The web hosting platform at webhosting.ie is being ceased shortly as it uses older technologies and is no longer being updated.

All Webhosting.ie and Getting Irish Business Online accounts, domains and and web hosting subscriptions are being migrated to the newer Irish Domains Cloud Hosting platform in order to provide more recent software versions and to allow use of SSL etc. on websites. Website and mailbox content will be preserved during the process and will generally function identically on the new platform.

How does the migration process work?

We will notify by email to your account contact address shortly before the migration.

Initially we will copy your website files to a new hosting cluster. When complete, we will update the DNS records on your domain to point to the new hosting IP address. 

Web Hosting subscriptions will be migrated to their closest equivalent on the new platform (generally SOHO Cloud Hosting).

You may see an upgrade or downgrade order placed on your hosting account during the migration - this is to ensure your subscription billing information is carried forward and to align with the new plans on Irish Domains. The value on the order will normally be zero, if not it will be offset shortly afterwards. No actual charges will be generated on accounts as there is no cost for this process. Existing contract periods will be preserved and the existing expiry dates will be maintained for domains and hosting plans.

Websites will be unavailable for approximately 30 minutes during the migration process, email will be unaffected.

After migration, your upgraded service will continue to operate as before however you will need to use the Irish Domains control panel at https://cp.irishdomains.com to access it - the same username and password will work.

Domain and Hosting renewal pricing will be held at the existing discounted rate until at least the end of September 2019. 

What are the differences between the old hosting and the new system ?

The new system provides enhanced security and better performance for our hosting customers. The main benefits are:

• Improved isolation between accounts. A misbehaving customer will not affect performance of other customers' sites.
• Multiple PHP versions including hardened versions with back-ported security patches (5.5, 5,6, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2)
• Full support for TLS (Transport Layer Security) version 1.2, newer cURL libraries.
• SNI support removing the need for unique IP addresses for SSL
• Option for larger mailbox sizes on different plans, removing the 1GB limit.
• Clustered system, individual node failure or maintenance will not cause downtime
• High Performance EMC Unity Flash storage system.
• Increased number of websites per subscription
• Increased traffic and disk-space allowances.

Will my website(s) be offline for long?

In general, websites will function normally during the migration process, however as the IP address of the website may change there may be a period of time (average about 30 minutes) when the site is unavailable to some visitors because of cached DNS information.

No customer action is required in advance of the migration however please check what name servers your domains are using. If, as is the case for most customers, you are using Irish Domains name servers (ns1/ns2.irishdomains.com) then no action will be required. If you are using third party name servers (e.g. Microsoft, Amazon, DNS.com etc.) you may wish to alter the expiry time (TTL) on your website DNS records in advance of migration, so that that the subsequent DNS changes propagate faster.

In addition to this if you’re using any services such as Cloudflare, Sucuri etc please be aware that you may need to update the endpoint IP address post migration.

If you have concerns before or after migration, please contact migration@irishdomains.com or create a Helpdesk support ticket.

What should I do during migration?

No specific customer action is needed during migration but you should avoid making changes to your website site files during the process as such changes may be lost or only partially copied. You should not attempt to install or remove site-vault applications such as WordPress until the migration process has completed.

Once you receive the email confirming that migration is complete, you should verify that your website is working properly. If you have concerns, you may contact migration@irishdomains.com or create a Helpdesk support ticket.

If you are using third party name servers (e.g. Microsoft, Amazon, DNS.com etc.) then you will need to update the A record for your domain to point to your new hosting IP address - this will be contained in the pre/post migration emails.

You may need to review your FTP settings and update the host name or IP address in any FTP program you use to maintain your website.

What will happen to my custom DNS records?

The only DNS records that will change are the "System" records related to web hosting, MX records and all other custom records will remain unchanged.

Can I opt out of migration?

Unfortunately it is not possible to opt out as the new platform is required to provide safe and secure standards compliant hosting for all our customers.

What if I have questions or encounter issues with my website after migration ?

If you have any questions or post-migration issues, please contact our team at migration@irishdomains.com and we'll be happy to help.