hello all -
a couple of weeks ago i migrated servers with the help of the ultra-fantastic virtualmin backup/restore option, that took a difficult task and made it incredibly and wonderfully simple (yes i am biased).
my question: i had followed the excellent virtualmin instructions on the subject to lower the DNS TTL value well before i start. but there are some DNS services out there that have yet to catch up to the new server IP number.
is there an easy way using virtualmin (silly question, since there usually is using virtualmin) to maybe put some sort of redirect on the old server? the domain name didnt change, just the IP number.
in other words, say the website was on 208.171.111.111 and was just moved to 208.171.222.222, and the DNS "A" records now reflect the new IP number. is there something we can do on the old server 208.171.111.111. to help lazy DNS services redirect to the new server IP number?
thank you all very much.
I guess you could use Apache's reverse-proxy feature, to have the old Apache fetch the website from the new one, when a client requests it from the outdated IP, and forward it to the client. That's probably what I'd do in this case. :)
thank you Locutus (but to me you will always be "Captain Picard")
do you have any examples of using the apache reverse-proxy option?
somebody else suggested "mod_rewrite" and try something like this:
RewriteEngine on rewriterule ^(.*)$ [URL='http://www.britishprivateprepschool.com/$1']http://[SIZE=4][FONT=Lucida Grande][COLOR=#111111]208.171.222.222[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE]/$1[/URL] [r=301,nc]
LOL about Captain Picard. :D
Example and explanation about reverse proxy is here: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html#proxypassreverse
Also look at the "Basic Examples" section on the top of that page.
Using mod_rewrite works too, but has the client do the redirection. For this to work, the new server must also have Apache configured to listen on the IP address for the requested domain, since the URL is rewritten client-side to the IP address. This can also lead to complications if you use web software like Wordpress or CMSes, which have an internal configuration for the base URL path to use.
With reverse proxy, all that is not required, provided the old server correctly resolves the domain to the new IP address (add it to /etc/hosts if required).
That's a good idea, could this be copied to the migration guide at: http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/system/migrate ?
Or is there any way for us, users, to contribute to the guide in a wiki-fashion ?
Thanks
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