changing domain & www IP address

[linneaw]

Hi all,

New to your forum - Hoping you all will be able to clear up disagreement...

We’re replacing our web server with a new box, and a new IP address. We want the current site to continue to be accessible for cleaning up and finalizing content migration. The current site is:

peralta.edu -> 209.129.192.50
www.peralta.edu -> 209.129.192.50

Afterwards, I think we have this:
priorsite.peralta.edu -> 209.129.192.50
peralta.edu -> 209.129.192.76
www.peralta.edu -> 209.129.197.76

My current peralta.edu zone file includes the following:

Zone file db.peralta.edu has this:
www IN A 209.129.192.50
peralta.edu. IN A 209.129.192.50

I propose the following changes:

1st add “priorsite” (while they’re still configuring the new site), so interim config would look like this:
www IN A 209.129.192.50
peralta.edu. IN A 209.129.192.50
priorsite IN A 209.129.192.50

2nd (to make the new site live) change the entries for “www” and “peralta.edu.”, so the final config would be this:
www IN A 209.129.192.76
peralta.edu. IN A 209.129.192.76
priorsite IN A 209.129.192.50

This proposal has caused a big argument – One person here believes that this will break things. He can’t make clear what his problem with it is, although it has something to do with the fact that the domain (peralta.edu) has an ip address. I think he’s trying to say that adding another host name is creating a subdomain. Well, we have several other host names in the domain peralta.edu, and I can’t understand from his attempts to explain why THIS new host name will break things all to pieces when none of the others did not.

Is he right, and just can’t explain it very well? Or is it actually safe to make the changes I’ve outlined above?

TIA…

[dickersonka]

Maybe the thing he is worried about is that peraltu.edu is a registered domain name tied to an ip address.

For peralta.edu to be changed to a separate ip, you need to update it with the registrar. You can't flip a switch to get it to work also, the domain would need time to propagate before the ip changes would go into effect.

[linneaw]

Aahhh... That makes more sense.

So, it seems, the thing for us to do is set up the "priorsite" name with some other IP address, and when the time comes for the change, swap the IPs on the servers... (For now we'd assign the priorsite IP as an addition IP on the current server...)

Your help very much appreciated - The guy with the objections never put it like that, and I don't recall him advising against changing the IP address, only against creating an additional name for the current IP, so I think we would have broken our site...

(We did know about delay - our TTL is 1 hr, so that was considered acceptable...)

Anyway, thanks again!

[wldake]

What you outlined in your original post will work just fine.

1st add "priorsite" (while they're still configuring the new site), so interim config would look like this:
www IN A 209.129.192.50
peralta.edu. IN A 209.129.192.50
priorsite IN A 209.129.192.50

2nd (to make the new site live) change the entries for "www" and "peralta.edu.", so the final config would be this:
www IN A 209.129.192.76
peralta.edu. IN A 209.129.192.76
priorsite IN A 209.129.192.50

In fact, you are currently doing it with:

www IN A 209.129.192.50
peralta.edu. IN A 209.129.192.50

Adding priorsite is just like adding www. You can have a many-to-one relationship in your forward resolution; i.e www1, www2, www3, etc... pointing to 209.129.192.50.

Furthermore, you do not need to change the IP address for that domain at your registrar because that IP is not used for your DNS servers. Authoritative DNS server IP addresses have to be registered with your registrar. This is how people find your domain. Your current IP's for your DNS servers are:

ns1.peralta.edu. 3581 IN A 209.129.192.3
ns2.peralta.edu. 3587 IN A 209.129.192.4

If it is imperative that your changes are seen quicker you can always change your TTL at your initial change (make it 60 seconds or so). The changes should replicate rather quickly as your domain should only be cached for a minute on servers resolving your domain. There are caveats to this with larger ISP's (mostly) but not worth discussing here. Be sure to make the TTL change at least an hour ahead of time (your current TTL); preferably longer than that if possible.

[sharlok]

I found this website http://iputil.com, that provides some cool tools for
IP and a software to run website form a personal computer and dynamic IP.