Dedicated Server Migration Worries/Stress/Help!? - Syncing Xferred Accts/Data Loss?

[jprisant]

We are about to migrate from one dedicated server provider to another... unfortunately I am the one "most knowledgeable" and in charge of this. The new provider, LiquidWeb has proven top notch thus far.

There is only so much they can help with regarding the migration for liability reasons.

I am a bit worried about this migration because we have some business crucial, highly mysql db driven sites.

LiquidWeb will help me with DNS stuff and walk me through things as needed... I just fear I'm not asking all the right questions. Between LW and http://forums.cpanel.net/showthread.php?t=18294&highlight=synchronize+transfer I think it shouldn't go too badly... but the question i really have is data loss / syncing from old server to new. For some of our larger sites (~3-5gb)... I would really like to, and it seems it would make sense to an initial transfer then to a data sync of some sort... but it doesnt seem WHM offers this... what am i missing (related to discrepancies in data / email etc etc between old and new).

How can we test crucial sites after a transfer? IP testing won't work because the sites are dependant on subdomains (bad design i know... we are rearchitecting away from that though).

I was planning on transferring the more static sites on Friday night / Sat early morning, and then transfer the more intense and business crucial / client sites late Sat / Sun early morning... then doing the nameserver change/update.

Last time we migrated (last year)... the biggest problems we had were related to lost web mail. Unfortunately I did not keep a log of the experience, and don't remember too many specifics about it (dumb, I know).

What questions might I not be asking hosts / developers related to DB driven sites? What issues might I be overlooking? I know I'm not the first person in the world to do this stuff... but what do I need to be aware of? What, if anything, is lost in the transfer? I know we will need to replace our customized php.ini and related files... what else? What are some of your transfer / migration experiences?

I know I'm asking bad questions... unfortunately I am handling this, and am going to have to make the best out of it.

Sorry for the noob questions, I know the generalities and lack of knowledge can be annoying, but I really I appreciate everyone's help.

 

[WEB-PROS]

If you site is anything large than 500mb do not use the inbuilt, use the tutorial at this link.

http://faq.cpanel.net/show.cgi?qa=104700111009776

Also about testing the sites,

1/ In windows go to c:/windows/system32/drivers/etc/

2/ edit the file called "hosts"

3/ Add a line with the domain of the site and the ip address of the new server, then when ever you view that domain on your browser it will take you to the new server, this is only functional on that certain pc. Remember to remove this once you have finshed!!

Hope this helps.

 

[picoleto]

I've done transfers up to 1.7gb in WHM. Anything bigger then that usually fails/times out. So then i just use the pkgacct scripts in /scripts.

Account moves are really dependent on how big the site is. Using pkgaccts on sites up to 2.5gb is fine as long as the load on the server is ok. Anything above 4gb i usually try to find the bulk of the usage with df -h --max-depth=1 and then scp it over first. Depending on what you cut the space down to it either back to using WHM or just pkgacct. I have noticed scping large sites like 40gb and above there is some discrepancy with the disk space, but I havent heard any complaints.

I usually test my account moves with host file modifcations, like with what WEB-PROS recommend. Normally by taking a glance in List Accounts and clicking on the IP address of the site will show you that site on that server etc.

After the transfers if you are really worried about data loss then use rsync... Moving accounts should really be done at night or whenever your site has the most downtime (hit wise)