moving servers - dns questions

[code]

Hi

I have a reseller account, and for various reasons i'm looking to move on to another host, within the next few days. I only have a few sites hosted on this account but i'm hopefully looking for a way to transfer everybody with minimal downtime.

The advantage i think i have here is that on the new account i'm looking to use a different domain as my main domain than the one i'm using currently.

we'll call them mydomain.com and mynewdomain.com

Currently my hosted sites are resolving to ns1 & ns2.mydomain.com

Now, if i setup the new account with mynewdomain.com while leaving the other account and domain active, wait for the new nameservers to propogate then inform people to point their domains to ns1 & ns2.mynewdomain.com will they suffer any downtime?

Once they make the change, what's the usual process? will their domains continue to resolve to the current nameservers untill they are able to resolve to the new ones, meaning they change almost seemlessly, or will there be a time while their DNS is updating that the sites are not resolving to either, bearing in mind that both of my domains and all the nameservers will remain active throughout.

I hope my rambling makes sense, if anybody can clear this up a little or suggest the best way to move everybody i'd be grateful, thanks :)

[soapsud]

the way you describe sounds just fine, and will result in just about seemless transition. there will be a slight window of possible "conflict" where requests will go to either host, depending on the client's ISP's DNS (ie, if they are pulling the new nameserver information or the old stuff)

if you have access to your old nameservers, you can help yourself out by lowering the TTL for a few days, and then switching the IP addresses in your old DNS as well (to make for a more "instantaneous" transition to the new nameservers)

[code]

Thanks, i didn't think about changing the IP's also, i guess that makes sense.

hopefully all goes well :)

[felix220]

Originally posted by code:

Hi

I have a reseller account, and for various reasons i'm looking to move on to another host, within the next few days. I only have a few sites hosted on this account but i'm hopefully looking for a way to transfer everybody with minimal downtime.

The advantage i think i have here is that on the new account i'm looking to use a different domain as my main domain than the one i'm using currently.

we'll call them mydomain.com and mynewdomain.com

Currently my hosted sites are resolving to ns1 & ns2.mydomain.com

Now, if i setup the new account with mynewdomain.com while leaving the other account and domain active, wait for the new nameservers to propogate then inform people to point their domains to ns1 & ns2.mynewdomain.com will they suffer any downtime?


Yes.. if you change the NS for your hosted sites domains, they will take the usual 12 - 48 hours to propagate... regardless of anything :)

Once they make the change, what's the usual process? will their domains continue to resolve to the current nameservers untill they are able to resolve to the new ones, meaning they change almost seemlessly, or will there be a time while their DNS is updating that the sites are not resolving to either, bearing in mind that both of my domains and all the nameservers will remain active throughout.

No, this way will not be 'seamlessly'.. if you change domain.com from ns1/ns2.nameserver.com over to ns1/ns2.NEWnameserver.com.. there will be downtime.. while the domain propagates the new delegation...




I hope my rambling makes sense, if anybody can clear this up a little or suggest the best way to move everybody i'd be grateful, thanks :)

If you are going to move all your sites, here's what to do.. PROVIDED that the old host allows you to stay in control for a little while..

move the accounts to the new server... change the zone file on the old server to point to the new IP's... for each account.. eg.. the A entries should point at your new IP's for each account..

THEN.. once they are all moved.. PLUS you move your main domain and the name servers.. then change the IP's for your name servers at the registrar.. and that is the most seAmless way of moving.. once the new NS IP's are showing at verisign-grs.. then you can shut down the old accounts.. .. promise.. :)


edit: what I mean is DON'T change the name servers for your client domains.. just the IP's of the existing nameservers.. if you get my drift..

edit[2] oops .. unless you use that fabulous deal with OpenSRS where you can alias the new nameservers to the old nameservers at the verisign-grs root servers.. ..