I might rethink that decision.

- The connection to our Data was lost and lost for a long time.  We notified Instructure we were experiencing an error message in the Data screen indicating the connection had been lost.  I was told it would be restored in a few days, but following that we lost access to the Data screen entirely.  It took Instructure a few months to restore this.  My opinion is this issue slipped through the cracks due to the July timing and InstructureCon preparations.  The Data access authorizations had to be redone, which didn't take much time for us.

- Most of our LTI links restored themselves upon login, but not all.  Badgr is an example of one that needed to be restored.  Might be a good idea to let the vendors know this is happening in case errors come up later.

- We had an issue with our API loads the first time following the move because of a lost token, but once that was restored everything ran.

For the most part, it went smoothly.  I didn't hear of lost data, but this easily could have gone unreported since the move was done after the school year ended.

Hope this helps!