Skip to content
Avaloi

Moving to a bigger server

When your site needs more room than its server has, Avaloi moves it to a bigger server while it stays online. Visitors may see a short maintenance page when it switches.

This feature is not built yet. This article says what works today.

When you upgrade your plan or add resources, Avaloi first tries to give your site the extra room where it already runs. That takes no restart and no downtime. Only when the server has no room left does Avaloi move your site to another server. You do not need to do anything.

Not yet

Moving a site while it stays online is not turned on yet. Today, when a site needs a bigger server, Avaloi tells you first and moves it with the site offline for the length of the copy: minutes for a small site, longer for a large one. Extra room on the server a site already runs on, such as more memory or disk, never needs a move and never takes the site offline.

Your site stays online

While Avaloi copies your site, it keeps answering visitors as usual. Orders, comments, and posts that arrive during the copy are kept. During the short maintenance page, a visitor who sends a form is asked to try again.

When the copy is nearly done, Avaloi switches the site to the new server. For a short time, usually well under a minute, visitors see a plain maintenance page that asks them to try again in a few seconds. Then your site is back, on the new server, with everything that was written up to the switch. The maintenance page is not an error, and search engines are told to come back later.

If something goes wrong during the switch, Avaloi puts your site back on the old server and tells you. Nothing is lost.

What you see

  • A line at the top of your site pages: "Moving to a server with more room. Your site stays online." with a progress bar.
  • A notification when the move starts and when it finishes.
  • An entry in the activity log.

You can keep working while it runs.

When it happens

If you upgraded your plan, Avaloi picks a quiet time for your site, based on when your visitors usually come, and starts within 12 hours. If Avaloi staff move your site for you, it starts at once.

What stays the same

  • Your site address and your own domains.
  • Your files, database, backups, and restore points.
  • Your SFTP and SSH logins. The SSH port may change, and the Info tab shows the new one.
  • Your plan and your price. A move costs nothing.

Very busy sites

A site that changes very fast while it is copied may need a quieter time. In that case Avaloi leaves the site where it is and tells you. Support can try again at a better time.

Still stuck?

Email [email protected] with your site name and what you tried, or send us a message.