Changing servers and IP address

Is google ready?

[trillianjedi]

I remember a thread a couple of months back where it was suggested that it's not a good idea to be moving host machine at the moment, as it seemed that google was caching IP addresses and was taking several months to get the new IP's in line and switch over properly.

I can't find that thread now, sorry.

Is that still the case at the moment as we need to switch a site over to a different server (glad to say extra traffic is the reason!).

I know I can do the 301's etc, but I can afford to wait a bit - I'd rather have it switch over as quick as possible.

Thanks,

TJ

[mars9820]

just put the new server online and keep the old server online as well for a couple weeks.

As soon as you see googlebot on the new server it will be time to say bye bye to the old server.

Experience is that google follows the move quite fast nowadays. :)

I would not suggest 301 or 302 redirects since your URL will not change just download all your files and upload them on the new server :) (exact copy).

In case you have a database running you have to take care of sync. for a few days since users will most likely connect to both servers until their ISP updates the DNS records.

[trillianjedi]

It is very database driven (forums and some client-side software integration). The database server is residing on the next machine down in the rack, so that shouldn't matter anyway - the IP addy of the DB won't change.

So, general consensus is it's a good time to make the move?

I remember this thread from a couple of months ago saying now is not a good time to be moving, that's all.

You're right about the 301's of course - ignore that comment - my brain is very slow today!

Thanks,

TJ

[alika]

We moved our servers and changed our IP address last Thursday -- and we never went out of Google. Still the same rankings.

Before the move, we feared that we would lost our rankings, but that fear did not materialize.

[mars9820]

I forgot 1 thing.

You should go into your local DNS and set the times on a very short period (1 hour or so)...the default TTL is 3 days I believe.

By doing this a week in advance you are moving even faster to the new server with most of your traffic :)

[RussellC]

I just moved my site and was very worried as well. I set up the site completely on the new server and then switched the dns and left the old site up. Within 2 days googlebot was crawling the new IP.

[digitalv]

I've never heard of Google indexing IP addresses, is that for real? What's going to happen when some jackass gets banned and they happen to be on a Shared hosting IP address with say 1,000 other users also using that IP?

[mars9820]

no its not that.

The problem was that Google only fetched the DNS once in a very very long time.

Because of that reason Google was quite slow to follow to a new server. However this all is solved and changed as you can read above.

[trillianjedi]

Exactly mars9820. That's why I was concerned - it's about delay and having to run two servers side by side for an extended period (months rather than days).

Anyway, thanks for the replies guys, that's given me the confidence to get on with it.

TJ

[klickman]

I can only relate my experience. We changed servers last month and to be very frank and honest the Googlebot never missed a beat.

Now I understand also that our hosting company updates it's dns listings every 24 hours. This may be the reason everything went smoothly.

At any rate we had no choice because our previous hosting company's server was down for 3 days straight and we just couldn't afford to keep losing revenue (We make our living off the Internet).

I have read many post concerning how to go about moving your server here on WW and the effects with Google. I was planning on making a move anyway (was just to scare because of the unstable situation with Google)however, due to our server always being down we just decided to cut our losses and move and pray that the transition would go smoothly and It Did!

Just my 2 cents!

[renee]

when i transferred my site to a new server/ip, i noticed that for several days, almost a week, gbot was crawling both ip addresses. so the different bots must be driven from several dns'.

the moral is not to switch off the old server until you're definitely sure that gbot is not crawling it anymore. otherwise those pages crawled through the old server ip will go away.