Luminate CMS Web Site Launch Instructions
To ensure a smooth deployment, Blackbaud has developed a five-step process which can take as
little as two days to complete. Please read through this entire document in advance of your
launch date to familiarize yourself with the procedure.
Blackbaud recommends identifying in advance who manages the DNS entries for the client
organization, since they may require additional lead time to make the necessary changes.
Organization
Site Freeze Date
Launch Date
Temporary Hostname
Hostname
Alias Hostnames
IP Address
The Name of the Organization
January 1, 2010
January 2, 2010
something.pub30.convio.com
www.theprimarydomain.org
theprimarydomain.org
theprimarydomain.net
www.theprimarydomain.net
69.48.252.158
Here are the definitions of a few key terms used throughout this document:

Temporary Hostname – The intermediate domain name assigned to the Luminate CMS
Web site while it is implemented and tested, i.e. the staging environment. Typically, this
domain name looks like yourorg.pub30.convio.com.

Hostname – The primary domain name assigned to the Luminate CMS Web site. Upon
site launch, this is the domain by which end users will access the site. Typically, this
domain name looks like www.yourorg.org.

Alias Hostname – Additional domain names assigned to the Luminate CMS Web site.
Typing an alias hostname into a web browser will bring up the site, though the location
bar of the browser will revert to the hostname as the end user clicks around the site.
Typically, alias hostnames look like yourorg.org, yourorg.net, www.yourorg.net, etc.
Step 1: Site Freeze
At 9am ET on the site freeze date, all edits to the organization’s Web site must stop. From this
point until the launch has been completed, you will not be able to utilize the Luminate CMS
administrative tools. All administrators should log out and no content should be added,
modified, or removed.
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Step 2: Hostname Migration
On the morning of your site freeze date, Blackbaud will initiate the launch process by running a
tool that will rename the organization’s web site from its temporary hostname to its real
hostname. Your Luminate CMS installation will be reconfigured to respond as your hostname.
From this point forward, the site will no longer be available at the temporary hostname. A
search-and-replace tool will update links in wrappers and Web page bodies. Depending on the
size of the organization’s web site, this process may take 2-3 hours.
Step 3: Testing
After Blackbaud has completed the hostname migration, you can begin to test the site. Testing
includes ensuring that site navigation, site search, and standard and custom components are
functioning as expected. Depending on the size of the organization’s web site, this process may
take 1-2 hours.
When testing is complete, contact client project team members so that they can test the site.
This requires making a small configuration change on the tester’s local machine to make the
local machine “think” that the hostname and alias hostnames point to your Luminate CMS Web
site. On a Windows machine, this file is typically located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc.
On a Mac, it’s usually at /etc/hosts. Save a copy of the existing file somewhere safe and then
open it using a basic text editor. Add the following line to the file:
69.48.252.158
69.48.252.158
69.48.252.158
69.48.252.158
www.theprimarydomain.org
theprimarydomain.org
theprimarydomain.net
www.theprimarydomain.org
After saving the changes, close out all browser windows and then re-open and access the
hostname. Click around the Web site to verify that everything is working as expected. Once
satisfied, revert your hosts file back to its original state.
Step 4: DNS Changes
After testing is complete, have the client organization’s DNS manager add a DNS alias, also
known as a CNAME record, for the www portion of the CMS hostname and point it to the
Luminate-provided domain. The Luminate-provided domain will commonly have the format of
[shortname]-live-cms.convio.net. Their DNS manager should also configure a DNS IP record (also
known as an A record) for the non-www version of the CMS hostname and point it to the CMS
IP. This IP will commonly be 69.48.252.158, but is subject to change. For example:
www.yourdomain.org IN CNAME [shortname]-live-cms.convio.net.
yourdomain.org
IN A 69.48.252.158
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Any CMS hostname aliases should be configured as an additional CNAME records that point to
the A record for the domain name.
www.yourdomain.net. IN CNAME yourdomain.org.
yourdomain.net. IN CNAME yourdomain.org.
Once these changes have been made, visitors will begin to see the new web site when they
browse to their hostname or alias hostnames. Depending on a variety of factors including the
TTL on your DNS entries, it can take as long as 24 hours for the changes to propagate across the
entire Internet. During this period, some people will see the new web site and others will see
the old one.
As soon as you can see the new web site, you may resume use of the Luminate CMS
administrative tools.
Step 5: Run Link Checker
Once the web site has launched, Blackbaud recommends that you run a link checker to find and
resolve any broken links.
Luminate CMS Launch Instructions, v6
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