Some people still accessing old server after transfer (3 days after)

[HappymanUK]

All accounts were transferred from my old cpanel server to a new one. The ip address changes were made on Friday to the new server nameservers.

The majority of people are now accessing the new server (according to the web logs), but there is still around 5% of people using the sites on the old server.

Will it just be a case of waiting for DNS changes to take effect for everyone, or is there something else going on... ??

I was hoping to cancel and switch off the old server within the next day or so, but as it stands it would cause people to not be able to reach the site (although only about 5%).

Any help appreciated..

Thanks
Daniel

 

[krava]

Hello.

Make sure all domains are pointed to the new server properly. If they are fine then there is nothing wron on your side. Probably DNSs haven't been propagated for the mentioned visitors.

I guess all domains use your DNS servers and not their own/custom DNS.

Anyway, I advise you to stop all services on the old server and wait 2-3 days more.

 

[HappymanUK]

Hi krava,

Thanks for the quick reply.

All domains are pointed to NS1.MYSERVERNAME.COM and NS2.MYSERVERNAME.COM, which are now both pointing to the new server ip addresses.

Would leaving services running on the old server slow down the propogation at all ? - I didn't really want to stop httpd, as I rather visitors get something than nothing at all.

Also, we have just tried emailing ourselves, and it goes out through our ISP, but arrives in the mailbox on the old server....

Thanks again for your help,
Daniel

 

[krava]

Did you point your nameservers to the new servers 3 days ago ? If not, then it explains why some users access their sites on the old server still, the nameservers are still pointed to the old server for them.

 

[HappymanUK]

I made the changes to the nameservers IP address (at the domain registrars), approx 42 hours ago now.

Most people seemed to start using the new server within a couple of hours of the change.

I presume, I don't need to do anything on the old server with regards to the change?

Thanks again,
Daniel

 

[krava]

Yes, you don't need to do anything at all. Just wait 1-2 days more and everything will be fine.

 

[HappymanUK]

Thank you.

I was just being a bit too impatient

Daniel

 

[krava]

Happens. It is because you want to provide good service for your clients.

 

[rikgarner]

You can always use www.dnsstuff.com to do a cached DNS lookup test for a paticular domain, and see which major ISP NS's.

Whenever we are migrating a domain, we tell the client that they should expect 48-72hrs for the nameserver propagation to complete (you could drop the sites NS/A/MX TTL a week beforehand, which does help. 3600, which is an hour, seems to be optimal for shifting domains)

Rich

 

[mrcbrown]

Now if this is direct clients not just seeing stats still being hit, make sure clients reboot their systems, that will help flush out anything in the internal cache, or applications sticking to a old IP.

For Windows users if all apps using the server are closed have them type in:

ipconfig /flushdns

In the Run area - this will flush Windows Resolver Cache, helps speed things along quite well. I did a server swap a while back and one of the biggest things were some clients email clients held up the entire machine as after the move they were still checking and Outlook/AppleMail stuck to the old IP/Route to get to the server.

Hope it all levels out for you one way or another though.