Dedicated Server(s) Data Migration with minimal Downtime

May 10, 2008 / Dedicated Server Hosting

These are the points you should remember before transferring a data from one dedicated server to another:-

  1. First thing you should remember to give notice to your visitors and users that your website will be down during a specified period of time for planned migration. Ideally, this time should be in the middle of the night (to most of your visitors), to minimize the inconvenience to clients.
  2. Prepare DNS for the move:You should make sure that all your DNS records set to something like an hour. This should be done 48 hours before your move. By doing this will ensure that when you move the website and switch the IP address in the DNS records, people will get to the new location quickly. If you want to double-check the website before it comes back up, add in a new “A” record that already points to the new server’s IP address.
  3. Take inventory:You should make a list of all things which you wants to move. Does your web server have a special setup for your website? Do you have any cron jobs running that you will need to set up on the new server? If someone else developed your website and you are not sure about this step, ask them.
  4. Put your website on “hold”: Create a small page that just has your website logo and something to the effect of “Sorry. We are moving to a new server. We will be back in couple of hour or so on.” Put this page in place of your web directory and make sure NO pages on your website can accessed. Keeping people out of any page will result in no loss of data.
  5. Set up Email, cron :If your email goes through an account on your server. Or you have any cron jobs or additional setup to do on the new server, do it now.
  6. Once everything set up bring your website back. To do this, simply swap the IP address in the DNS to the new server’s IP. And you should see your website come up pretty quickly.
  7. After a day or so, change the TTL in your DNS records back to what it was before . If you forget to do this and leave the TTL at 1 hour. It can create an unnecessary burden on your DNS server.

If everything goes well, you should be able to move a data-driven website or blog with very minimal downtime and with no major problems.

Dedicated Server Migration one of the most important process and should be done carefully.