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I am launching a new redesigned website on windows hosting. I am wondering what is the best way to launch this new website without having any downtime on the existing one?

MY only fear is having a user go to visit a page and it's not there or the supporting files are not uploaded yet.

Wolf Cat
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One of the simplest ways to handle this is to put a load balancer or proxy server in front of the application server. Then set up another application server with the new code. Once it is ready, you can change the proxy server to point to the new application server with the new code. Once you are sure nobody is using the old application server, you can shut it down. This, of course, relies on your ability to get that setup in place. If you are on a budget, you might be able to do it all on a single box. For instance, you could use nginx as a reverse proxy to your application on the same box. Getting that in place could potentially cause a tiny window of downtime - not sure if that's acceptable. Then you might be able to set up the new application on the same box with a different port - again, I'm not sure if that would work for your setup. Anyway, the reverse proxy approach is a pretty common one, and one of the great reasons for deploying to the cloud. You only pay for the short period of time when you need both boxes.

Russell Leggett
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You should make sure that your new website launches all at once and that you set up the proper redirection rules for all previous pages. Once you are launching the new website, pick a time at night where you have low traffic volume, and simply upload all the new code at once to the webserver. This eliminates the fear you have of the "supporting files not uploaded yet". One of the key things to do is make sure all your old pages redirect and map over to new pages on the site just in case anyone clicks into your site using external links.

Two good resources to read: http://www.rise.net/blog/ideal-way-launch-website-rebrand http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/04/best-practices-when-moving-your-site.html

Rami
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The best methos is to upload the site via FTP, and if you have RD access to login into the Windows server and to copy the new site for a few seconds. In this way you will not have any downtime as when you directly upload the site via FTP.

windowshostingasp.net
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