Migrating 300 web sites to cPanel server

[babakb]

I'm planning on moving over roughly 300 web sites to my cPanel server over the next few weeks. I plan on moving the web sites in four stages. Can someone review the steps as planned below and let me know if there is anything wrong with this plan?

Step 1. Setup a new account for each domain on the cPanel server and point the A records to the IP address for each domain on the old servers (each account there has a dedicated IP). Lower the TTL's to 10 min.

Step 2. Change my private nameservers to point to the cPanel server. After this change, all domains should continue to point to their account on the old servers without any downtime.

Step 3. Start migrating web sites. After each migration, change the A record for that domain to point back to the cPanel server.

Step 4. Close down the old servers.

I'm nervous about Step #2 because if there are any problems with the 'A Record' forwarding then all sites will be down.

Any thoughts?

[dalem]

Is it A cpanel server to cpanel server migration ?

[babakb]

Is it A cpanel server to cpanel server migration ?

No. It's a standard linux server. I've already spent quite a bit of time preparing for the move of the actual web sites. I've wrote some scripts to automate the moving of the files.

[dalem]

edit: looks good to me

[freedman]

Step 2. Change my private nameservers to point to the cPanel server. After this change, all domains should continue to point to their account on the old servers without any downtime.

I'm nervous about Step #2 because if there are any problems with the 'A Record' forwarding then all sites will be down.

I dont think this would be that big a problem. as long as your cpanel reports the address you want for name lookups, then it will continue to do so after you move things.

the only concern with this scenario you laid out is that you also want to freeze any updates to the old version prior to the move.
any uploaded/changed/delted files or database data from the time you start the move to the time you change the A pointers to the new server may or may not appear in the first one..

so.. if any of these run 'dynamic' sites, then you may need a step inbetween 2 and 3.

[babakb]

Yes, I'll probably suspend the accounts right after migrating each site and changing the A record to point back. With a TTL of 10 mins, I think suspending the account on the old server is the best solution to address this issue.