Website Migration Guide: Moving Your Site Between Hosting Providers Without Downtime

Pre-Migration Checklist

1. Reduce DNS TTL to 300 seconds (5 minutes) at least 24 hours before migration
2. Document all website files, databases, email accounts, and configuration
3. Create complete backup of current hosting (files + database)
4. Provision new hosting environment
5. Set up identical server configuration on new host

Files Migration with rsync

rsync -avz --progress user@oldserver:/var/www/html/ /var/www/html/

Database Migration

# On old server
mysqldump -u root -p dbname > backup.sql

# Transfer to new server
scp backup.sql user@newserver:/tmp/

# On new server
mysql -u root -p newdbname < /tmp/backup.sql

The DNS Cutover

Update A records to point to new server IP. Because TTL is already 300 seconds, propagation completes within 5-10 minutes. Keep old server running for 24 hours as insurance.

FAQ

How do I migrate email without losing messages?

Use imapsync to migrate mailboxes: imapsync --host1 oldserver --user1 email --host2 newserver --user2 email. Run during low-traffic period.