migrating servers

Hi - I am moving some of my domains from one directadmin server to another.

I know I can do the following from the admin:
1. Start the backup from directadmin
2. download the tar file to the new server
3. Restore the site

However, I have questions:

1. How does one ensure mail delivery does not get interrupted?
2. When restoring the backup, does it overwrite any files that might already exist? Some of my sites I am moving are almost 40gb in size and I want to move them one part at a time.
3. When is the right time to update the DNS entries to point to the new server?

Thanks
kunal

Hello,

Ideally you should low TTL for DNS a day or two before you start moving domains, it will help to change IPs: https://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=87

When restoring backups Directadmin will overwrite all existing files. It does not delete existing data before restoring. So if you deleted emails in your mail program and then restored emails from backups, you will need to delete the emails once again.

Usually we do the following when migrating big accounts:

1. lower TTL
2. export/import DA users without MySQL, Emails, and sites.
3. sync homedirs with emails and sites using rsync, dump/export/import MySQL.
3. change IP in DNS
4. configure traffic proxying from the old server to the new: all possibly used ports
5. final sync homedirs with emails and sites using rsync.

That's it.

hi - thank you for the quick response. I have never used resync before.

Could you help me with the commands i need to use?

Also, will rsync:
1. copy the mysql database too?
2. overwrite already copied files?
3. delete files that exist in the new location but not in the old folder?

i appreciate the help!
thanks

I see you don't know what rsync is and how it works. Well if you want to learn how to work with it you'd better start reading existing documentation about it. Internet has many how-tos and guides on the matter. Search "rsync files over ssh".

If you don't want to learn then you have two options:

- use default user backups in DA and export/import users
- or get someone to do it for you.


Rsync can be used to clone MySQL databases, but I would suggest using it in your case, when you don't have enough experience with it. And I don't want any responsibility, just in case if anything goes wrong with commands which I could post here. I don't know your setup.

Rsync can be used to overwrite already copied files

Rsync can be used to delete files that exist in the new location but not in the old folder