I have a friend who said this

If you really want no downtime, and have access to modify the DNS zones, you can set the TTL's on the zone files to 0 the day before the move. Then, when you make the move, don't change the DNS servers. Just have the old DNS servers point to the new IP addresses. This change will happen instantly. Then, you can switch it to the new DNS servers. If it takes 24 hours, it won't matter, since both the old and new DNS servers are pointing to the same IP addresses....

Well, I have to transfer my accounts from one server to another server and I don't really understand the TLD // DNS Zone things.

Can someone explain these to me?

Thanks,
Cricketman -------------------+ :)

The TTL is a setting that instructs other DNS servers how often they should try to come and grab new data.

You shouldn't set it to 0. Setting it to zero will most likely get it ignored and have the opposite effect as most DNS servers will try to ignore values that are too low.

Try for 900 in your TTL (i.e. 15 minutes)

This is as good as instant. Do note this still doesn't work 100 % as some DNS servers will still ignore it.

Do allow 24 hours or more for this to propagate. Make sure that the serial number is incremented.

Other than that, yes, you can point it from the old to the new after the move of each account.

But that's not all. You will still need to go to the registrar and update your nameservers IP to the new IPs on the new server. I doubt you want to keep the old server up just to point to the new server (and there's no need to)

After that just keep the old server up for another week or so.

It is also advisable that you shut down dynamic sites during the move as there can still be DB desync especially if the sites has heavy traffic as a move can take many minutes if the site is large enough. Then after the move, enable the site on the new server, as well as point the DNS.

Any time you transfer dns or servers, it's bound to get hung somewhere, there is absolutely no way to guarantee no downtime. When I have to move sites, though , here's what I do. Usually, the change takes affect (almost) immediately, but it can still take a bit.

A> Transfer sites, ensure everything is working
B> Edit dns resolvers, ip's make sure everything is correct (even @ the registrar).
C> edit the domain.cf on the new server, copy everything into the clipboard (or something)
D> paste the copied info to the domain.cf on the OLD server
E> restart named on the old server.

Like I said, this generally ensures quick transfer speed, but it really does all depend on the ISP/proxy server's cache policies.

G'luck

If you search WHT there is a guide on using iptables to forward all requests to a new server. Simply move all the content to the new server then load the iptables rules to have everything forward and you should have no problems.