This is a question we receive often from customers wishing to migrate to the Total Uptime DNS platform. The simple answer is that DNS can easily be migrated without any downtime.
But we understand that you probably want a little more information on exactly how we accomplish this, so we’re happy to oblige.
First, you’ll want to either import or manually configure your DNS zone in our user interface to match your existing DNS configuration. Ensuring that it matches is an essential component to mitigating any downtime, or odd behavior.
Second, you’ll change the name servers at your domain registrar by deleting your old ones and adding at least two of the ones that we’ve provided you and listed on the DOMAINS tab within the management interface.
Third, you sit and wait for about 24 to 48 hours BEFORE closing or deleting your account at your old provider. This is important because during that 24 to 48 hour period, while most of the traffic will immediately start resolving from the Total Uptime DNS servers, some will continue to hit the old servers. This is why it is important for the zones to be identical.
If you do have an urgent DNS change you must make during the 24 to 48 hour window, that’s completely fine. You just need to make it on both platforms to ensure consistency.
That’s it! It really is that simple.
Okay, still not convinced that this can be a zero downtime process, well, here are the only ways to screw it all up.
1. If you forget to import or key-in a few records, they won’t work after the switch. So that’s why it’s important to ensure they all match.
2. If you key-in all of our name servers incorrectly when making the switch at your domain registrar, then DNS won’t resolve, so just make sure you copy and paste, or compare them before clicking save.
That’s about it. There really aren’t any other ways to screw it up. But if you need help, just let us know!