Questions about doing server->server transfer

GoranTornqvist

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Joined
Sep 13, 2004
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67
Location
Stockholm
Hello,
I'll be doing a server->server transfer of all accounts soon.
I've read this:
http://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=57
And it's all clear...but I have a few questions.

DNS: Will all dns lookups to the domains on the server be sent to the new server or the old, how is this stuff handled? Do I need to transfer all the domains to the new IP at the registrar?
Both servers has different IPs and some domains look like this at the domain registrar:

NS ns1.serverdomain.com
A 192.168.0.1 (OLD IP)
NS ns2.serverdomain.com
A 192.168.0.2 (OLD IP)

and some only list nameserver info like this:
NS ns1.serverdomain.com
NS ns2.serverdomain.com

I've *heard* from nunames support that the IP-adress isn't used when looking up the nameserver and it's the FQDN that is used...is this true for all top domains?

So how will the top domain nameserver know that it should send all queries to the new server...is it enough to just shutdown the old server or what? :)

Another question: Is there any way to have the new server have the same IP-adress as the old server? I then need to change the IP of the old server...but I guess that DA will stop working then because the IP in the license is invalid.
 
Last edited:
GoranTornqvist said:
DNS: Will all dns lookups to the domains on the server be sent to the new server or the old, how is this stuff handled? Do I need to transfer all the domains to the new IP at the registrar?

You need to register the new IP#s for the nameservers at the registrar where the nameserver domain is hosted. This is not the same as changing a DNS record or the address associated with the IP# of the nameserver. Each registrar supports this, but differently, so you'll have to ask their support team if you cannot figure out how to do it.

Both servers has different IPs and some domains look like this at the domain registrar:

NS ns1.serverdomain.com
A 192.168.0.1 (OLD IP)
NS ns2.serverdomain.com
A 192.168.0.2 (OLD IP)

and some only list nameserver info like this:
NS ns1.serverdomain.com
NS ns2.serverdomain.com

I've *heard* from nunames support that the IP-adress isn't used when looking up the nameserver and it's the FQDN that is used...is this true for all top domains?
Yes it's true. But some nslookups show both IP# and nameserver names. For those, if they still show the old IP#s 72 hours after the IP#s have been changed, you'll have to contact the registrars' support deskt to get it fixed. However it's only for aesthetics; the IP address isn't used and it doesn't matter if they get it wrong.
So how will the top domain nameserver know that it should send all queries to the new server...is it enough to just shutdown the old server or what? :)
Nope, you'll have to change the registration of the nameservers, as above.
Another question: Is there any way to have the new server have the same IP-adress as the old server? I then need to change the IP of the old server...but I guess that DA will stop working then because the IP in the license is invalid.
Yes.

Jeff
 
I don't know about your situation, but we solved it this way:

Old NS:
ns1.sebsoft.nl - 217.170.21.117
ns2.sebsoft.nl - 217.170.1.176
ns3.sebsoft.nl - 217.170.14.67

New NS (phase 1) :
ns1.sebsoft.nl - 217.170.21.117
ns2.sebsoft.nl - 84.244.152.162
ns3.sebsoft.nl - 217.170.1.175

New NS (phase 2) :
ns1.sebsoft.nl - 217.170.1.175
ns2.sebsoft.nl - 84.244.152.162
ns3.sebsoft.nl - To be determined

We had to do it this way, due to slow responses of providers, some domains wouldn't pick up the new data when we were testing it.
According to dnsreport.com a few domains went down due to wrong glue records when we tested it with a .be domain, however the rest worked fine.

Once you set up the new stuff with the registrar (where the nameserver domain is), all the rest of the domains with that particulair NS record(s) will change as well. (Which is something I like about it, as moving ~x00 domains sucks.)

If you're moving to new IP's without the use of old IP's, you will have downtime, but when you update the A records belonging to the NS records (or in human language, the nameserver ip's) in DA and with the registrar, it will work.
 
The change of IP went fine..but as we expected the DNS servers on the internet wasn't updated for about 12 hours.
My solution to the problem was to add mod_proxy to apache on the old server and then just create a custom httpd template in DA redirecting all requests to the new server.
Because the server contained only e-commerce sites, web traffic was prio numero uno...and the customer was happy he didn't have to deal with orders sent to both the old and the new server :)
 
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