How to Re-direct to a Different Web Server

Hi there,
I have a existing Apache web server for my company www.company.com with the
IP of 100.100.100.100.
Now, I am planning to move it from an ISP to another, so it's IP address has
to be changed, and it would be 200.200.200.200.
To zero the downtime, I'd like to set up a new server at the new ISP with
the new IP, and keep the old server at the current ISP for a while and
forward its access to http://200.200.200.200.
The question is how to set up the forwarding/redirection on the current
Apache, and it won't change the address in the browser's address field?
Thanks a lot in advance,
Ross

Re: How to Re-direct to a Different Web Server

Ross wrote:

> Hi there,
> I have a existing Apache web server for my company www.company.com with the
> IP of 100.100.100.100.
> Now, I am planning to move it from an ISP to another, so it's IP address has
> to be changed, and it would be 200.200.200.200.
> To zero the downtime, I'd like to set up a new server at the new ISP with
> the new IP, and keep the old server at the current ISP for a while and
> forward its access to http://200.200.200.200.
> The question is how to set up the forwarding/redirection on the current
> Apache, and it won't change the address in the browser's address field?
> Thanks a lot in advance,

I think to not change the address, you'd need some tricky RewriteEngine
rule. Why not change the address?

--
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http://www.edgehill.net/1
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

Re: How to Re-direct to a Different Web Server

Paul Furman wrote:
> Ross wrote:
>
>> Hi there,
>> I have a existing Apache web server for my company www.company.com
>> with the IP of 100.100.100.100.
>> Now, I am planning to move it from an ISP to another, so it's IP
>> address has to be changed, and it would be 200.200.200.200.
>> To zero the downtime, I'd like to set up a new server at the new ISP
>> with the new IP, and keep the old server at the current ISP for a
>> while and forward its access to http://200.200.200.200.
>> The question is how to set up the forwarding/redirection on the
>> current Apache, and it won't change the address in the browser's
>> address field?
>> Thanks a lot in advance,
>
> I think to not change the address, you'd need some tricky RewriteEngine
> rule. Why not change the address?
>
Either that or use iframes or something like that. I can only assume he
wants to not change the IP to minimise clients not being able to view
the site due to DNS caching. You could always just leave both servers
running for a bit...

--
DM davidm@cia.com.au

The funny .sig is in the wash, I am your replacement.

Re: How to Re-direct to a Different Web Server

hi Ross:

Ross wrote:
> I have a existing Apache web server for my company www.company.com with the
> IP of 100.100.100.100.
> Now, I am planning to move it from an ISP to another, so it's IP address has
> to be changed, and it would be 200.200.200.200.
> To zero the downtime, I'd like to set up a new server at the new ISP with
> the new IP, and keep the old server at the current ISP for a while and
> forward its access to http://200.200.200.200.
> The question is how to set up the forwarding/redirection on the current
> Apache, and it won't change the address in the browser's address field?

if i understand what you're asking, success depends as much on what you do with
your DNS configuration as your apache setup. to switch from ISP.old to ISP.new
with a minimum of disruption, try this:

1. reduce the dns refresh time on the company.com zone and ttl on the
www.company.com resource record to 5 minutes. if your existing ttl/refresh is 8
hours, you need to do this at least 8 hours before the move. i would do it well
in advance so that you don't have to worry about it.

2. prepare your website at ISP.new and configure apache to recognize and accept
traffic for www.company.com

3. once the DNS ttl has propagated (hours or days after you've set it to 5
minutes), change the IP address of www.company.com in DNS from ISP.old to
ISP.new. most traffic will switch and start landing at ISP.new within 5 minutes.

4. you can now safely assume that traffic arriving at ISP.old is ignoring DNS.
after examining the nature of the traffic, you can drop it altogether (just turn
off the old server if the traffic looks like robot noise), or if the remaining
traffic looks legitimate, you can set the apache at ISP.old to redirect any/all
traffic to ISP.new. in httpd.conf at ISP.old:

RedirectMatch permanent ^/(.*)$ http://www.company.com/$1

which would hopefully force clients who have cached your IP to do a fresh
lookup. if you really want to keep all of your bot traffic and whatever else is
not properly respecting your DNS entry, you can redirect any/all traffic to the
IP of your machine at ISP.new, like this:

RedirectMatch permanent ^/(.*)$ http://200.200.200.200/$1

i doubt this will net you any human traffic of value, it will just increase
robot noise on your new server.

5. restore your dns refresh/ttl to a more reasonable duration, allowing clients
to cache your zone information for hours or days.

--sean

--
sean dreilinger - http://durak.org/sean/

Re: How to Re-direct to a Different Web Server

Thanks a lot, Sean!
That's what I want.
Cheers,
Ross

"sean dreilinger" wrote in message
news:46A3A591.8070706@durak.org...
> hi Ross:
>
> Ross wrote:
>> I have a existing Apache web server for my company www.company.com with
>> the IP of 100.100.100.100.
>> Now, I am planning to move it from an ISP to another, so it's IP address
>> has to be changed, and it would be 200.200.200.200.
>> To zero the downtime, I'd like to set up a new server at the new ISP with
>> the new IP, and keep the old server at the current ISP for a while and
>> forward its access to http://200.200.200.200.
>> The question is how to set up the forwarding/redirection on the current
>> Apache, and it won't change the address in the browser's address field?
>
> if i understand what you're asking, success depends as much on what you do
> with your DNS configuration as your apache setup. to switch from ISP.old
> to ISP.new with a minimum of disruption, try this:
>
> 1. reduce the dns refresh time on the company.com zone and ttl on the
> www.company.com resource record to 5 minutes. if your existing ttl/refresh
> is 8 hours, you need to do this at least 8 hours before the move. i would
> do it well in advance so that you don't have to worry about it.
>
> 2. prepare your website at ISP.new and configure apache to recognize and
> accept traffic for www.company.com
>
> 3. once the DNS ttl has propagated (hours or days after you've set it to 5
> minutes), change the IP address of www.company.com in DNS from ISP.old to
> ISP.new. most traffic will switch and start landing at ISP.new within 5
> minutes.
>
> 4. you can now safely assume that traffic arriving at ISP.old is ignoring
> DNS. after examining the nature of the traffic, you can drop it altogether
> (just turn off the old server if the traffic looks like robot noise), or
> if the remaining traffic looks legitimate, you can set the apache at
> ISP.old to redirect any/all traffic to ISP.new. in httpd.conf at ISP.old:
>
> RedirectMatch permanent ^/(.*)$ http://www.company.com/$1
>
> which would hopefully force clients who have cached your IP to do a fresh
> lookup. if you really want to keep all of your bot traffic and whatever
> else is not properly respecting your DNS entry, you can redirect any/all
> traffic to the IP of your machine at ISP.new, like this:
>
> RedirectMatch permanent ^/(.*)$ http://200.200.200.200/$1
>
> i doubt this will net you any human traffic of value, it will just
> increase robot noise on your new server.
>
> 5. restore your dns refresh/ttl to a more reasonable duration, allowing
> clients to cache your zone information for hours or days.
>
> --sean
>
> --
> sean dreilinger - http://durak.org/sean/