Migrating hosting without downtime is a solved problem — if you respect DNS TTLs. Here is the runbook our migration team uses.
1. Lower TTLs 48 hours before
Set the TTL on the records you’ll change to 300 seconds. Do this at least one full old TTL period before the migration window.
2. Stage and verify the new environment
Deploy the site to the new server and test it via your hosts file (/etc/hosts) — never via a temporary URL, which breaks absolute links and cookies.
3. Dual-serve during the window
Keep the old server running. Both environments should serve identical content; put the database in read-only mode or set up replication if the site is transactional.
4. Flip the records
Change the A/AAAA records to the new IP. With a 300s TTL, 95%+ of traffic lands on the new server within 10 minutes.
5. Watch, then decommission
Watch the old server’s access logs decay to zero over 24–48 hours before shutting it down. Restore TTLs to a sane default (3600–14400s).
We do this for you, free
Every Shine Servers hosting plan includes free managed migration — we run this exact runbook, including the out-of-hours cut-over. Request a migration.