How to switch hosts without having any down time

How to switch hosts without having any down time

Switching to a new host can be a very smooth process or it can be very complicated. Following our steps will ensure that your move is a painless one.



The first step is to find the new host you want to be with and join them. Make sure not to cancel with your old hosting provider, and do not tell them you will be canceling. For the time being you switching host needs to be kept a secret from them, or they could terminate your site early and cause downtime.
At this point you should have hosting accounts with two hosting providers the old and the new one. You will now upload your entire site from the old host to the new one. This can be done by connecting to their ftp and downloading all your files. Then connecting to the new hosts ftp and uploading all your files. If you choose to make us your new host we will transfer your entire site over free of charge!
After you have all your files on both hosting accounts you will change your domain names dns. Your new host should have provided you with their domain name servers (dns). If they haven't contact them to find out what dns you should use for your domain name.

Dns usually looks like this:
ns1.thehostsnames.com
ns2.thehostsnames.com

Once you know what dns to use on your domain name you will go to wherever you purchased the domain name from to make the changes. If you purchased your domain name from your host you usually will need to ask them to make the dns changes for you. You will tell them this.... "Hello my domain with you is ____ my username is ___ and my password _____ please change my domain names dns to ns1.thednsyoureceived.com and ns2.thednsyoureceived.com

If you have any questions we would be more then happy to help you, or even make the dns changes for you.
Once your dns changes have been made you will need to wait two days before your site will load off the new host. During this two day period your dns is prorogating world wide, and your site will be bouncing from the old host to the new host every other minute randomly. Once the two days is up your site will only be loading off the new host.
48 hours should have passed now since you have updated your dns. If it has you will now contact your host you were moving from and cancel your account with them.If you completed all the above steps you have successfully switched hosts, with no downtime at all!


Source: HostGator (http://www.jdoqocy.com/nr68shqnhp46DEBB8C465965D66)

Visit the Web Hosting section of our vBulletin Product and Services Directory (http://www.vbulletin-faq.com/reviews/browselinks.php?c=5)

Thanks for this one Joey. What a pity I did not have your advice a few months back. I decided to pay a year in advance to my present host so as to save money on the monthly fee. I would emphasise that I have no hosting issues with the present server other than that I find their CP very poor and user unfriendly. Their support seems fine thus far.

Having taken a quick look at Hostgator's site via your link, I realise that there are far better hosts available for the same money - at least better in some very distinct ways. I was particularly impressed with Hostgator's control panel. It is very impressive. My present host's CP is a nightmare - so spartan that it's confusing.

Ah well, we all learn by our mistakes. Think I'll be switching to Hostgator once my year is up. Feels like a prison sentence now rather than a cost-saving measure. Sheesh.

Biggles LLB

Sorry to drag up an old post.

I'm currently on the 'download site from old host' part.

How do I go about putting vb on the new server? Will I just need to upload and change the MySQL references, or is it gonna give me a headache?

That should do it, Darwa. I assume you are importing your previous database? The major headache there can be (1) mismatched versions of MySQL or (2) time-outrs with a very large database.

If the latter, BigDump (http://www.ozerov.de/bigdump.php) can be a godsend:

BigDump: Staggered MySQL Dump Importer
Staggered import of large and very large MySQL Dumps (like phpMyAdmin 2.x Dumps) even through the web-servers with hard runtime limit and those in safe mode. The script executes only a small part of the huge dump and restarts itself. The next session starts where the last was stopped.

Description: Staggered import of large and huge MySQL Dumps (like phpMyAdmin 2.x dumps and even GZip compressed dumps). Do you want to restore the huge backup of your mySQL database (or a part of it) into the new or the same mySQL database? You can't access the server shell and you can't import the dump using phpMyAdmin due to hard memory/runtime limit of the web server. BigDump will do it even through the web servers with hard runtime limit and those in safe mode in a couple of short sessions.

Wanna know the headache I found?

I couldn't export my database with phpmyadmin, so I asked my host to look into it.

They then somehow managed to delete my database accidentally.

I think I'm in shock.

Holy crap. They don't have a backup? Do you have a recent backup?

I fell for their 'award winning' backup service blurb. Full backup every 24 hours they said, so I didn't worry about doing my own.

Amazingly, they haven't been offering the backup service since February, but neglected to tell me.

I've got the vbulletin.sql backup from about 2 weeks ago (that I did out of curiosity), but I can't seem to get it to 'take' on the new server.

What happens when you try to import that vbulletin dump? What errors do you see?

Corrupt file.

I've decided to start afresh. I figure once the nameservers have been updated, the members will register again if they're interested.

A defeatist attitude, I know, but I'm absolutely gutted and not thinking straight yet.

1. find out if your old host has a redundant backup (every decent host should)

2. open that SQL file in a plain text editor like Crimson Editor (freeware) (http://www.crimsoneditor.com/) and look to see what you can salvage - you may be able to reconstruct more than you think

1. No go.

2. I was trying to read the file in notepad - crimson makes it much, much easier to read. Thanks for that.

Any idea what the 'correct' sequence is to proceed? ie do I import the database, then install vb?

