Forum Moderators: phranque
When my friend and I started our site five years ago, we never thought we'd get to the point where we would need to think about getting a dedicated server. The site was meant for fun, but it looks like a lot of people like visiting the place.
Anyway, we are looking at prices for various hosting services, and we found a place that has good hardware at a reasonable price. What we're concerned about is how one goes about transfering all of their files from the old server at one company, to the new server at the other. Is this something that the webhost usually does themselves, or will we have to manually upload everything to the new server? My biggest concern is transfering all of the database information since it could royally mess up our ability to display ads if we make a mistake doing it ourselves.
In a nutshell, I guess what I'm asking is what are some of the standard practices with webhosts when moving a site from one server/company to another? Do most companies usually help with this sort of file transfer for those who may lack in the technical skills to do it themselves? Am I worrying too much?
Anyway, if anyone can lend some insight into this, that would be really great. :)
Tips: (assuming a Linux server 2 server)
Hopefully you have access to SSH in which case you can dump the databases you have into SQL files even tar and zip them up all at once. This is alot easier and more reliable than using phpMyAdmin. Just Google up "backup mysqldump" and read a bit.
TAR and GZip your site folders with a tar -zcvf your_folder > your_file_name.tar.gz
Transfer the files from server to server using ftp (ftp yoursite.com or your_IP_address).
Reverse the process and bing, bang, boom. You're done.
I did my switch myself, but my site was rather small. I just FTP'ed everything over to the new host, zipped up my databases and reinstalled them on the new server, etc. Then I made sure everything worked properly for a few days. Finally, I redirected my domain to the new server.
You might want to check with your host as they may have some free tips to give you. Or may offer to help you out for free or a nominal charge.
It can take at least 24 hours and sometimes a lot longer to get all nameservers pointing to the right server.
Yes, but you can overcome the lag by editing your hosts file on your PC so you will always get directed to the correct IP
But your visitors will be using DNS servers to find the IP address and this is what takes the time to propogate.
Switching to a new host can be a very smooth process or it can be very complicated. Following steps will ensure that your move is a painless one.
1. The first step is to find the new host you want to be with and join them. Make sure not to cancel with your old hosting provider, and do not tell them you will be canceling. For the time being you switching host needs to be kept a secret from them, or they could terminate your site early and cause downtime.
2. At this point you should have hosting accounts with two hosting providers the old and the new one. You will now upload your entire site from the old host to the new one. This can be done by connecting to their ftp and downloading all your files. Then connecting to the new hosts ftp and uploading all your files.
3. After you have all your files on both hosting accounts you will change your domain names dns. Your new host should have provided you with their domain name servers (dns). If they haven't contact them to find out what dns you should use for your domain name.
Dns usually looks like this:
ns1.thehostsnames.com
ns2.thehostsnames.com
Once you know what dns to use on your domain name you will go to wherever you purchased the domain name from to make the changes. If you purchased your domain name from your host you usually will need to ask them to make the dns changes for you. You will tell them this.... "Hello my domain with you is ____ my username is ___ and my password _____ please change my domain names dns to ns1.thednsyoureceived.com and ns2.thednsyoureceived.com
4. Once your dns changes have been made you will need to wait two days before your site will load off the new host. During this two day period your dns is prorogating world wide, and your site will be bouncing from the old host to the new host every other minute randomly. Once the two days is up your site will only be loading off the new host.
5. 48 hours should have passed now since you have updated your dns. If it has you will now contact your host you were moving from and cancel your account with them.
If you completed all the above steps you have successfully switched hosts, with no downtime at all!
