Home Is Where You Hang Your Hat
The old saying of "home is where you hang your hat" is true and to the point when using web hosting. This morning (my morning in the Philippines), I completed the move of all four of my blogs and another website.
The lights are on but nobody's home.
That's what it feels like to me. The DNS for two out of five domains hasn't propagated to his part of the world yet and I'm chomping at the bit. I had to edit the hosts file on my PC in order to write this now. Some things still don't work quite right. I can't preview this post, for example.
I don't know how long I'll have to wait because propagation can take up 72 hours from the time the nameservers are changed. It's okay, though, because the fifth site needs to have SSL in place and I'm waiting on a new IP address to use for it.
Despite my overuse of clichés, the move was transparent for most people. I made a small mistake and forgot to copy my Mint database to the new server until a few hours had passed, so I can't tell exactly how long it took for everyone outside of Asia. Luckily, only about a 10th of my visitors come from here — and they still have access on the old server, so it should be transparent for them when it finally switches — I just have to watch the comments.
The New Host
The sites are now being hosted at Media Temple on a DV virtual dedicated server. I know they have a referral program, but I can't claim any referrals yet because my primary domain is part of my top secret project.
The setup is a bit more complicated because they use Plesk instead of cPanel, but that's okay. I have way more control over everything, including restarting the Apache server when something is behaving badly.
The sites should all operate smoothly. I enabled mod_deflate and installed APC, both which supplement the cache. I'm sure there are other things I can do to speed things up later on down the road, but I'm happy with it as is for now.
Similar Posts:
Thats great you upgraded your server. It is a huge pain to move sites from one server to the next. I hate it. I have to do it today.
My latest blog post: Find Out What People Are Asking Search Engines
I just went through four blogs and made sure the cache was working, updated three out of four with plugins — still working on the fourth.
The server scheduled backups mean that I was able to deactivate the backup plugins. The next couple of weeks are going to be interesting as I start to catch up on everything.
What did you say RT? I didn't quite get it, but I never do. I just don't understand how most of this works. Have a terrific day.
My latest blog post: What'll It Be?
I just got an account on another host for some new projects and they don't use cpanel so I am also having a big learning curve. I guess cpanel was one of those "don't appreciate it until you don't have it".
My latest blog post: Sesame Street Alphabet Letters to Print
RT, I have to agree with Comedy Plus. I have not a clue as to what you were talking about. Way too technical for me.
When I changed from a shared hosting account to a resellers account I had to have support do the transfer for me.
If I ever decide to upgrade to a dedicated server I think you will be the first person I talk to.
Hope all goes well the rest of the way.
My latest blog post: How to Make Money Online Blogging
And here I thought this was going to be something personal about living in the Philippines but no such luck.
I have no idea what you just said, as cPanel this or that sounds like jibberish to me, but I'm sure glad you know what you're doing with your blogs and with the "secret project".
My latest blog post: The Edge Chronicles – Edge Chronicles Book Series by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
Hi RT,
Unlike some of the others, I DO understand what you're talking about – and I'm jealous! I'd love having that control…
My latest blog post: Flickr Picks – Full Face Sun Visors In China
Hi RT,
Unlike some of the others, I DO understand what you're talking about – and I'm jealous! I'd love having that control…
PS hope this isn't a duplicate – I suspect my other website is in Akismet again…
My latest blog post: SearchWiki Breaks Numbered Google Results – Easy Fix
Yep, duplicate. I suspect I need to tweak the cache settings (again).
I couldn't visit your site until this morning. Glad to hear everything is coming together server wise. I would have to get some more schooling to understand most of what you are talking about though
My latest blog post: Spam-a-Lam-a-Ding-Dong – Spametry Lives On
hey RT,
Congrats on the successful move. Control and uptime are two very awesome things!
~ Steve, aka the trade show guru
My latest blog post: Five Keys to Marketing Success
Looks like most of the move went smoothly here. You do need to edit your media temple link though; it's got a double http & is broken.
