Server migration and other questions

[vswebhosting]

Hello everyone,

I have a few quick questions:

1. How difficult is it to migrate DA as well all the user accounts, files, mail, everything to a new server assuming this new server will have same IPs as the existing one? The reason for this migration is just an upgrade the a more powerfull server.

2. Is it possible at all to move everything from one DA sever to another server with different IP addresses? The reason for this move because I want to switch to a different data center.

3. Is it possible to redirect the "Help" button in user control panel to my own support site instead of the www.site-helper.com?

Thanks for everyone's help.

Regards,
Tom

 

[nobaloney]

Originally posted by vswebhosting
1. How difficult is it to migrate DA as well all the user accounts, files, mail, everything to a new server assuming this new server will have same IPs as the existing one? The reason for this migration is just an upgrade the a more powerfull server.

It can be done (we've done it).

We had problems because we first needed the new server running on a new system (so we'd have close to zero downtime). Therefore we had some problems in not copying everything over properly.

Generally you do a full backup (the full backup capability only exists in the enhanced skin), then restore manually (there is no restore script) to the new server.

The problem lies in that you can't have two servers running at the same time on the same IP#s; you'll lose remote control over both of them.

So you must be very careful to have everything you need moved over, and then either shut down the old system before rebooting the new one, or bring it up on another IP# so you can get to it to copy over anything you find out later you need. We did the latter, which took a bit of thinking it out.

You'll have to shutdown DA on the old server and also reinstall the license on the new server after you've brought it up on the same IP#(s).

2. Is it possible at all to move everything from one DA sever to another server with different IP addresses? The reason for this move because I want to switch to a different data center.

Yes, we've done this as well. You'll have to make some changes, probably manually. I believe there's a script to run to change IP#s, but you'll probably need to have DA running (with the new license file) before you can run anything else.

3. Is it possible to redirect the "Help" button in user control panel to my own support site instead of the www.site-helper.com?

Yes, you'll need to create your own skin (which can be a copy of the official DA skin), and then change the new skin. There are other threads that go into it in complete detail.

Jeff

 

[vswebhosting]

Jeff,

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions. This really helps me a lot. Thanks again.

Best regards,
Tom

 

[vswebhosting]

Jeff,

Another question if you don't mind.

Regarding my question 2 where the DA server has new IP addresses, do my customers need to update their domains at their registrars with my new IP addresses? I don't know how other registrars handle customer dns server addresses but I understand Godaddy requires customers to put both IP addresses and names for the dns servers if the name-server names don't have reverse dns entries, feel free to correct me on this anyone.
So in this case although my dns names stay them same but my ip got changed.

Thanks for your help.

Best regards,
Tom

 

[nobaloney]

As long as your nameservers are registers with the registrar who registered the domain name they're under, your users don't have to do anything.

Their whois record may show the wrong information, but the domain will work perfectly, as the whois database and the root servers are NOT looking at the same data, and some registrars don't update the whois database from the root servers data.

If the whois info doesn't show the correct IP#, and if that's important to your client, then they can make the change manually if they want.

Jeff