Setting Up A Colocation Transfer
We’re proud to provide the resources, equipment and security your business needs for successful colocation of information assets. And we like taking things a step further with knowledgeable service available 24/7/365 to help with anything you need, any time. Like any big move, colocation is a transition that can run into problems without proper planning. OnRamp is happy to walk you through some lessons we’ve learned over the years in this week’s blog post. The goal is to help your business draft and implement a solid plan of action for moving into a data center. Of course, all businesses are different and must look out for unique needs, but these are some common issues or concerns to watch for during a colocation transfer.
For starters, cancel any contracts with old colocation providers. Many require a 30-day notice at the least, so get in touch as soon as possible to ensure your company doesn’t get trapped. Stay in communication with our engineers and coordinate the time you are arriving with servers. Let us know any special configuration needs prior to the move, so your engineer will be ready when you arrive. Obtain IP numbers and specify which will be used as gateway(s). The engineer will also need information on any domains you want us to serve DNS for. This includes IP address mappings and reverse mappings where applicable.
On your end, set the Time To Live (TTL) on the domain names you are moving, down to an hour or other small time frame. Most DNS servers handling DNS queries will respond with a TTL of up to a week. So your new site at the new colocation facility may not appear live to site visitors for up to a week after the move. When you set the TTL down to about one hour, let it stay there for at least as long as the previous setting was in effect. So if your previous setting was one week, wait that long after the reset before editing it again. This ensures that visitors will be directed to the new site within an hour at the latest. Once the colocation is established, go ahead and set the TTL back to one week (or wherever it previously was) to lessen the load on the DNS server. This will also speed initial connections to your site at that point.
If you’re opting to utilize our in-house DNS servers for your colocation transfer needs, contact each domain’s registrar and update your registration info to reflect you are using our servers as the primary and secondary DNS servers. But wait on this step until the engineers have configured our servers to your exact specifications. Initially, those should mirror your current DNS configuration pointing at your old facility, only with a short TTL. Keep in mind that OnRamp also offers reliable managed servers packages to fit your business.
