[ale] Preferred domain registrars?

[Matt Rideout]

I've used that same approach before, and it works well. The only caveat 
is that the TTL isn't always respected, so you'll want to do another 
sync 24 hours after the cutover, then immediately delete the accounts on 
the old server. That way if anything does come in to the old server, you 
know it'll bounce.

In cases where rsync is not available on the old server, but IMAP is, 
you can either use some scripting foo to sync everything during the 
transfer, or if you're just dealing with a couple accounts, use your 
IMAP client of choice to do the transfer.

Matt Rideout

On 1/21/10 10:07 AM, Brandon Checketts wrote:
> Ideally, your new DNS provider would allow you to change the TTL of your
> individual records.   In preparation of the move, you can change the TTL down
> down to 1-hour or less.  Do the actual migration at 2 AM to minimize customer
> disruption.
>
> You can probably find some imap-synchronization tools to sync the actual content
> of the mailboxes yourself.  I've allways had shell access to the mail servers,
> so have used rsync.
>
> In the days prior to the migration:
>     1- Set up all accounts on the new server
>     2- Test, test, test (SMTP, POP3, IMAP, Webmail, with/without authentication,
> with/without SSL/TLS)
>     3- Set the TTL of the domain to<  1 hour
>
> Immediately before the migration
>     1- Sync the IMAP mailboxes from the old server to the new.
>
> Migration:
>     1-  Change DNS to point to the new server
>          (Some emails will continue to be pointed to the old server for for the
> length of your TTL x2 or so)
>     2-  Test to make sure that the new server is working and that you are
> receiving emails there
>     3-  Re-Sync the IMAP messages from the old server (by IP address) to the new
> to catch any mails that are delivered to the old server.
>
>
> I've used those basic steps to do migrations of 100+ domains with minimal
> disruption to the users.
>
> Thanks,
> Brandon Checketts
>
>
>
>
> Björn Gustafsson wrote:
>    
>> On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 7:45 AM, Geoffrey<lists at serioustechnology.com>  wrote:
>>      
>>> James Sumners wrote:
>>>        
>>>> Which will be very annoying when your hosting provider turns into
>>>> garbage and you want to flee. Then you get to pay twice as much for
>>>> the same domain because you have to pay a transfer fee on top of the
>>>> registration fee you have already paid.
>>>>
>>>> I got to do that this morning :(
>>>>          
>>> I'm using 1and1 and I will say, I'm looking to move.  Downloading email
>>> is slow, very slow.  I've got clients who complain about the webmail
>>> interface.
>>>
>>> So, I'm looking for some insights.  Say I have a domain that has 20
>>> email addresses associated with it.  If I transfer the domain, won't
>>> those email addresses bounce until such time I set them up on the new
>>> server?  I am having 1and1 host the email and websites.
>>>
>>> Further, how does one go about hosting on a different provider?  I'm
>>> assuming folks are registering one provider and hosting email and web on
>>> another?
>>>        
>> I did that last year, and it's pretty easy when your registrar and
>> hosting provider are separate. :)
>>
>> What I did was, I first set up the account with the new hosting
>> provider, added all the domains, email accounts and forwards, and then
>> simply changed my primary/secondary DNS servers with my registrar to
>> point at the new hosting provider's servers.  During the transition
>> while the DNS is expiring, emails will end up in two places, but with
>> a TTL of less than 24 hours that transitional time will last no more
>> than 48 hours in the worst case.  Then you move emails from the old
>> domain to the new one (you may have to reference the old mail server
>> by IP address).
>>
>> In the case where you run your own DNS servers (or use the ones from
>> the registrar) the steps are pretty similar, but you'll have to point
>> your hostnames to the new IP addresses last, after you've done all the
>> email setup and copying website content.
>>
>> If you have to change registrars first, that part will take 2-3 weeks
>> to complete.  I would say to plan on a month for that activity.
>>
>>      
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