Best way to transfer DNS without Downtime?

Discussion in 'Site & Server Administration' started by amaze, Jul 21, 2006.

  1. #1
    Hi,

    I am currently hosting a site in the USA but am moving to a host in the UK. What is best plan of action to move DNS without having downtime?

    Thanks
     
    amaze, Jul 21, 2006 IP
  2. Nintendo

    Nintendo ♬ King of da Wackos ♬

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    #2
    Set the site up on the new server and then there won't be any down time. Now if there's a message board, then on the old server you might want to redirect to the IP address URL of the new location so people arn't posting on the old server while you move. Once every one is on the new server they won't be redirected to the IP address.
     
    Nintendo, Jul 21, 2006 IP
  3. GeorgeB.

    GeorgeB. Notable Member

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    #3
    If it's a forum just close the old forum for posting and ensure it's open on the new one.

    That way anyone that comes to the old forum won't be able to post and will see a message telling them why. If they see the forum is open for posting they know they are on the right server.

    - George
     
    GeorgeB., Jul 21, 2006 IP
  4. sreyas

    sreyas Well-Known Member

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    #4
    Setup your account with the new server. And change the DNS pointers. Since it may take upto 72hrs for correct propogation we need to keep both the sites during this time. But on old account you can write .htaccess code that redirects the old site to new site. For that just place the code in htaccess.

    
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteRule   ^/~(.+)  http://newip/~$1  [R,L]
    
    Code (markup):
    and after few days you can remove old one aswell .in this case you won't suffer any downtime.

    Its the same as what Nintendo suggested but little bit explained.

    Cheers Nintendo
     
    sreyas, Jul 21, 2006 IP
  5. wheel

    wheel Peon

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    #5
    And don't count on 72 hours as the turn around. I've seen cable providers in Canada take weeks to update their cached DNS. If it's a big or profitable site, give yourself at least a week or two running on both old and new servers to transition everyone.
     
    wheel, Jul 22, 2006 IP
  6. amaze

    amaze Active Member

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    #6
    That's a great help thanks!

    Its a pain as its a e-commerce site with a mySQL backend (also vB running on there) so having 2 sites running at once will cause issues with data. For example each time someone orders we increment the orderID... Of course if this is running on 2 servers it could be a problem as when we resync the data its going to be off...hmmmm!
     
    amaze, Jul 24, 2006 IP
  7. wheel

    wheel Peon

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    #7
    You can set up 'networking' in mysql so that both the new machine and the old machine are using the new mysql database - the old machine will access the database across the internet. This is normally turned off by default these days, but you could temporarily enable it during the transfer.
     
    wheel, Jul 24, 2006 IP
  8. amaze

    amaze Active Member

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    #8
    This is a good idea. I will look into this - thanks.
     
    amaze, Jul 24, 2006 IP