Web

Prepare a web migration without disrupting production

Changing hosting does not start on the day of the changeover. The actual work starts well before: inventory, dependencies, DNS, databases and backtracking.

ACLClouds2026-05-027 mins

1. Take a complete inventory of what’s running

A site is not just PHP files or a public folder. You must identify the domain, the DNS zone, the certificates, the cron jobs, the storage files, the email accounts and the database. Without this inventory, oversights are revealed after production is put into production.

Note the versions of PHP, framework, extension and SQL engine.
Identify planned tasks and external integrations.
Measure the size of files and data before copying.

2. DNS, SSL and database failover

Migration often depends on details deemed to be secondary: DNS TTL too long, certificate not regenerated, incomplete dump, old application cache or forgotten environment variables. We must reduce the number of unknowns before the change window.

Schedule DNS changes with a realistic propagation window.
Check database access and encodings after import.
Test the site on the target environment before public testing.

3. Always keep backspace simple

The true sign of healthy migration is not the absence of risk, it is the ability to return to the previous state quickly if something fails. So keep a usable backup, a previous DNS pointing and a person capable of proofreading the procedure.

Set a clear validation criterion after changeover.
Predict who decides the rollback and within what time frame.
Keep old backups until the new site is stabilized.

See the documentation

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