Question

Droplet migration

Posted on January 25, 2021
DigitalOcean Droplets
Asked by williamd991e9db2513f2cfb1c

Scenario:

we have a website hosted with DO for the past 7 years and in those 7 years we did exactly 0 updates to Ubuntu, Apache, php, …
at this point we are running Ubuntu 14, php 5.6, … and we would like to update everything (to Ubuntu 20, php at least 7.4, …)

We figure to best way to update everything right now would be to create a new Droplet from scratch, set it up, migrate the files there, test everything out and when ready - “somehow” switch the current Droplet with the new one.

Here’s the idea we have so far and I’d like to know if this is doable or not:

1-click install a new Droplet https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/lamp
migrate files to new Droplet but keep DB pointed to the old (current) one
test everything out on the new Droplet
once ready, put everything in maintenance mode and migrate the DB to the new Droplet
(and here’s the crucial part) repoint users to this new Droplet – how would we do this?

Since we already have everything we need in our account - could we just go to => Networking > Domains and repoint the IPs from the old Droplet to the new one? Would this work? Would this need time to propagate or would it be immediate? I’m guessing we’d need to rekey the SSL certificates after we’re done?

Thanks!

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KFSys

Site Moderator

• January 26, 2021

Accepted Answer

Hi @williamd991e9db2513f2cfb1c,

As I can see you’ve got it 90% figured out, great plan by the way!

Here is how I’ll do it as I see it as the easiest. It’s mostly the same as your plan but with small different details.

First, as usual, create the new droplet
Install all the necessary software on it (Apache, MySQL, Nginx etc.)
Once you’ve installed all that you need on it, migrate(transfer over) your application to the new droplet but DO NOT change the A records to point to the new droplet
Use hosts files to test your application on the new Droplet.
Once you confirm everything is correct, do a last rsync from the old to the new droplet to sync any changes done to the live application while you were testing it on the new droplet.
Right after the rsync finishes, change the DNS settings from the old to the new droplet.
Wait about 24 hours for the DNS to propagate and the domain to start fully working from the new droplet
Turn off the old droplet.

That’s it, your application/s would be working from the new droplet now without a problem.

Regards, KFSys