Switching Servers!

[kdipaolo]

Hello everyone,

Our company is moving calzuro.com over a different server, so were pointing our nameservers to a different servers which means there is a propogation period which im told can take up to 24 hours. It would be great if the change could happen instantly so we dont lose any orders but I know that is not possible. Do you guys have any suggestions on how we can keep the site running while it propogates to the new server?

Thanks!

[stevesh]

It can depend on your host, but my experience is that nameserver changes happen in minutes, not hours. If it were me, I would put the site down for maintenance (assuming a very busy site), make the change, then monitor the site. It won't propogate everywhere in the world at once, but once you can see it at the new address, bring it back live.

[swguy]

You have to be careful though - sometimes it *appears* to have taken place in minutes, but trying again in a few hours returns the old page. Things won't settle completely for 48 hours.

If you put the old site in maintenance and bring the new site up, people will be able to order as long as they can correctly resolve your domain name. There are other tips here:

http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?...fferent-server

[DrByte]

The smartest is to SHUT DOWN the old store (Set Admin->Configuration->Website Maintenance to true) IMMEDIATELY when you're ready to move.
DO NOT TAKE ANY NEW ORDERS while the propogation is in progress.

Your downtime can be as little as 5 minutes!!!!! See below:

More specifically, this is what I'd do:
a) 2 days before moving, update the domain's DNS TTL to 300 seconds instead of whatever it's at now (often 14400). Remember the old value.
b) Follow the move instructions as described: http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?...ve-my-zen-cart and test the new temporary site
Do some test orders, make sure things are working right.

c) Ready to switch: Set live store (old server) into Website Maintenance= True
d) Take a database backup (because you need to copy the entire database to the new server again so you can keep all the updated orders/customers/etc that happened since your first testing started)

YOU WILL NOT TOUCH THE OLD SERVER'S STORE ANYMORE!!!!

e) Import that database into the new server
f) On the NEW store, turn off Website Maintenance
g) TEST AGAIN on new server

h) Update DNS to point to new server.

Now, in 300 seconds your visitors will start seeing the new server instead of the old one.

i) Next day, set the TTL back to the original default setting.
j) Delete old store from old hosting account.

NOTE: This is all discussed in the FAQ article I mentioned: http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?...fferent-server