My latest blog post: AKC Pet Insurance
I fixed the link. Thanks.
I think it's good you decided to bite the bullet now and change. If you would have waited it would just have made it harder.
My latest blog post: Build A Rock Climbing Wall
Congrats on upgrading your server. It can be a pain at times though but its something that must be done.
I've got all my sites on Dreamhost but I'm thinking I'm going to start putting some on another site – just to cover my butt if there a problem with one host and also to get experience with things like Plesk.
Plesk was interesting. I do still fell more at home with cPanel, but I'm usually in with ssh and scp – its faster. Interestingly, your email update came to my inbox this morning and I just got the RSS feed now (Atlantic Standard Time, for those who may care to know).
My latest blog post: And its over again
Why did you decide to move your blogs on another server? can you develop your choice a little bit? I use bluehost and as far as I am concerned i am quite happy with them. Their service is not fast and snappy as it used to be some years ago but i am not having any major issue so i will stay with them. Plus i am quite, quite afraid to move all my 'belongings' smewhere else…LOL!
My latest blog post: How to backup your Windows Vista and XP drivers
I moved the blogs (4) because I needed to be sure that shared resources weren't going to cause downtime. When I found out that more than 500 domains were on the same server as mine, I figured it was time to use a different route.
These things have to be done and it is better to get it done now rather than leave it. You'll be saving yourself a lot of future hassle.
I'd like to know is Plesk easy to learn as cPanel? I like to use ISPManager Pro.
Actually, I found it just as easy. Once you learn where everything is, it works fine.
CPanel is better for shared hosting, I think, whereas Plesk is better for non-shared hosting. I've now used both and that's my opinion so far.
Thank you very much for your answer!
Hi RT, I just wanted to stop by and wish you a Happy Birthday!
My latest blog post: Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks!
Very nice, I'm expecting a similar traffic burst that will one day require this. How and why did you pick the host you did for this? Thanks.
My latest blog post: ifbyphone Raises $4.6 Million in New Round of Venture Capital Funding
I have several online contacts using Media Temple. I read through all the horror stories and then through all the good testimonials. It appears their "Grid Service" isn't all that great, but their dedicated hosting services are very good. Of course, with the dedicated hosting, the customer has to do all the server maintenance, changes in configuration, etc.
I spent a few days trying to figure out how to remove certain restrictions and finally figured it out. During the process, I upgraded 4 blogs from Subversion.
You have selected the best there is. Media Temple rules
I really need to do this too, but keep putting it off hoping my current host will upgrade its features – clearly they wont.
may i someday get to the point where i understand a post such as this.
belated happy birthday as well. 
My latest blog post: portable powered pa system
I know what you mean. Though i read today already about the locality of server being importnat to SE results on google, which was useful.. but i really know what you mean …. some stuff is so so technical!!! See my post of dedicated servers if you want, here it is:
The pros and cons of a dedicated server
I am certainly going to look into them as a webhost.
Yes, that can definitely be a huge pain in the neck!
I have experienced this when I upgraded my server, too. It's really time-consuming moving websites to a new server and I still need to adjust. But after the successful move, everything went on smoothly.
Hi RT— hey I know I have to make the move to a virtual dedicated server at some point, and while I was reading your post and thinking that you clearly know what you're talking about, I thought "Where's the ebook?"
Seriously, even if it's only 4-5 pages, I'd pay say $9.95 to have all my instructions in one pdf. Just a suggestion.
My latest blog post: Zodiac Matches for Men Born Under the Pig Sign
I wish I had the time to write it. I have too much on my plate right now to put the necessary effort into an e-book.
Just last week I moved a couple blog sites to different ISPs.
I was really surprised when the DNS propogation delays were about an hour! I live in Michigan and I think some of the servers are located abroad so I was really surprised things worked that quickly.
I remember doing this about ten years ago and it did take about three days.
Congrats on the successful move. Control and uptime are two very awesome things!
My latest blog post: Black Hills Rose Gold Leaf Studs