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After much Googling, I think I've confused myself concerning DNS-related things.

For a client, I am moving a site from Network Solutions to GoDaddy, both the domain registration and the hosting account. I have replicated the site on the new hosting account successfully and am at the point where I need to initiate the transfer and then change the nameservers once that completes. That part I think I'm good on.

Meanwhile, they have email hosted at Rackspace (which I've never used before) and I'm wondering if any settings on Rackspace will need to be changed in this situation or if I only need to change settings on the new domain/hosting account?

Also, in either case, will there be a period of email outage/delay or does a 3rd party service like Rackspace solve that problem (assuming both the old and new hosting accounts keep operating)?

Thanks in advance.

Eckstein
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  • Question: Why are you moving the domain registration and DNS to the new host instead of just the website itself? – joeqwerty Sep 28 '16 at 04:05
  • I'm changing registrars to godaddy and adding the domain as an add-on to an existing godaddy hosting account (he has multiple domains/websites) in order to cut down on the number of hosting accounts he has to pay for. Is that what you mean? – Eckstein Sep 28 '16 at 04:13
  • To mitigate your risk change one at a time. First migrate your registrar, and point it at existing hosting. Next migrate the website. I often use CloudFlare as a DNS provider, which is helpful during changeovers - you can disable their caching and just use them for fast DNS, turn the orange cloud to gray on their DNS page. – Tim Sep 30 '16 at 19:09

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I found this article which is everything I was typing up as a reply.

The Short Version

  1. Create a list of DNS records from your current DNS provider (likely to be NetSol, but could be someone else, like Cloud Flare).
  2. On GoDaddy, initiate the transfer process.
  3. GoDaddy will need a transfer authorization code, which you'll request from NetSol.
  4. After the transfer completes, make sure your DNS records at GoDaddy match the list your made.
  5. (conditional) If using Cloud Flare or a different DNS provider, configure GoDaddy to use their name servers. This is ideal.

wondering if any settings on Rackspace will need to be changed in this situation or if I only need to change settings on the new domain/hosting account?

If Rackspace is not your current DNS provider, then you don't need to make changes to Rackspace until you're ready to close that account.

Also, in either case, will there be a period of email outage/delay or does a 3rd party service like Rackspace solve that problem (assuming both the old and new hosting accounts keep operating)?

Rackspace won't turn off your account just because you changed registrars.

Email will be sent to, and subsequently received at, whichever host is identified in your MX records. Make sure to wait a few days for old DNS records to expire before closing the Rackspace Email account.

Joe A
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    Answers which rely this heavily on a link are discouraged. Probably better as a comment unless you want to unpack the article in a larger response than your answer is at this time. – Wesley Sep 30 '16 at 18:28
  • Despite the discouraged answer format, this was helpful. I'm actually keeping the Rackspace account (they don't want to switch that) they are just changing who their registrar is (network solutions transfer to GoDaddy) and moving the actual site to an existing hosting account on GoDaddy. So, from what I gather, if they're not moving email services (rackspace) as long as the mx records don't delete themselves during the transfer, I shouldn't have any issue right? – Eckstein Oct 01 '16 at 01:09
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    @eckstein just make sure to recreate the MX records at GoDaddy. – Joe A Oct 01 '16 at 02:23
  • @eckstein you're welcome! Happy to hear your keeping the email at Rackspace. Give us a call to talk about this kind of switcharoo if you want talk it out. – Joe A Oct 01 '16 at 05:11
  • @JoeA Awesome expansion on the answer. -1 retracted! _high five_ – Wesley Oct 02 '16 at 21:21