Moving Servers: Best Practice.

[connorlong]

I have a sever (Server A) with its own IP addresses and NS setup, I will be dumping this server in the coming days. I have a new server (Server B) with a new IP address range and NS. What I would like to do is copy all the accounts from one server to the other.

Is it possible to copy the contents of my daily backups from Server A to Server B and then do a restore backup from Server B of the files I have coppied accross?

The other problem is that most of my accounts have a co.za domain. When I update the NS with the registra, it will take about 24 hours to resolve (unlike .com). Can I somehow point / adjust the DNS of server A to point the mail Server, HTTP etc to Server B until the domains have completely resolved ?

Thank you.

 

[mohit]

This thread might help you.

hi,
check this thread.
http://forums.cpanel.net/showthread.php?t=35046

see ya,
mohit

 

[connorlong]

hi,
check this thread.
http://forums.cpanel.net/showthread.php?t=35046

see ya,
mohit

Thanks Mohit.

I did see that post. And I will try it if there is nothing else newer. It just seemed that the post was a little dated and I wanted to make sure the information is as current as possible.

As mentioned. I am using a different IP address range. Will this be a problem?

Regards

 

[SoftDux]

You can use the backup feature in WHM. If you have the root account on server A, you could use the "copy accounts from another" server feature to automatically copy everything for you

 

[connorlong]

hi,
check this thread.
http://forums.cpanel.net/showthread.php?t=35046

see ya,
mohit

How would I change the port settings in the script? I am not using Port 22?

 

[brianoz]

Yes, it is a potential problem in that you're changing the IPs, however with a little careful management you'll be fine for a very quick cutover.

The three critical things that occur to me are:

(1) - Use the "rinetd" daemon (install from source) on your old server to transparently forward access attempts to the old IPs to the new IPs;

(2) - Edit the DNS zone files (/var/named/*) to change all the IPs to point to the new server

(3) - [optional] 24 hours before changeover, reduce the DNS zone TTLs (/var/named* as above) to be something like 600 seconds. This won't present much of a load on your server (DNS packets are tiny) if you have a low domain count - although be warned that if you host over 2000 domains on that server, you may have a problem with DNS load (actually over 3000 - but you may be alright).

Don't forget that if you have Child DNS IPs setup at the registrars, you'll need to change those or some of your DNS requests will end up being aimed at the old server.

The rsync script posted in the thread referenced above will be a factor of 10 times faster than copying accounts with cpanel or restoring cpanel backups. Don't forget to edit the nameservers/IPs in /var/named on the new server afterwards though.

Cheers