Nervous about final move of cmsms to new domain...Few questions regarding

[abierose]

I've never asked a question in the forum before, but I refer to it all the time and everyone seems to be very helpful so, I thought I would try it out myself

Here's the deal: I have a client (who happens to be one of my biggest clients..) who I designed a site for and for whom I have been building a very customized database backend for using cmsms. Anyway, long story short, I am now in the process of moving them over to a new hosting company, as their previous host could not accomodate the newly built cms, and will be switching the DNS to the new host sometime between Friday and Sunday. Up until this point, cmsms has resided on a domain I setup on via my shared host, and a few weeks ago, I setup a new hosting plan for my cliient and was able to successfully move the cms to a temporary domain that I added to their account. I also have all of their email addresses setup on the new host. Their current hosting plan will end at the end of this month, however again, the DNS will be switched over sometime this weekend.

Okay, now, here's my questions: The cmsms version I currently have installed is 1.0.4 Lanai and I am using quite a few different modules that me and another developer have spent a considerable amount of time customizing; so I am wondering if I should upgrade to the most recent version, testing the upgrade out of course first on the temporary domain. Should this be the way to go, is there any known issues or conflicts with any of the modules or anything when upgrading between 1.0.4 and the latest version?

Secondly, I have just added a unique IP on the new host for their domain in hopes to be able to test everything as thoroughly as possible (by adding the unique IP to my hosts file) before the DNS switch. If all goes as planned, should I remove the unique IP address prior to the DNS propagating or will that not matter either way?

And lastly, my client is using an Exchange server, of which I am pretty unfamiliar with and so I wanted to know if there is anything I should be aware of when I go setup their email programs with their new account information / mail server stuff.

Okay, I think that's it...THANKS IN ADVANCE TO ANYONE WHO HAS ANY SUGGESTIONS OR ADVICE FOR ME!!

Warmly,

abie rose

http://www.abierose.com

[tsw]

Hi,

I would update to 1.0.6 (take full backups of course and so on) it it has some security and bug fixes.

I would also test the site thoroughly before dns swithcing with the new ip and their domain in hosts file. And I dont quite understand this new ip you have assigned, but I still havent gotten my morning coffee

about the exchange server, I would keep my hands away from that

good luck

[abierose]

Thanks for the advice

The new IP I added to their new hosting plan is because the domain name they currently have will remain the same on the new host so in order for me to be able to test the files I have installed on the new hosting company's servers, which are uploaded into the root domain directory with the same name that is currently their active domain, I figured the best way to test things would be to temporarily add a unique IP that I could define in my hosts file...I'm sure there is probably a better way to go about testing things but this method seemed to be the easiest at the time

Thanks again for the response!!

abie

[tsw]

if you have dns information about domain.tld pointing to ip say 10.0.0.1 and you have a new test server on ip 10.1.1.1 (yeah these are examples

now if you set your hosts file to say

10.1.1.1 domain.tld

your machine doesnt even bother to ask dns what domain.tld points to. That way the rest of the world is happy using the old site and you can test the new server with "real" information.

there are few drawbacks, if you send email to that domain that will also check the ip from hosts file and send the email to the new server (which no one reads yet). and you cant easily check the information on the old server.

works with different ip's also

[abierose]

Yes, exactly

[abierose]

One more question about upgrading....should I download the 1.0.4 - 1.0.5 upgrade release and the 1.0.5 - 1.0.6 upgrade release and then install them in that order? OR, can I simply install the latest full 1.0.6 release and cross my fingers that it all works the way it should  ?

[tsw]

if you want to use the diff packages you need to go step by step.

with full package you can go with one step.

[abierose]

Hmm...well, which option do you think would be the best way to go?

Thanks again for all your help!!

abie



[PS] regarding the unique IP address stuff, I think I failed to mention that I'm using Dreamhost as my hosting provider and they offer shared hosting plans so their servers only look at the domain name that's being accessed, not the IP; that's why I purchased a unique IP address for a month from them just until the DNS gets switched over..

[stopsatgreen]

I tend to go for incremental upgrades, but that's probably because I'm over-cautious.

Something worth repeating, even though you probably know already:

BACK UP YOUR DATABASE

Then back it up again. And then make backups of the backups. As long as you have all your data safely backed up, you can always go back to an earlier version if your modules don't work.