Here's my current plan for moving to to a Virtual Dedicated Server.
Initially sign up for a short term plan. Yes, short term is a little more per month, but I want to be sure I can manage this before making a long term commitment.
Leave all my current hosting account sites where they are.
Upload and import duplicate copies of two or three existing sites to the VDS. Upload and import a few more; including Mu instalations. Keep uploading duplicate copies of all my sites until I've done all of them.
(Use FeedWordPress and/or Autoblogged plugin to keep content in the new VDS test location current)
Let everything exist in duplicate while I learn my way around.
As each exisiting hosting account comes up for renewal, let it expire (provided its twin is already living on the VDS of course.)
Here's the configuration I am planning:
Operating System:Linux
Bandwidth:1500GB
Hard Drive(s):30GB
Control Panel:cPanel Unlimited
Backup:Daily Backups, Stored for 7 day
Ram:512MB
((I'm placing this link here for future reference: GoDaddy's cPanel Setup Guide ))
I plan on posting my notes here on Active Rain as I muddle along. Suggestions or comments about your own experience in setting up a VDS are very welcome!
Wow... I am going to be watching this with great interest. Wishing you the very best with your project. :-)
I like your idea of leaving all your existing accounts / sites where are initially. That sounds like a safe plan.
I haven't a clue what a VDS is and if I need one. Hopefully there will be lots of posts here and I can learn about it. Yes I clicked through and read the Wikipedia link, still clueless.
I will know everything there is to know about this, once you do it Cheryl.
Look forward to your posts on it, you are so thorough when you do tutorials.
Missy, My tutorials tend to be thorough because if I don't do something everyday, I tend to forget how to do it, and I go back and rely on my own tutuorials when I get stuck. :-)
Still sorting thru the plan in my head:
On the test duplicate sites, I'll use some of the domain names that are just idly parked right now. The domain name itself can't exist in two different places...
Very intriguing and look forward to see how this pans out and helps your load time and saving pennies!