site-launch

A few folks have recently asked me about our process for the actual launch of web sites. Aside from doing lots of development work, we also maintain our own server cluster, and do our own hosting - so transitioning, launching, and re-launching sites is something we've gotten pretty good at. Despite the uniqueness of some of our sites, in general, launch process on LAMP systems can generally be pretty straight forward. Here's what we generally do:

At least one week before a site goes live:

• If you're going to be moving servers at all, confirm your DNS is in order:
• Make sure either you (or someone technical) have access to update DNS records. Sometimes that means pointing a domain's name servers to ones under your control.
• Lower TTL of domains to 15 minutes or less - this ensure fast cutover, and ability to quickly revert to old site/settings in the event of issues. We generally set our TTL at 60 seconds when we're preparing for a transition.
• Confirm any other DNS needs and adjust accordingly. (MX records, other existing websites that may live at sub-domains, etc.)
• If your client is fairly large, or runs their own internal network, always a good idea to check with their network admins about any specific issues that may arise. We've seen cases where clients have local Windows Active Directory domains that are the same as their public website. That can often lead to IP address conflicts.
• Review any additional 'special circumstances' to consider - will you need a content delivery network to handle a major traffic surge? What are your fail-over/fail back procedures, etc.

About a week before go-live:

• Create your production hosting area and initialize your production database.