Moving from Shared to Exclusive IP Options

[Squire]

The server is Plesk 8.1 on *nix.

I have a need to move a site that is now on a Shared IP to an Exclusive IP number so that it can begin using an SSL Cert.

When I change it the site goes totally MIA as far as browsing is concerned. All you get is the Plesk Default page saying the domain is not configured. Since I set the domain name to be the default in Server > IP Addresses > Site you can get to the site if you browse by the IP number instead of the domain name. Which isn't very helpful, other than to show Plesk actually sees the files sometimes.

Is there some new bug I'm not aware of when moving from Shared to Exclusive IP's? I've done it the normal way I always have (Domains > domain.com > Settings > Choose the Exclusive IP that was already available for that Client ... then going back to Server > IP Addresses > to make sure everything is assigned correctly) but I'm either forgetting something, missing something or there's some bug out there I'm not aware of.

FTR I did try restarting Apache, which is something you used to have to do. I also tried restarting PSA, Disabling and Re-Enabling the domain in Plesk and all the way up to rebooting the server. Nada, nothing works.

What am I missing?

[joec@home]

The server is Plesk 8.1 on *nix.

I have a need to move a site that is now on a Shared IP to an Exclusive IP number so that it can begin using an SSL Cert.

When I change it the site goes totally MIA as far as browsing is concerned. All you get is the Plesk Default page saying the domain is not configured. Since I set the domain name to be the default in Server > IP Addresses > Site you can get to the site if you browse by the IP number instead of the domain name. Which isn't very helpful, other than to show Plesk actually sees the files sometimes.

Is there some new bug I'm not aware of when moving from Shared to Exclusive IP's? I've done it the normal way I always have (Domains > domain.com > Settings > Choose the Exclusive IP that was already available for that Client ... then going back to Server > IP Addresses > to make sure everything is assigned correctly) but I'm either forgetting something, missing something or there's some bug out there I'm not aware of.

FTR I did try restarting Apache, which is something you used to have to do. I also tried restarting PSA, Disabling and Re-Enabling the domain in Plesk and all the way up to rebooting the server. Nada, nothing works.

What am I missing?

Just a little patience. With Plesk it prefers to keep the primary IP address as the shared IP address, so you shyould be assigning the exlusive IP address to a completely different one. With that in mind, now you also have to change the DNS information on the domain. Once this is done so that the virtual host is now changed to an exclusive host and the DNS has been updated to the new IP address, then you have to wait a day for that to all change across the internet.

[Squire]

This is the same argument I've been having with the TP techs Joe.

If the Nameservers all resolve to the same box (as is the case) and the IP change isn't requiring a switch to a different box, even the old information out there on the web should still be resolving to the same box as always. Even though the IP number is different now. Once a hit makes it to the one and only box involved in the equation it should be able to handle the forward to the new IP location. As opposed to throwing up the Default This domain has not been configured error page.

In other words, since the traffic makes it to the correct box regardless there should be no Global DNS Propagation issues that would keep the site from loading.

At least that's the way it used to be with older versions of Plesk, the last time I needed to do this. Perhaps they changed this with PSA 8, but if they did they shouldn't have.

[James Jhurani]

If the Nameservers all resolve to the same box (as is the case) and the IP change isn't requiring a switch to a different box, even the old information out there on the web should still be resolving to the same box as always. Even though the IP number is different now. Once a hit makes it to the one and only box involved in the equation it should be able to handle the forward to the new IP location. As opposed to throwing up the Default This domain has not been configured error page.

In other words, since the traffic makes it to the correct box regardless there should be no Global DNS Propagation issues that would keep the site from loading.

At least that's the way it used to be with older versions of Plesk, the last time I needed to do this. Perhaps they changed this with PSA 8, but if they did they shouldn't have.

I tried it on Plesk 8.2. Trying to access a site on an exclusive IP, using a different IP on the same box, resulted in the default plesk page.

[Squire]

I agree that's what is happening James. I just think it really shouldn't take up to 72 hours of propagation when everything is still on the same server as it always was.

Do you think Plesk has a workaround for this to get this sort of IP switch to be handled better on the back end? Do you have a contact there you can ask?

[joec@home]

Well to be honest I am a planet tech, but this is my personal account on here. I just like to keep up with different issues on my spare time and still be helpful when I can. From the description of what it used to do verses what it does now, it sounds like you stumbled across when many would call an "Unintended Feature" as it is really not supposed to work that way. Now with this in mind that we are trying to take advantage of some thing working the WRONG way, you have to look at how named based sites work verses IP based sites. An IP based site will have a direct link in httpd.conf where as a name based site will have a master virtual link with a sub virtual link in httpd.conf. So if perhaps you had one specific IP address assigned to a site, but that was accidentally assigned as a name based site then (for a lack of better terms) the server would get confused and route the http request to the "Best Fit". Since this is definitely the WRONG way of doing things, it might still work if you changed the IP address to shared instead of exclusive with only the one site on it until propagation completed ....... it MIGHT work that way.

[Squire]

Now here's a good one for you JoeC...

I decided to give your idea a whirl with my test domain (I don't want to risk this with my real domain since we're talking potentially costing me several thousand dollars per day in lost sales!). This test domain had been moved from Shared to Exclusive IP last weekend, and it took it several days to show up again. Exactly as we've been discussing.

So I go into Plesk to move it from its Exlusive IP back to the shared IP to let it set for a few days and give a try to your idea of making the IP a shared one instead of an exclusive one. Basically doing a reset back to the way things were before I started testing this.

Lo and behold, the domain never goes out of site when moving it from Exclusive to Shared. A simply restart of Apache has it showing up fine, tracert and ping show it back on the shared IP and there's no downtime at all.

Is this a good sign or a bad sign? I'm not sure. In theory if the problem is moving from Shared to Exclusive one would think the same issue would exist when moving from Exclusive to Shared. But on the other hand, maybe the server is simply able to handle the change better because it is using your "Best Fit" idea since the final destination is a shared IP.

arrrrrrggggghhhh!

Ideas? Thoughts? Does this seem weird to you or is it actually a good sign that using a shared (but exclusive) IP may work?

I might have to find another spare domain to test this with further. I really can't afford to have the Real site down for 1-3 days if there's any way I can avoid it.

[Squire]

Things get stranger by the day.

For my test domain I can now move it back and forth from the main shared IP number on the server to the Exclusive one (set up either as Exclusive or Shared with only one domain in it) with no downtime at all. Just like I remember. The most I have to do to kick things into gear is to restart Apache. Literally I can change it back and forth and back and forth and everything resolves just fine, thank you very much.

Finding this odd I had another domain that's in development where it wouldn't I wouldn't take a financial hit to change. So I decided to move it around a bit too, since it'll need to have its own IP eventually for SSL purposes. Same thing with it. I can move it from Shared to Exclusive, restart Apache and it resolves immediately. Tracert from my computer shows the correct IP number within a couple of minutes and even an Ethereal trace shows the change from one IP number to another.

So I guess now the question becomes why this one domain I want to move didn't switch immediately like the others. Still no clue on that one. But I'm not going to try it during the day when the site is busy and making sales. Maybe I'll give it a whirl late some night this weekend and see what happens.