Moving NS Hosts procedural question

Re: Moving NS Hosts procedural question

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>Yesterday the cable service that is my ISP notified me that the fiber optic
>network is all complete and I have until next Friday to exchange my Zenith
>modem
>with 4 fixed IP#'s over to the new high-speed Surfboard modem. However on
>further research, I realize that the basic accounts will now be dynamic. I
>need
>to call Monday and arrange for a slightly higher cost business account, I'm
>guessing, which gets assigned fixed IP#'s. I think I get 4 with additional
>costing a certain amount per month more.
>
>Anyway, I need to put together a game plan for the switch-over with a
>minimum of
>hassle. I'm assuming they will not let me have the same IP#'s I've been using.
>If they do, then my problem goes away. But if they must change, then I need to
>get the InterNIC to switch my host records and make the changes here. I'm
>wondering what the best procedure would be and if there is anything I
>should ask
>the ISP to do to minimize the down time for others who use my mail server and
>list server. Also there are 4 domains that get their primary and secondary
>name
>services from me. The web services are hosted by a subsidiary of the ISP and I
>handle the mail/list/database servers.

Assuming you can have access to both your old IPs and your new ones
simultaneiously for a few days, this can be pretty tricky. It's easier if
you can put up an extra machine for each machine you currently have running
as a server.

Step 1) Change the Minimum TTL and Refresh values in each of your domains
to something very short - 1 hour, for instance. Wait for the new values to
propagate throughout the net. This should take up to twice the length of
your old Minimum TTL, or two days, whichever is longer.

Step 2) Duplicate all your current services, using your new IP addresses.
This means, for every webserver address you currently have, put up a
duplicate on the new addresses. For every DNS server you currently have,
put up a duplicate on the new addresses - but change the DNS records for
your own machines to match the new addresses, and give the new zone files
normal TTL and refresh values. Tell your customers to not update their
sites on your servers during this time, if you have such customers. Set any
mail servers on your old addresses to forward to the new addresses. List
servers should only be on the new addresses - any that listen on SMTP
should be replaced by a forwarding mail server on the old addresses.

If you don't have the extra machines to spare, and can't simply add
addresses to your existing servers for all services, you may be able to
borrow services from your ISP. At this point, they take over your old
addresses until the transition is complete.

Step 3) Notify Internic of the changes. Wait for them to update your
records, then wait for the changes to propagate throughout the net. This
will take at most two days plus double your adjusted (short) Minimum value.

Step 4) Take down the servers on the old addresses.

If you need further assistance with this matter, please feel free to ask.
________________________________________________________________________
Chris Buxton Men & Mice
cbuxton@menandmice.com http://www.menandmice.com

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