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What's involved with switching hosts?
| Posted by JLock, 06-17-2006, 11:44 PM |
| Hello all:
I have been building sites for small and large clients for a decade and now I'm looking into offering hosting. As I look around and try to gather information, I've discovered that while doing one's homework before selecting a higher-tier hosting provider is critical, its also no guarantee that you won't need to switch providers at some point. So, here's my question: If you should need to switch providers, do you need to do a DNS transfer and move files for >each< site individually, which could be quite a task if you have several hundred (or more) clients, or is there a level of automation that can be applied to the job perhaps some sort of script? Your insights will be both helpful and appreciated.
Thanks,
JLock
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| Posted by nax9, 06-18-2006, 12:39 AM |
| It depends on the control panel you choose.
cPanel to cPanel is easy. Plesk to Plesk, etc, most of the time, it's just enter details and click. I'm sure you get it
If going from one panel to the other, you'll have abit more work involved, such as manually backing things up and dumping DB's, uploading, and losing some settings, but it can be done.
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| Posted by dotNiagara, 06-18-2006, 12:45 AM |
| It depends. If the domains are not linked to a nameserver you control (for example, ns1.yourdomian.com), you may have to go through and change them one by one, depending on your domain registar.
As for the data itself, to echo what Anthony said, if you are switching servers but not control panels, this task is rather easy. Some providers of reseller and VPS accounts will even assist you with this task.
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| Posted by cywkevin, 06-18-2006, 02:12 AM |
| Best way to switch a host is to back up your files. Try to transfer your stuff to your new host. If it doesn't work use the backup to restore on new host.
Change billing information to bad information on old host. Ie change your cc number to 55555555555 this will prevent them from continuing to bill you.
*sadly in today's market you may have to do this
Properly cancel your old hosting contract.
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| Posted by premium20, 06-18-2006, 04:38 AM |
| Most of the times, your new provider will be able to migrate the content for you. However, it still makes sense to do backups on your own.
Changing nameservers is very crucial. Before you do that, make sure that you have checked whether the sites have been properly and completely transferred.
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| Posted by cristinz, 06-19-2006, 02:56 AM |
| I've had to move hosts a couple of times and waiting for the nameservers to update is probably the biggest hastle. It is especially important, if you have an interactive site (e.g. site members), to manage the risk that data is updated on the old site - before the nameservers update - and does not get transferred to your new host.
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| Posted by Orc Webhosting, 06-19-2006, 05:30 AM |
| You can go around that problem by using the database on the new server *before* switching nameservers. It will be a bit slower in the interim for those people who are still hitting the old server, but it gives you a 100% data integrity.
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| Posted by JLock, 06-19-2006, 09:50 AM |
| Hi everyone:
Thank you all so much for all the wonderful and informative feedback. It sounds like my best course of action is to look for a higher-level hosting provider that offers cPanel AND a dedicated name server **AND** to religiously back up EVERYTHING.
There is one point I'd like to make particular that I understand properly: WK - Anthony wrote, "cPanel to cPanel is easy. Plesk to Plesk, etc, most of the time, it's just enter details and click." So then, is it correct to say that the cPanel app will allow me to switch DNS info AND move site files for EACH site dirrectly from within it?
Again, many thanks,
JLock
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| Posted by nax9, 06-19-2006, 10:48 AM |
| cPanel will create the DNS zones on the new server, but you can only change the nameservers and child nameservers at the registrar.
If you're a reseller and your clients already use your nameservers, it's as simple as only changing the IP addresses your two nameservers point to.
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| Posted by carolinahosting, 06-19-2006, 07:27 PM |
| If you have DNS access on the old host you could re-direct your A record to the new IP while the transfer is in place to temp resolve to the new server then update DNS so email's, databases, etc will resolve faster at the new host then to wait for DNS to update at the register.
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