Holy smoke. My sympathies.

I fortunately had a member on my site post a link to The Tao of Backup (http://taobackup.com/). That and stories like this keep me motivated. Although I admit I only backup my database once a week.

2. I was trying to read the file in notepad - crimson makes it much, much easier to read. Thanks for that.
Also, Notepad has a physical file limit so it won't load database dumps beyond a certain limit (64kb?).

Any idea what the 'correct' sequence is to proceed? ie do I import the database, then install vb?
I would think install vBulletin first and then import. You may need to add an SQL phrase for "if not exist" to avoid getting duplicate table errors.

Syntax:

In Crimson Editor, replace all

CREATE TABLE

with

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS

Thanks so much minstrel.

I've repaired an successfully imported the backup, but how do I get the forum to reflect this new database? Probably an easy question, but my brains a bit jellified.

If I understand your question correctly, you would just make the change in the config.php file

Something must have gone wrong. It still looks like a virgin forum.

Find and edit this part in \includes\config.php (download the version from your server to your hard drive first - then edit it):

// ****** DATABASE TYPE ******
// This is the type of the database server on which your vBulletin database will be located.
// Valid options are mysql and mysqli, for slave support add _slave. Try to use mysqli if you are using PHP 5 and MySQL 4.1+
$config['Database']['dbtype'] = 'mysql';

// ****** DATABASE NAME ******
// This is the name of the database where your vBulletin will be located.
// This must be created by your webhost.
$config['Database']['dbname'] = 'database_name';

// ****** TABLE PREFIX ******
// Prefix that your vBulletin tables have in the database.
$config['Database']['tableprefix'] = 'tables_prefix_if_any';


You can probably leave these parts alone:

// ****** FORCE EMPTY SQL MODE ******
// New versions of MySQL (4.1+) have introduced some behaviors that are
// incompatible with vBulletin. Setting this value to "true" disables those
// behaviors. You only need to modify this value if vBulletin recommends it.
$config['Database']['force_sql_mode'] = false;



// ****** MASTER DATABASE SERVER NAME AND PORT ******
// This is the hostname or IP address and port of the database server.
// If you are unsure of what to put here, leave the default values.
$config['MasterServer']['servername'] = 'localhost';
$config['MasterServer']['port'] = 3306;


Make sure this part has the correct username and password for the new database:

// ****** MASTER DATABASE USERNAME & PASSWORD ******
// This is the username and password you use to access MySQL.
// These must be obtained through your webhost.
$config['MasterServer']['username'] = 'username';
$config['MasterServer']['password'] = 'password';


Upload \includes\config.php to your server.

If the forums, etc., do not show up, go into your Admin CP | Maintenance | Update counters and then run the following updates:

Update User Titles and Ranks
Rebuild Thread Information
Rebuild Forum Information
Fix broken user profiles (optional)
Update User Names
Update Post Counts

I finally got it sorted.

My new host has a 'reload' button for MySQL.

Thank you so much for your help.

Glad to hear it, Dave. :)

Doing it that way will cause loss of information from the database though, while users are propagating, they will be posting on the different hosting accounts databases.

When you get your new hosting accounts IP, you'll want to allow connections on your old hosting accounts database to this new IP.

1. After you get your new hosting all setup, all your files moved, edit your config.php and where it says localhost, replace that with the IP OF YOUR OLD HOSTING ACCOUNT.

2. Then you'll need to grant connections to your MySQL from that IP. You may need to ask your hosting company to do this for you, if you dont know how.

Now this new config.php will use the database that remains on the old account. You wont loose any posts from people posting on different databases while DNS propagation is going on. After 48-72 hours, simply backup the database on the old account. Move it to your new account, and replace the config.php to point back to localhost.

That's some pretty sound advice there TAF, thanks.

It is - no question. But I would add -- make sure the DB was backed up beforehand and you saved it on your home computer.

I always moved my sites using two domain names. I have more than a few that I'm not using at any one time. ;)

When I moved to VPS: I updated my DNS for odjt.com first waited for it to propagate. Then closed my boards at ourdjtalk.com. Tared the file system and database. wget'ed, untared on the new server, propagated the database, updated the config file for the new DB. Then reopened the boards.

On my old hosting account, I put up a simple HTML page explaining that we're moving to a new server with a 3 second meta redirect.

After that, I went to my registrar's control panel and updated the DNS for ourdjtalk.com.

Once DNS for ourdjtalk.com was updated, I copied all the files from the odjt.com directory to the ourdjtalk.com directory and put my 301 redirect for odjt.com back into place.

It seems like a lot of work but it's really quite easy if you have shell access. This way there is no possibility of loosing posts between the DBs on the old/new host. The biggest PITA is waiting for DNS updates.

It is - no question. But I would add -- make sure the DB was backed up beforehand and you saved it on your home computer.

Yes. I always literally make 3-4 back ups that get downloaded, 3 stay on the server, and 3 get sent to the remote backup space. there is nothing i fear more then a corrupt DB backup..or two. :D


And Danny Boy, if you use the steps outlined in this thread, and my post. You eliminate the need for two domain names.