Re: [cobalt-users] Can I change the IP of a site on the same RAQ?

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wayne McBryde wrote:

> On my Raq 4r I have 5 IP's.  Can I move a site from one to another without
> causing a problem?  I know I will need to also change the DNS, but will this
> cause a problem?

Presuming you do it correctly, mail won't be a problem.  ftp won't be a
problem.  Shell accounts (if any) won't be a problem.

Websites will have a problem.  Simply put, because when you change the
IP# of a site, internally, in the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file, it
gets moved into another virtual container, for the new IP#.

And even if you change DNS istantly, there'll still be a time period
during which cached DNS will still point to the old IP#.

You should definitely change the TTL on the sites you're moving to one
minute (60 seconds) at least 24 hours before the change, and then change
it back to the normal TTL when you change the DNS to the new IP#.  You
can find TTL in what your RaQ calls the SOA record in DNS.

> My reason for doing this,
> When I remove a site from the server, any request for that site will go to
> the first site I setup on that IP address.  I would perfer that the traffic
> go to my main site, but it was not the first on it's IP address.  I at least
> don't want the traffic going to one site in piticular.  And of course that
> site was the first put on it's IP.

I think what you're saying is that when you remove a site you want all
traffic destined for it (at least until the site expires or it's
nameservers are changed) to point to your main site.

Here's how I did it (I did it with a "free parking" site, but the
concept is the same):

I created a free-parking site on it's own IP#.  For every site I want
pointed to that free-parking site, I simply point it (in DNS) to that
IP#.  That way all the sites with this IP# will share the same site. 
Since I use it for freeparking, I disable the URL rewrite as well, but
if you're pointing to your main site you don't have to do that.

So what I'd do, if I wanted to point all sites I remove from my system
to my main site would be to put my own site on it's own IP#, then when I
remove sites from my system, change the DNS for them to that IP#.

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Linux and Cobalt/Sun/RaQ Consulting
nobaloney.net, P. O. Box 52672, Riverside, CA  92517
voice: +1 909 778-9980  *  fax: +1 909 548-9484