Hi Everyone,

I've done a some searches and I'm still stumped so I thought I'd post here...

I have 1 server with RS that is upgraded to Ensim Pro. With the $1 setup, I decided to try a cPanel server, and I like it so I've started moving sites over to it.

I've moved about half of them, but even though I go in Ensim and change the A records and nameserver entries for the domain to my new server (ns3 and ns4....), as well as changing the SOA info to 1 second, it seems to take a while to update. I had one site that would resolve as domain.com pretty quickly, but www.domain.com took about 12 hours.

Anyway, I'm wondering if what I'm doing is the easiest way, or if there is any way I could change the hostname and name servers of the cPanel box to be the same as the Ensim, then create zones in cPanel's DNS to point back to the old servers IP until I get everyone moved. I assume during this time I would need to keep all 4 NS's listed on cpanel, since a few of the sites I'e already moved have changed their DNS servers already to ns3 and ns4.

The last handful of sites I have are my important customers, and I'd love to be able to do this with almost no downtime for them, as well as not having to ask them to change their DNS servers for their domain. If I could eventually move to the point that I change the hostname and name servers of the new box to the same as the old one I'd be very happy.

I also have a ssl cert purchased using the hostname (probably a mistake now) so by keep that name I could keep the cert intact...

If I'm way off base please let me know and I'll keep doing what I've been doing...

Thanks!

I think you need to allow time for your new SOA/TTL/etc values to reset across the web. And even then, I don't know what you'd do when an ISP only updates that info once per day?

I always set the old box to forward the email to the new box using the email forwarder, to another domain at the new box just to avoid any email problems. (ie. customer@customerdomain.com forwards to customerdomain@myhostdomain.com) just to avoid any email getting left in limbo during the transition.

Maybe I wasn't quite clear in my thinking....

All the domains point to a nameserver by name, not by IP. So if the new machine was instantly switch to be that nameserver, they would all start looking there immediately, right?

If so, then I could create zones on the new server to point back to the old server, then when I move each site I just delete the zone, create the account, and dump all the files / db's on there. Since the server is already handling DNS for the site, the switch would only take a long as it would take me to move the data (a matter of minutes).

Maybe I'm missing something, but this seems quicker than changing the zone in Ensim then waiting for it to propogate.. I'm just not sure that cpanel can do what I'm wanting to do. I'd have to be able to create 4 nameservers on the box, with only 2 IP's (unless I could get more from RS)...

Thanks..

Actually, with Cpanel, you can have 2 nameserver IP's, and then allow your reseller customers to have their own customized nameservers using the same IP's. (See "Tweak settings" in WHM.)

But, if you're thinking about assigning your two CPanel IP's to the same dns.domain.com as your old Ensim box, I don't think your registrar would allow that.

My Ensim box had ns1 and ns2 assigned as hosts at my registrar. So, when I went to the new CPanel box, I made those dns1 and dns2 using the same "domain.com" When I have the sites moved, I just change the nameservers from ns1/2 to dns1/2 and wait for them to propogate.

In theory, what you want to do is change your Ensim DNS to point to your CPanel IP's. This is fine, but my ISP has already cached their DNS today. I don't think DNS is quite as dynamic as we both would like it because of caching and the SOA/TTL settings. However, if you lower those settings and give them time to go through all of the DNS servers (24-72 hours) then you may be able to make a more real-time move.

However, if you have the mail forwarded to a different domain on the new box, and you have the site on both boxes, I think you could make the change much easier by just changing the nameserver settings at the registrar. That way you're serving up the pages on both servers, and forwarding the old server mail to a domain on the new server.

(Don't try to forward the mail to the same domain name you have on the ensim box, because it won't leave the box, dns propagation or not!)

Yea, I may just have to keep doing what I'm doing, you're right about the ISP's caching...

The sites I have left are all interactive / forums, scripts, etc, so I can't have them on both servers at the same time without both missing updates. I pretty much have to pull the plug, and get everyone over to the new server at once....

If you're really daring (enough to publish your IP number,) can't you put a link on the old Ensim box and send them to

http://ipnumber/~sitename

or something like that on the Cpanel box??

(Or maybe even like ns1.borntohost.com/~sitename??)