Re: [cobalt-users] RAQ3 How to change IP addresses.

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Richard Mehner wrote:

> Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.
> 
> I've got a RAQ3 with about 150 Vhosts with static IP addresses.

I'm presuming you mean they each have their own address.

> Problem is that soon I'm moving the server, which will cause me to
> have re-address the server.
> 
> First, I will need to change the main IP address.
> 
> Second, I will need to change the Vhosted domains.

> I would like to make them non-static IP addresses, that way if this
> happens again it would just be a DNS change.
> 
> Is this possible to switch from static IP's to name-based?

Yes, presuming none of the sites have features that cause them to
require their own IP#.

For example, if any of them host secure servers or anonymous FTP, those
sites will need their own IP#s.

> Is this going to be a pain?  Or am I missing something here?

Let's just say it's going to be tedious.

> Any suggestions?
> 
> I really don't want to rebuild 150 web sites for customers.

I don't believe you'll have to rebuild any customer sites.  You should
try my method on one first, to make sure, since my tests (run a few
minutes ago) were on a RaQ2, and the RaQ3 might differ in this
functionality, but I don't think so.

Here's what I tried:

I went through some sites, one by one, and changed the IP# on all of
them.

Then I checked through ssh and made sure their contents hadn't changed.

Success.  Their contents had NOT changed.  The site directories are left
alone.  That's good news.

Then I checked through ssh and made sure the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
file hadn't change.

Failure.  The virtual site record in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf is
deleted and rewritten when you change the IP#.  So if you've made any
changes to it outside of the gui, you'd better document them first, so
you can reinstall them later.  They did NOT change.

Presuming the RaQ3 works like the RaQ2, all you have to do is change the
IP#s for each site, both in site settings, and in DNS.

If you can, you should change the headers on all the DNS zones (the
"soa" record in RaQ terminology) for a minimum (say 1 hour or 1/2 hour)
TTL, so most sites won't experience much of an outage, if any.

You should change DNS twice then, once ahead of time to shorten the TTL,
then afterwards to relengthen the TTL and to change the actual IP#s.

If you're hosting DNS manually rather than through the RaQ3 gui, then
the second change would be quite easy; you can just make one record, and
copy it over and over again for all the different zone files.  But
presuming you're hosting DNS through the RaQ gui, it's a tedious job at
best.

But certainly doable; lots of us have been down the road.

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
nobaloney.net
P. O. Box 52672
Riverside, CA  92517
voice: (909) 787-8589  *  fax: (909) 782-0205