How can I move my site to a new hosting provider and have no downtime for my customers? (My website, webserver, and MySQL database appear to be online at all times).

I have my domain registered at godaddy.com
I have my current host at ************** with dedicated IP
I have my new host at Cartika with shared IP

The domain at godaddy points to:
ns1.**************.biz
ns2.**************.biz

Can I set up my new Cartika name servers to point to my old site's dedicated IP and set TTL at a very low level, and then change the domain at godaddy to point to the new Cartika nameservers?

This way as the change populates, everything is still pointed at my old hosting site.

Then I move my site over to Cartika, and once everything is tested and working, update the Cartika nameservers to point to the Cartika account?

Anyone see problems with this or have a better suggestion?

Thanks.

ZenMan

************** = a c c u w e b h o s t i n g

Hello ZenMan and welcome aboard...

Honestly, I think you are making this more complicated then it needs to be. Just drop in a ticket to our support staff and we would be more then happy to assist you with this migration.

Basically - the easiest way to do this is as follows:

- 1. take your site offline at your old provider for a few mins
- 2. backup your database and import it over to our servers
- 3. change the config file on your old servers to point to our db server
- 4. put your site back online with your old host (it will now be working from our DB server)
- 5. create your email accounts in our control panel
- 6. change your dns at godaddy to point to our nameservers

This will result in zero data loss and pretty much zero downtime (other then the few mins to backup the DB, import it into your new db server and change your config file to point to the new DB server)

Just as a final cleanup, after 24-48 hours, check your old email account manually via webmail or IP address directly in outlook and pick up any emails that may have routed over to your old server during propogation.

Hope this helps and once again, please do not hesitate in contacting our support staff to assist you with this move.

If you use SQL DB, you can do that "offline" in a matter of seconds typically. just one thing I'd note, if you have any file upload tool, community forums etc, once you have moved if it does not store to the DB I'd recommend disabling the function on the old side, that way you won't end of up with broken links, images, etc due to missing files or unsynced content.

If you use SQL DB, you can do that "offline" in a matter of seconds typically. just one thing I'd note, if you have any file upload tool, community forums etc, once you have moved if it does not store to the DB I'd recommend disabling the function on the old side, that way you won't end of up with broken links, images, etc due to missing files or unsynced content.

Hi Stephen, great points as ALWAYS :)

I think this is a MySQL DB

(My website, webserver, and MySQL database appear to be online at all times).

But, just to be certain, check with our staff before doing anything and I am certain they will be able to ensure things go smoothly :)