Rollout
Move
the site to the destination server
Move
the site to the destination server where it will be accessible to your users. If
availability is important for your site, you will want to make this move during
a low usage time such as the middle of the night. If the files will take some
time to copy, you may want to take the servers off the network temporarily so
that the site is not corrupted with a combination of old and new files.
Warn the people who frequently use the site if your server is going to be
down for any reason. You may want to send these frequent users email. Another
way to inform users is for all links to go to a page that says the server will
be down until such and such a time.
Test
the site on the destination server
If
publishing your site means moving it onto a different server than the one it was
developed on, you should conduct quality assurance and performance testing on
the new server. The new server may introduce new behaviors. Make certain that
the links work and that the scripts for forms work in the way that you planned.
Make a
backup
Files
can become corrupted for any number of reasons (e.g. hard drive crashes, actions
by the server administrator, malevolent hackers, etc.). Make a backup so that if
necessary you can restore your files to the server.
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