Re: Moving to new server
I moved a live newspaper with hundreds of thousands of pages to a new server. Everything is dynamic, so content is being added by multiple journalists and editors all the time. No problem.
Main advice:
1. test everything before the big switchover
2. a week before you do the move set your DNS refresh times to around an hour. Then down to 15 minutes, 24 hours before the move. Change the times back a few days after the move.
3. have some time where you don't add any new content
4. Do what Tig said
After you make the switch, some people will still be accessing the old site on the old IP address for several days. That is because some DNS is brain dead and no matter what time your DNS tells it to use, they do what they please. I saw some calls still accessing the old machine a week later. This may also help you to find robots that need to be blocked.
Luckily, the search engines are not that brain dead.
We saw no loss of traffic.
NOTE: Do NOT screw around with document names or structure.
I can't believe the number of people who mess this up, expecting everything to still work. If you do, you lose inbound links and search engine traffic. You may as well just turn off the machine and take up playing minefield - you're screwed.
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