How do you guys handle site transfers?

[rawkinrich]

Say you sold a site and need to transfer it to the buyers host. Do you..

Back up the site,
Change the nameservers on the domain to new host
FTP into new host and transfer the files
Site will be down for a day at most

But what about the dynamic stuff? Like mysql forums, photo galleries etc?

Rich

 

[Edwin]

Set up a complete copy of the site on the new IP address, change the DNS to point to the new IP address, and wait for the traffic to drop to 0 on the old IP address. Zero downtime that way.

If you change DNS hosting to ZoneEdit (for example) then the DNS cache will refresh in an hour or less (usually) rather than the 24 hours+ some registrars require, meaning even sites with dynamic stuff such as forums need hardly be affected. Close the forum for an hour or so, copy it immediately to the new site, switch the DNS then reopen the forum on the COPY only. In other words, people coming to the old IP will continue to see the "forum closed" message, while those going to the new IP see the forum as usual.

 

[dotcomgiant]

and i think it can be done from the buyers server using the control panels.

 

[jojoyohan]

With MySQL you can just back it up into a textfile and then run it throught phpmyadmin.

 

[rajen]

If both the hosts have cpanel then there is a option within WHM to transfer entire site.

Now, after transferring the site, change the dns but dont terminate the site from your server, the dns should propagate in about 24-48 hours.

What i mean by dont terminate the site on your server is: the users wont know that the site is down as the site will keep resolving on your server till the dns get propagated

Hope this helps.

Good Luck,

Rajen