An easy way to move a site to a new server
Thought I would share this little trick as it has just worked nicely for me!
When moving a site from one server to another, it is tricky to get Actinic to upload to the new server before the domain has switched over. Frustrated by having to bodge multiple uploads (first using IP addresses and then with the proper domain) I tried this:
1. Collect all orders from live site
2. Export network settings replacing FTP host with correct IP address)
3. Set-up up new network settings again using IP address for FTP host
4. Click on 'proxy' button and select use windows settings for HTML
5. Export new set of network settings with sensible name
6. Edit windows "hosts" files using notepad (run as administrator) and add IP address of new server and full site domain
e.g.
www.domain.co.uk 123.456.789.012
7. Run a site refresh to upload site to new server
8. Manually copy across any root files (.htaccess, robots.txt etc) via FTP
9. Test new site via browser to ensure all working ok
10. Change A record/CName or Nameservers for domain and wait upto 48 hours
11. Remove line in "hosts" file
I am not sure but you might need to restart Actinic between stages 6 & 7.
No idea how fool proof this is but has worked for me and saved a lot of time/uploads. Don't forget if you get any orders in the 48 hours (if you did a nameserver change - usually less if you did a DNS record change) before the domain has switched over you will need to import the old network settings to collect them. For this reason you may wish to immediately switch back to the old settings for 24-48 hours to collect orders from the old server and then use the new settings from then on.
Hope this all makes sense and hopefully this will be useful to someone.
Alex
P.S. The "hosts" file is usually in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc and needs to be loaded via notepad running as an adminstrator. To do this find notepad in your start menu and right-click choosing 'Run as an administrator'. Note that all windows programs will be affected by this entry so don't get confused. Test from another computer to see if the sites have really switched over by pinging your domain (Start, run, "cmd", "ping www.domain.co.uk" and check which IP address is being returned)
When moving a site from one server to another, it is tricky to get Actinic to upload to the new server before the domain has switched over. Frustrated by having to bodge multiple uploads (first using IP addresses and then with the proper domain) I tried this:
1. Collect all orders from live site
2. Export network settings replacing FTP host with correct IP address)
3. Set-up up new network settings again using IP address for FTP host
4. Click on 'proxy' button and select use windows settings for HTML
5. Export new set of network settings with sensible name
6. Edit windows "hosts" files using notepad (run as administrator) and add IP address of new server and full site domain
e.g.
www.domain.co.uk 123.456.789.012
7. Run a site refresh to upload site to new server
8. Manually copy across any root files (.htaccess, robots.txt etc) via FTP
9. Test new site via browser to ensure all working ok
10. Change A record/CName or Nameservers for domain and wait upto 48 hours
11. Remove line in "hosts" file
I am not sure but you might need to restart Actinic between stages 6 & 7.
No idea how fool proof this is but has worked for me and saved a lot of time/uploads. Don't forget if you get any orders in the 48 hours (if you did a nameserver change - usually less if you did a DNS record change) before the domain has switched over you will need to import the old network settings to collect them. For this reason you may wish to immediately switch back to the old settings for 24-48 hours to collect orders from the old server and then use the new settings from then on.
Hope this all makes sense and hopefully this will be useful to someone.
Alex
P.S. The "hosts" file is usually in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc and needs to be loaded via notepad running as an adminstrator. To do this find notepad in your start menu and right-click choosing 'Run as an administrator'. Note that all windows programs will be affected by this entry so don't get confused. Test from another computer to see if the sites have really switched over by pinging your domain (Start, run, "cmd", "ping www.domain.co.uk" and check which IP address is being returned)
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