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Changing Node/IP - Live Websites

nimdynimdy Member
in Help

Hi All,

I'm having performance issues on my OpenVZ VPS. The provider has offered to move me to a new node that isn't congested. This requires an IP change and I am concerned for downtime due to DNS updates.

From my understanding of DNS I can prepare myself for the change by reducing the current TTL of my websites to a few minutes, wait for the current TTL to expire and then ask my provider to make the node/IP change. I think I am right in saying the only downtime then would be the 10 minutes or so it takes the provider to do the migration, plus the few minutes of DNS updates.

Is that right?

Comments

  • drserverdrserver Member, Host Rep

    Hi,

    Try to ask your provider that he clone your VM to another Node while old VM is still operational. After that you preform DNS update and after a day turn off old VM.

    You will have no downtime. One possible issue... any changes to the site (database related) can be lost during that "migration" period.

  • nimdynimdy Member
    edited February 2014

    Interesting, I hadn't thought of that. I have wordpress sites running on the server, so whilst not high traffic sites, they do have DB usage.

    [edit]
    I may have to go down this route as I'm told by my domain host that their TTL isn't editable :(

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    "Domain host"? It's whoever's hosting your DNS. Registrar, for example, doesn't play a role in this unless you also use your registrar's DNS.

    BTW, some upstream caching DNS servers and clients will ignore anything lower than an hour.

  • wychwych Member

    you could also upload a html file for a brief period saying you are currently migrating to a new server, try again in 30mins?

    or set new IP up with webserver and point to old mysql and them migrate the sql later whilst no writes are being made (depending on the plugins being used)

  • Void_WhispererVoid_Whisperer Member

    Cloudflare's free version has an instant TTL, if your host allows you to transfer who does the DNS

  • jvnadrjvnadr Member
    edited February 2014

    Use cloudflare.com for dns, or freedns.afraid.org . When changing server or vps, move your site and when that's done, simply change the old server's ip to the new one in cloudflare/afraid (whatever you chose to use). Just use cloudflare's/afraid's nameservers to your domain registrant and then, just change the ip to the dns service. Of cource, you will have to wait 1-2 days for initial propagation to the free dns service.

    This is also a fine solution to have a backup server and instantly use it, of your main server fails. You can switch over to the new/backup server in minutes (I have noticed that the maximum time for cloudflare to make live the ip change is 2-3 minutes, most of the times is instantly though)

    Thanked by 1k0nsl
  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    wych said: you could also upload a html file for a brief period saying you are currently migrating to a new server, try again in 30mins?

    I am thinking this through...could you have an HTML on the old server that does a meta-refresh ("we've moved, redirecting you in 3 seconds...") to the new site's IP? Depends if your site is the default site on the new IP I suppose or if it's a vhost.

  • perennateperennate Member, Host Rep

    If it is just database and you are able to have both VM's up for an hour or two, you could set old VM to use new VM database.

  • NickMNickM Member
    edited February 2014
    1. Create new VPS
    2. Copy everything to new VPS
    3. Put up a reverse proxy (nginx) on the old VPS, proxying to the new one
    4. Change your DNS records
    5. Wait until there's no more traffic going to the old VPS
    6. Nuke the old VPS from orbit

    Edit: If you have other, non-website services running on the VPS, you can use a tunnel instead of a proxy

  • nimdynimdy Member

    Thanks for all the responses. I think for me the most straight forward solution is moving my DNS from 123-reg to cloudfare/afraid, wait for the propagation, ask for my VPS host to move node, then plug in the new IP to cloudfare/afraid.

    Whilst the HTML holding page is a good idea, as raindog says my sites are vhosts, so an IP redirect wouldn't work.

    I haven't looked into cloudfare/afraid yet, but do they allow you to control multiple domains? I have 4 to maintain in total, two of which have Google Apps tied to them. Is this still a simple method of moving to a new DNS provider?

  • jvnadrjvnadr Member

    nimdy said: I haven't looked into cloudfare/afraid yet, but do they allow you to control multiple domains?

    Both of services can host unlimited domains. Also, cloudflare can filter your traffic with small ddos, cdn delivery etc. But, of you get tons of traffic, then you have to use cloudflare pro/business edition (paid) or use cloudflare only for dns. Also, cloudflare and afraid can be used as an ipv6 tunneling system, to make your site access via the ipv4 world!

  • isalemisalem Member
    edited February 2014

    @perennate said:
    If it is just database and you are able to have both VM's up for an hour or two, you could set old VM to use new VM database.

    This ^. should work just fine, and you won't lose any activity or updates during the migration :)

    That is, provided that your host accepts the idea to move the container to the new node and keep the old one active for an extra day.

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