The other thread I started last week,
Moving Classic to new server kind of diverged, so I am posting a followup here.
The move went pretty well. Since there was a URL registration change required, people were not able to reach the new server right away. I got into it after 40 minutes on my Internet access on a .edu network, but my home DSL connection through SBC (now AT&T), was still using the old registration 14 hours later. They switched sometime later overnight.
If I ever needed to do it again, this is what would be best: set up a new and temporary URL for both the old and new servers. My host did this for me: "www" is the main URL where the switch occurred; "www1" points to the old server; "www2" points to the new server.
I should note that the only way, even using ftp, to reach either server is through the URL -- the site admin has things set up that way. And also, I had to turn off use of the UBB.Classic accelerator during all the switching, or the cached scripts would send me to the wrong URL.
After having trouble connecting on my AT&T internet, I changed the vars_config.cgi on both servers to use the temporary URLs. I posted a message on the old server's board telling people to try a link using the "www" URL, and if that did not work, to try the second link, using the "www2" URL.
Today, 3 days after the switch, the board is running with vars_config.cgi set to the "www2" url, and using the board, you can see the "www2" in the URL. Everyone using the "www" URL now comes into the correct board (new server), and as soon as they click on a thread, the URL switches to the "www2" version. This all works great since both the "www" and the "www2" URLs point to the same server. You can see this work:
http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=forum;f=1
But I am changing the vars_config.cgi back to the "www" version in a few hours, since webstat shows only one hit on the old server all day. In a couple of weeks, I'll delete everything from the old server and notify the host that I am done with the old server and both the temporary URLs.
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