Moving to new server

mryang · #1 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 08:55 AM

Hi everyone,

I currently have a managed service on a box that is now just over 3 years old.

We are ready to move to a new server and it is all scheduled to happen over the next month and a half.

There are currently 33 websites hosted on my box, we have decided to virtulise the new machine and separate the three main websites into their own areas and allocate resources appropiately - obviously the new server is far higher spec than the one we are moving from.

My question is this - should I worry about rankings changing on Google etc once we move to the new server? Are there any other issues I should look out for our advice from others that will help me through my migration.

Dubbya · #2 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 10:17 AM

Here ya go! Clear concise instructions for server migration straight from Google's main man.

Matt Cutts provides a pretty authoritative guide in his blog at:
Moving to a new web host

Considering the number of sites you're hosting, It appears you may have to "rinse and repeat" a few times.

Good Luck

.02

**wige** · #3 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 10:30 AM

As far as my own experiences and what I have read from representatives of various search engines and SEOs who have done migrations similar to yours, if you are doing a horizontal migration, where the site structure and content will remain the same, you should not notice any difference at all.

One of the issues that I have seen mentioned is concern over the change in IP address. Search engines cache DNS information (which maps what domains point to what IP addresses) to reduce their load on the DNS system. As a result, after a move there is a small chance that a search engine could lose your server for up to a week, possibly longer. This is extremely rare, and is preventable. The DNS system takes about 24 hours to update. After moving to the new server and adjusting your DNS entries to direct traffic to that new location, leave your existing server active for three times that duration (72 hours). At the end of that period, set the old server to respond to requests with a "Bad Request" message. This should force search engines to update their cache immediately, and guarantee that the engines get the correct new information.

The only other major issue is related to downtime. Most migration strategies address this to minimize downtime, but it is good to remember two things. First, search engines expect sites to occasionally encounter outages. A few minutes or even a few hours of downtime while migrating should not affect your rankings, although your site could, in theory, be blocked from the SERPs until the search engines see it is back online. Again, this is extremely rare, and is mostly an issue after prolonged outages. A short outage is not a reason to panic.

Second, remember your visitors. Your site may get traffic at all hours of the day, and your customers will not be as forgiving as a search engine. A generic server-generated error could lose you a loyal customer. Plan for the possibility of an outage in advance by creating a error page (in html in case there is a problem with the scripting engine) that fits the look and feel of your site, and containing a message about how you are improving the site and apologize for the temporary inconvenience. Add the following lines to your htaccess file:

#ErrorDocument 503 /absolute/path/to/errormsg.html
#RedirectMatch 503 .*

If you have downtime, simply delete the "#" at the beginning of each line. Once the issue is corrected, reapply the # and your site will resume normal operation.

jestep · #4 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 05:43 PM

One thing that I have found extremely useful is to use offsite DNS. We currently use dns made easy, but there are several other good companies that can provide remote dns. By running your dns on a 3rd party server you can switch server much more easily, and if you lose your server, your DNS is still fine. With this type of dns setup you can have both server running at the same time, set a very low TTL, and then when you point the websites at the new server you can revert quickly if something goes wrong.

ArthurNYC · #5 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 06:08 PM

If you are going to duplicate the sites then the transfer process should be seamless. Once the sites are ready to go, you switch name servers on all the sites and over time, people (robots) can funneled to the new site.

Issues come if you have DB's but if you are just upgrading/changing servers within the same network that would be seamless too. Update the DB to the new server, change ALL the sites to reference the new DB and then do the switchover. Anyone hitting the old site while DNS propagates will still be referencing the new DB.

But what do I know, I am still using an abacus.

Arthur

advancedmerchant · #6 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 09:31 PM

Put simply, your rankings are tied to your URL (which will not change), rather than the IP address (which changes with the box).

Tig · #7 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 10:13 PM

I was a network engineer for far longer than I care to admit...

, but I've been able to use that experience to help with migrating my sites.

I have moved up to 50 sites at a time (kind of forced to), and I've done it several times. If you do these steps, you should have no problem:

1. upload all sites to new server. don't change anything for now, just upload an exact copy of all the sites to the new server.
2. Make sure you have databases, email accounts, etc. running on the new server. Print the documentation out, it helps.
3. Take your least important site and change the NS on it. That way, if there are any problems, it doesn't affect the most important site.
4. Test it, test it, and test it again. Get everyone in the office to test it. Test it for at least 3 days so you can be assured the new NS has propagated throughout the Internet.
(This has an added benefit if some of these sites are linked to each other. Google minimizes the importance of linked sites that are on the same IP. By taking your time to move them, Google will see them on separate IP's, and possibly raise your PR and ranking. That happened on my sites once.)
5. Delete the site from the old sever, and test again. I've seen where broken code and improperly migrated databases worked because they were on the old site too. Sometimes linking will be by IP also, and you won't catch that until you delete the site from the old server.
6. Change the password. Not necessary, but recommended. One time I changed servers, and the people at the old datacenter didn't want me gone so they went in and changed the A records back to their servers.
7. Go to next site.

Hope this helps!
Ty

villageloop · #8 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by advancedmerchant

Put simply, your rankings are tied to your URL (which will not change), rather than the IP address (which changes with the box).

I like this answer the best!!!

however everyone has provided some insight and since this is a timely matter for me, I thank you all.

Orion · #9 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 11:50 PM

In my experience (over ten years, many moves and upgrades) so long as your site doesn't go down no problem..

The only negative I ever had was that one time we took a site from a dedicated IP to a shared IP and it seemed to mildly affect the rankings for a couple weeks, but no guarantee that was what caused the slip either.

Best of luck on the move!

yookoso · #10 (**permalink**) 05-08-2008, 12:31 AM

You might find Webmaster Sherpa - Setting Up / Moving Servers - A New Server Checklist useful as well...

newsblaze · #11 (**permalink**) 05-08-2008, 01:44 AM

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.

astro · #12 (**permalink**) 05-08-2008, 05:30 AM

I did this a while back and noticed the ratings in certain criteria or if you like search terms improved slightly!

I put this down to the reciprocal/back links no longer coming from similar ip addresses.

astro