Move your sites to a new server

Moving your sites to a different server means updating every DNS record that points at the old one. InfraNest finds all of them across your zones and moves them together, with a one-click way to undo if anything looks wrong.

Overview

• Finds every DNS record pointing at the old server, across all your zones
• Moves them to the new server in one step
• Checks the new server is ready before you switch, without changing anything
• Lets you undo the entire move in one click

Before you start: lower your TTLs a day ahead

Every DNS record has a TTL: how long other computers may remember its address. A record with a TTL of a day can keep sending some visitors to the old server for a day after you switch.

When you open the move (see below), InfraNest tells you if any of the records have a long TTL.

1. Click Lower TTLs to 5 minutes now.
2. Wait a day.
3. Come back and move the records. The switch then takes minutes.

NoteLowering the TTLs is its own change, so you can undo it separately later.

Move the records

1. Open Servers and click the server you are leaving.
2. Click Actions → Move addresses to another server.

3. From shows the server you are leaving. Under To, choose the new server.
4. The records are grouped by zone. Each zone shows where its DNS is hosted (for example Cloudflare) and a short list of its records, such as @ A, mail A. Untick a zone to leave all of its records where they are, or click Show records to see the address each one will get and untick single records.
5. Click Check the new server (see below).
6. Click Move. Every ticked record changes at your DNS provider straight away, just like an edit you make by hand.

You can also start from DNS: search for the old server's name or address, then click Move these to another server above the results.

Check the new server first

Check the new server visits each name on the new server, the way a visitor will after the switch, while your records still point at the old one. Nothing is changed. For each name it tells you:

• Ready — the new server answers, with a valid certificate for that name.
• Does not answer on HTTPS — the site is not set up on the new server yet.
• Its certificate does not cover this name, has expired or is not trusted by browsers — visitors would see a security warning. Install a certificate for that name on the new server first.

A name that is not ready is also shown inside its zone, so you can see at a glance which zone it belongs to.

TipThe check is advice, not a requirement. If you want to move anyway — or without checking — tick the box that says so, and the move goes ahead.

What moves with the records

• Names that point at a record (CNAMEs such as status.example.com pointing at www.example.com) follow it automatically. The dialog lists them under the record.
• Monitors that check the old server's address are switched to the new address at the same time. If your role can't change monitors, the records still move and InfraNest lists the monitors for someone who can.
• Monitors that check a name (such as https://www.example.com) need nothing: they follow the DNS change by themselves.

What is never moved

• A record kept up to date by a dynamic IP. It follows your own changing address, not a server's, so it is shown greyed out with the reason.
• A record in a zone whose provider doesn't accept changes from InfraNest.
• A record that already points at the new server.

Undo the move

When the move is done, click Undo the move to put every record back as it was, in every zone, in one step. You can also undo it later from the History tab of any of the zones — see Undo a DNS change, or put a zone back.

Tips

• Only you can decide when the old server can go. Wait until the TTLs have run out and your monitors are green before you delete it.
• Moving records needs permission to change DNS. Moving the monitors as well needs permission to change monitoring.