Switching to a course‑hosted VPS: a technical checklist for your IT contact

Moving your tee sheet and other GolfSuite modules to a course‑hosted virtual private server (VPS) is one of those tasks that looks tidy on paper and gets messy when someone forgets a port or the DNS TTL. This checklist is written for the IT contact or general manager who needs a concise, technical list to hand to a vendor or use internally.

Before you sign anything: clarify roles and expectations

First, decide who owns what. A course‑hosted VPS can be offered in many flavors: the vendor manages the VPS, the course manages it, or a hybrid. Ask for clear documentation on responsibilities for:

• VPS provisioning and OS patching
• Application deployment and updates
• Monitoring, alerting, and first‑line support
• Backups, retention, and restore testing
• Security (SSH keys, firewall rules, MFA, certificate renewals)

These are not checkbox items you can gloss over. If a package says “we’ll manage the server,” get specifics. For a deep dive on vendor monitoring expectations you can take to a demo, see What to expect from a vendor’s VPS monitoring and support (practical questions for demos).

Network and DNS: ask the right questions

Network setup is where most goof ups happen. Get answers and document these items before the cutover:

• Public vs private IPs: Will the VPS have a static public IP? If not, how will DNS be handled?
• DNS TTL: Reduce the TTL well ahead of cutover to speed rollback if needed.
• Bandwidth and latency expectations: Ask the vendor for typical bandwidth use and headroom estimates for peak booking periods.
• Outbound email and SMTP relay: How will booking confirmations and notifications be delivered? If the VPS uses a third‑party SMTP relay, get the authentication and IP allowlist details.
• VPN or bastion host: For admin access, prefer a VPN or a hardened jump host rather than exposing management ports directly to the internet.

Practical note

If your course network restricts outbound IPs (some municipal setups do), confirm whether the vendor needs fixed outbound IPs so your firewall rules won’t block traffic unexpectedly.

Firewall and port checklist

Don’t start opening ports like you’re chasing a lost tee time. Lock down to minimum necessary and document everything. At a minimum, confirm the following (and ask the vendor which specific ports their stack requires):

• HTTPS (TCP 443) for all public web traffic—ensure TLS certs and auto‑renewal are handled.
• HTTP (TCP 80) only for redirects to HTTPS; block or redirect otherwise.
• SSH (TCP 22) or custom management port—restrict to specific admin IPs and require key‑based auth plus MFA when possible.
• Database ports (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL) should never be open to the public internet. If remote access is needed, use an internal VPN or SSH tunnel.
• SFTP/FTPS for file transfer—again, restrict to known IPs and prefer key auth.
• SMTP/Submission ports (25, 587, 465) if your server sends mail; prefer an authenticated relay or managed email service.
• Monitoring agent ports and metrics endpoints—document what the monitoring system will probe and from which IPs.

Tip: create a single firewall change document with a short justification, exact source/destination IPs, ports, and planned revert steps. Treat firewall changes like surgery—schedule, announce, and test.

Access controls, keys, and secrets

Who has root? Who has deploy rights? IT teams should insist on:

• Least privilege for all accounts. Separate build/deploy accounts from admins.
• SSH key management and periodic rotation. Avoid password logins for admin shells.
• MFA for vendor and course administrative portals where available.
• Secrets stored in a vault (not a check‑in or a plain text file). Document where API keys, DB passwords, and payment tokens live.

Monitoring, alerts, and escalation

Monitoring isn’t just “do you have New Relic?” It’s thresholds, routes, and people. Define:

• What gets monitored: uptime, CPU, memory, disk, database replication lag, queue backlog, and critical application processes.
• Alert thresholds and noise control: set thresholds that mean something during peak booking windows.
• Alert routing and on‑call: who gets paged at 2 a.m. and what qualifies as an incident?
• Dashboard access: give your ops team read access to monitoring dashboards and incident timelines.

For vendor demos and negotiation, the article linked above (What to expect from a vendor’s VPS monitoring and support) has practical questions to use during selection.

Backups, retention, and restore testing

Backups are only useful if you can restore them. Cover these points explicitly:

• Who takes backups: vendor or course?
• What is backed up: databases, file storage, configuration, TLS certs, and any attachments.
• Frequency and retention: daily DB dumps, incremental snapshots, and how long snapshots are kept.
• Offsite copies and encryption at rest and in transit.
• Restore runbook and tested restores: insist on at least one restore test before a production cutover.
• RTO and RPO targets: documented, realistic goals for recovery time and acceptable data loss.

If you’re replacing a legacy tee sheet or planning a migration, pair this checklist with the migration plan in Replacing a legacy tee sheet: costly cutover mistakes and how to avoid them and the phased approach in Migrating a tee sheet with minimal downtime: a 5‑phase plan for courses.

Cutover planning and rollback

Schedule the switch during a low‑traffic window, reduce DNS TTLs in advance, and have a rollback plan that includes:

• A verified snapshot of the legacy system before cutover
• A checklist of post‑cutover tests (login, booking, payment flow test, notification emails)
• A communication plan for staff and golfers if something goes sideways
• A post‑cutover monitoring watch period with tightened alert thresholds

Payment integration and PCI considerations

If you’re keeping an existing payment processor, document the technical flow up front: where card data is captured, whether tokenization is used, and who stores tokens. Northpoint prefers to work with a course’s payment relationships when practical; evaluate processor compatibility before changing systems. See When to keep your payment processor: evaluating technical compatibility before you switch for a straightforward checklist.

Final checklist for the IT contact (ready to hand to a vendor)

• Primary contact for vendor and course for network changes and maintenance windows
• List of required public and management IPs, and preferred DNS TTL values for cutover
• Firewall rule set with exact ports, protocols, and source CIDRs
• SSH access plan: bastion host, key rotation cadence, MFA requirement
• Monitoring scope, alert thresholds, and on‑call escalation path
• Backup schedule, encryption, retention, and restore test dates
• Payment processor integration notes and tokenization responsibilities
• Cutover date, rollback plan, and post‑cutover validation checklist

Moving a course’s tee sheet and related services to a course‑hosted VPS doesn’t need to be a cliff dive. Be methodical: document, verify, and test the pieces above. If you want help tying these technical items back into operations—bookings, scoring, food ordering, and staff workflows—see our migration and operations resources or talk with Northpoint about GolfSuite.

Talk With Northpoint About GolfSuite — See whether Northpoint GolfSuite fits your course. Tell us how your golf course operates today and we can discuss what a GolfSuite installation could look like for you.

Related reading: What to expect from a vendor’s VPS monitoring and support, Replacing a legacy tee sheet: costly cutover mistakes and how to avoid them, Migrating a tee sheet with minimal downtime: a 5‑phase plan for courses, and When to keep your payment processor: evaluating technical compatibility before you switch.