The website migration described in this post provides a real-world example of how a reverse proxy server can facilitate a website migration and eliminate the lag caused by DNS propagation.
Summary
The client's situation is summarized below:
- Client has a WordPress site that continuously receives user-generated content in the form of comments
- Client is switching marketing agencies
- Client's old marketing agency is also his current webhost
- Client's DNS is hosted by his internet service provider (ISP)
- To update DNS records, the client must submit a ticket to the ISP
- It can take up to 24 hours for the ticket to be processed and completed.
Due to user-generated content, the client can't keep the website live on both the old web server and the new web server during propagation. A user post to the old web server would be lost.