DIT Drupal Hosting Migration to Pantheon Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)


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Where can I get more information on the migration process?

DIT hosted a meeting August 2nd, 2021 to share information about the Pantheon Drupal service and the migration process. Visit Pantheon Campus Information Session to view the presentation. We will also answer any questions you may have at this time. Contact dit-drupal-migrate@umd.edu for more information. 

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What are the important dates?

Pantheon Timeline
  • July 1st, 2021: Pantheon service available billing begins for all Drupal sites.
  • November 2nd, 2021: Vendor support for Drupal 8 ends.
  • January 31st, 2022: Deadline to move Drupal 8 sites to Pantheon.
  • August 31st, 2022: Deadline to move Drupal 7 sites to Pantheon.
  • November 28th, 2022: Vendor support for Drupal 7 ends.

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Why are we migrating to a new hosting provider?

DIT and the Office of Strategic Communications worked together to provide an enhanced version of the Drupal hosting service for our customers. Pantheon is a best-in-class hosting provider and their service provides many benefits including:

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What versions of Drupal will Pantheon host?

Due to the upcoming end of support, all Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 sites will need to be upgraded to Drupal 9. Drupal 7 sites will not be migrated to Pantheon. Drupal 8 sites can be migrated as is, but will be required to upgrade to Drupal 9 no later than January 31, 2022.

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What assistance will DIT provide?

DIT will work with site owners to develop a migration plan and will provide coordination of the migration process with the vendor. In some instances, development work may be necessary to successfully prepare your site to be hosted by Pantheon. In those cases, we recommend engaging the vendors who have experience in higher education.

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Why am I being billed before I’ve moved my site to Pantheon?

The three-year contract with Pantheon, and associated charges, begin on July 1, 2021. Billing is necessary to bring Pantheon online and provide additional services starting on day 1. The length of the contract allows UMD to leverage the maximum discount available to us.

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Why are you charging now after providing a hosting service for free in the past?

Pantheon charges will begin on July 1, 2021 regardless of the number of sites hosted on that service. In order to provide a more robust service, DIT is moving to a shared cost model where both the division and customer contribute to the cost. Migrating the Drupal hosting service to Pantheon will allow us to provide a better customer experience as seen below.

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What are the hosting tiers?

The Drupal hosting tiers are as follows.

Number of site visits per month

Tier name

less than 25,000

Basic

25,000 - 50,000

Performance Medium

50,000 - 150,000

Performance Large

Many known bots and crawlers do not count towards site traffic limits, nor does Pantheon meter requests for static assets (images, PDFs, CSS, JS, etc.).The visit counts if it:

For more information about the cost for each tier, see Drupal Hosting.

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How will I be charged for Drupal services?

Each site owner will need to provide a KFS number to be associated with their site(s). Drupal services will be charged to the associated KFS number using One Bill. Site utilization will be reviewed every 6 months and the associated pricing adjusted if needed.

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How and when are pricing tiers adjusted for each site?

Site utilization will be reviewed every 6 months and the associated pricing adjusted if needed. KFS budget owners will be notified for approval.

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I don’t want to utilize Pantheon. Can I find my own hosting provider?

Yes, you may utilize your own hosting provider. However, your site must still be migrated according to the timeline above and adhere to all accessibility and USM standards. The cost of using the DIT-managed Pantheon service is significantly less than to individual hosting contracts.

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How do I request a new site hosted by Pantheon?

Please use the following form to request a new Drupal site on the Pantheon platform: Drupal Hosting Request

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Is access to Pantheon support separate from site owner/administrative access?

No.  Individuals with site level access in Pantheon will be able to open support cases with the Pantheon team.

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Will the source code repository be migrated from Gitlab into Pantheon?

Yes. 

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