Minimizing traffic loss and preventing downtime in a server migration comes down to planning. If you do not take care when you move your website, significant outages can take place. This translates to a number of potential negative consequences for your business including revenue loss, impact on search engine rankings, and damaged customer relationships.
Most failed server migrations can be traced back to poor planning and/or a lack of careful execution of a plan. If planned and executed right, successful migrations can result in no downtime or data loss. At minimum, you can severely reduce the impact of a server transfer by following this easy 5 step approach.
What you need to pull this off:
- Server environments running parallel at your current host and new host. This is a minimum requirement to transition smoothly because taking your old servers down before uploading your data on new servers equals major downtime.
- The ability to control DNS transfer at the record level with the ability to control Time to Live (TTL) – either through a control panel or via helpful hosting company admins. This is critical in minimizing the time it takes the rest of the Internet to recognize your DNS changes.
- Attention to detail, because without it you may lose critical data.
Step 1: Setup DNS at your new host before the cutover.
A great way to execute this transfer is to set up DNS at your new host before the “real” DNS cutover. In the new host’s name servers, point the appropriate DNS records related to what you are moving (http, etc.) to your current servers at your current host and set TTL reasonably low (about 10-60 minutes). Most networks on the Internet will recognize DNS changes based on Time to Live, which means if you set this up right, once you make that real cutover traffic will flow to the new servers much quicker. By default, this type of transfer would take anywhere from 12-24 hours to be recognized. That is a lot of time to have customers visiting both sets of servers.
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