The initial file copy of the entire /home partition on ICE has been completed. The /home partition contains virtually all of your user files (except for MySQL Databases). As a result, this means that the most time consuming portion of this migration has already been completed. At this time you are still residing on the old server. Nothing has changed with your site, yet! We are updating this blog to let you know, as a result of the /home transfer finishing, that we are able to schedule a definitive migration time for the ICE server.
ICE will be migrated on: Tuesday, April 8th 2008 @ 3:07 AM EST
What is happening in the interim?
Between this posting and the migration time, we are performing all remaining migration tasks. This includes copying over configuration files, an initial pass of your MySQL databases, and generally setting this server up so that it is “ready to go” come migration time.
What can I expect at the time of migration?
Precisely at the time of migration we will be shutting down the MySQL service on the old server. This is to prevent any further updates/changes to your databases. Why? We want to make sure that you do not lose any database information whatsoever. Once MySQL is disabled on the old server, all of your databases will be transferred to the new server. Copying MySQL databases will only take 5-10 minutes. This process makes it virtually impossible for you to have any inconsistencies in your database or otherwise ‘old’ or ‘out-of-date’ data. Your databases are effectively ‘frozen’ on the old server, moved to the new server, and made available only on the new server. When the MySQL database copy completes, a few last minute changes to the new server configuration will be made and then our nameserver records/hostname records will be modified to point all traffic to the brand new server. Your site will then be immediately back online and functional on the new server. MySQL will remain offline on the old server to prevent database inconsistencies.
How will I know when my site has been moved?
All websites are being moved all at once at the same time. Once the migration has completed, we will update this blog with additional details. That blog update will contain a specific time when all sites have been officially migrated (likely within 30 minutes of the scheduled migration date)
Will I encounter any problems with the migration? Will my site be down?
Regardless whether your account is a shared hosting account or a reseller account, you should not expect any server downtime beyond the aforementioned 15-30 minute window for the migration process. During that time we will be changing our nameserver records and other dns records to point to the new server location. While these record changes are instant on our network, it can take a varrying amount of time for all ISPs world-wide to clear their stale records and update their records to the appropriate/new records.
It is due to these potential stale records that your computer and/or your ISP may be serving you in the interim which can cause problems with accessing your site post-migration.
In efforts to make the migration more clear in whether or not stale records are affecting you, we will be routing all website requests that are are being made to the old server (due to stale records) to a page that looks like this.
If you see that “This Site Has Moved!” page after the official migration time, then either your computer or your ISP is serving you stale dns records and causing you to view the old server. That very same page (which you can view right now via the aforementioned link) contains instructions for attempting to flush any stale records from your local computer as well as steps for attempting alternative DNS resolution servers to ‘get around’ your ISP’s stale records if that’s the problem you are having.
Is there anything special I should know?
Whether you’re on a shared hosting account or operating with a reseller account, it is critical that you read through this entire blog post and the ‘migration completed’ post that will follow once the migration completes. These posts contain critical information about most problems you may encounter with the migration as well as how to resolve them.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Details on how to login directly to the old server and directly to the new server will be posted once the migration is complete.
Potential Issues & Resolutions
[ I am missing a file on the new server! ]
While we are doing our best to keep the /home information (all of your site’s data except MySQL databases) up-to-date, there is so much information on this partition that a new file or modified file may be missed and not transferred it was uploaded or changed within 48 hours prior to the scheduled migration date. To resolve this, simply login to the old server and utilize FTP to transfer the content over to the new server. Full server details (old login and new login) will be provided upon migration completion via the “Migration Completion” blog update.
[ I am making changes to my site, but they have no effect! ]
As your Server IP address will be changing, this means that your old cPanel and old FTP information will only modify the old server location. Any changes you make to this old server will have no effect on your site that resides at the new location. If changes you make do not seem to be taking effect, please make sure that you are using the new Server IP that will be provided to you in the “Migration Completion” blog update.
[ My email client is redownloading all of my emails! ]
Due to the fact that your email will be migrated to a brand new physical server, some mail clients may treat 100% of your existing mail as ‘new’ mail. This may cause the mail client to redownload all of your mail again as it incorrectly assumes it is truly new mail. While it is not possible to stop this from occurring with your mail client if it happens, the redownload of mail will only occur once. When you’ve redownloaded your mail initially, everything should be back to normal thereafter.
ATTENTION RESELLERS — IMPORTANT INFORMATION…
If you are a reseller and you make use of custom nameservers, these custom nameservers will not automatically point to the new server. Despite the migration taking place at the scheduled migration date, your custom nameservers will continue to resolve your website to the ‘old’ server and thus the “This Site Has Moved!” page will display indefinitely until these custom nameservers are corrected. There are two changes that need to be made before your custom nameservers properly point to the new location. The A Records (Address Records) for those nameservers must point to the new nameserver IPs. This is something that will be automatically done for you. You will not need to make that change. The second change will be that you need to register your custom nameservers at your Domain Registrar to update them to the new nameserver IP Addresses for the new server. This is something you will need to perform. These new nameserver IP addresses will be provided to you upon migration completion via the “Migration Completion” blog update so that you can make these changes at essentially the same time that we perform similar changes to our own nameservers. Once you’ve registered the new nameserver IPs at your domain registrar, all of your sites will effectively have been moved. At that point the “This Site Has Moved!” page will accurately apply to you and your clients’ accounts.