Go-live day is the moment you switch your domain from your old host to Maxinodes. Done in the right order, it causes little or no downtime: you lower your DNS TTLs first, do a final sync, flip the nameservers, then verify your site, email and SSL. Keep your old host running until everything checks out so you always have a way back.
Applies to: All plans. Migration is free on every plan, and on Managed we handle most of these steps with you — ask us to schedule the cutover.
The golden rule: your old site keeps serving visitors until you change your nameservers (or records) at your registrar. Nothing here takes you offline on its own. Switch only when you are ready, and keep both hosts running until DNS has fully propagated.
1. A day or two before: lower your TTLs
Your DNS TTL ("time to live") is how long the rest of the internet caches your records. A high TTL means a change takes longer to spread. Lowering it ahead of time makes the eventual switch — and any rollback — take effect faster.
- If you will switch by changing records (you are already on our nameservers, or pointing an external domain), lower the TTL on the records you will change to 300 seconds (5 minutes) in your client area DNS manager. See How to manage DNS records in your client area.
- If you will switch by changing nameservers, the nameserver delegation TTL lives at your registrar, not with us. Lower it there if your registrar allows it.
Do this at least as long before cutover as your current TTL (often 24–48 hours), so the lower value has time to take hold first.
2. On the day: do a final sync
Between your migration and go-live, your old site may have changed — new orders, blog posts, form entries or database rows. Before you switch:
- Managed customers: tell us you are ready and we will run a final sync of files and database, then confirm.
- Self-Managed customers: copy across anything that changed since the migration (recent uploads, a fresh database export), and freeze content changes on the old site during the cutover window so nothing is lost.
Tip: Plan the cutover for a quiet period. There is a short window where some visitors see the old host and some see the new one, so avoid peak traffic and don't take orders mid-switch if you can help it.
3. Switch your domain to Maxinodes
Now make the change. Pick the method that matches your setup:
- Switch your nameservers (most common): at your registrar, set the nameservers to ns1.maxinodes.com and ns2.maxinodes.com. This hands all DNS for the domain to us. See How to point your domain to Maxinodes (set your nameservers).
- Switch by records (you are already on our nameservers, or pointing a domain registered elsewhere): update the A record for your site to 185.185.49.198 in the client area DNS manager, and point the AAAA record at 2a00:7c80:0:286:c::10 (on our nameservers that record already exists, so you only need to check its value; if your DNS is elsewhere, add it yourself).
A few things to keep straight:
- Manage live DNS in the client area, not the cPanel zone editor — the cPanel zone editor does not control your live DNS here.
- Customer websites are served over both IPv4 and IPv6 (dual-stack). When your domain uses our nameservers, the zone we create contains both the A record (185.185.49.198) and the AAAA record (2a00:7c80:0:286:c::10) for your domain,
www,cpanelandftp— you do not have to add anything. If you keep DNS at another provider, add both records there yourself. - Plan for your email before you switch nameservers. Mail at Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or another outside provider stays where it is: when we create your zone we copy that provider's records, so check they are there. Mail at your old hosting either starts arriving in your mailboxes here as soon as the nameservers switch, or stays with the old host until its records change, depending on how that host set it up. Tell us before you switch nameservers or cancel your old hosting, so we can check which and have your mailboxes created and tested here first. Switching only the A record leaves your email where it is.
4. Verify your site, email and SSL
DNS changes usually propagate in minutes to a few hours, occasionally up to 24–48 hours, governed by your TTL. As it spreads, check each of these:
- Your website. Open your domain in a browser (try a fresh/incognito window). Click through key pages, forms and the checkout if you have one. Compare against the old site so nothing is missing.
- SSL / HTTPS. Free AutoSSL is issued automatically once your domain points to us, so HTTPS keeps working. Confirm the padlock shows and there is no "Not Secure" warning. If the certificate is slow to appear, give propagation time to finish, then see How to check or reissue your SSL certificate.
- Email. Send a test message in and out of your mailbox. For the mailboxes included in your plan, use webmail: the Webmail button on your service page, https://webmail.yourdomain.com once your certificate is issued, or https://node11.maxinodes.com:2096 straight away. On Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, use outlook.office.com or mail.google.com. If mail stalls, check your MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records in the client area. See The DNS records your email needs (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC).
Result: Your domain loads your site on Maxinodes over HTTPS, and mail flows in and out. Once propagation has finished (give it up to 24–48 hours to be safe), you can decommission the old host.
5. Rollback — your way back
Because you kept your old host running, rolling back is simple: point the domain back the way it was. Reverse whatever you changed in step 3 — set the nameservers back at your registrar, or change the A record back to your old host's IP. Thanks to the low TTLs from step 1, this takes effect quickly. Mail that arrived in your Maxinodes mailboxes after the switch stays here: copy it back (or ask us to) before you close them. Then tell us what went wrong so we can fix it before you try again.
Do not delete or cancel your old hosting until you have verified the new site for at least a full day. That old host is your safety net. If your mail moved too, keep the old mailboxes for a week after the final copy.
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