Migrating your website to MechanicWeb can be an easy process with zero downtime if done correctly. You only need a little preparation, allowing for about 3-4 days overlap between the hosts.
- Order a new hosting account with us.
- (Optional) Set the TTL for all DNS records for all domains to 300 (or so) on your old hosting 48 hours before you plan to migrate.
This will lower the DNS propagation time. - Upload your website to your new hosting account with us and configure any email addresses you use.
- After the new hosting is tested and functions as needed, log into your domain control panel and update the nameservers so your domain points to our servers.
- (Optional) If your website is high-traffic and database-driven, it is wise to set up remote access to the database on your old web hosting server during the DNS propagation process. This ensures that your database stays in sync and updated on one server.
Instead of remote database access, you can also put the site on maintenance mode on the old server.
*Remote MySQL access is available only on VPS, Quasi Dedicated, and Dedicated Servers. - Continue to check email on the old and new hosting servers via server hostname or IP address to ensure no communications are lost during the DNS propagation.
- After about 72 hours, DNS propagation should be complete, and if all testing shows your new account is fully functional, you can close the old account.
(Optional) If you choose remote access, as listed in step 5, put your website in maintenance mode to let your users know there is some work in progress. Transfer your database from the old server, set your connection script to use the "local" database, and turn your site back on.
Following the above steps will prevent any downtime for your site or email and allow you to ensure that neither emails nor database updates are lost in the transfer process.
