Case Study - High traffic and the challenge of domain transfer

Overview

Corium (Code name) is a traditional enterprise with a website attracting thousands of daily visitors, who make substantial purchases. The client who contacted Da Vinci is the founder's son, who is in line to take over the business. He has been initiating various innovations, including diversifying product offerings and organizational renewal.

To align with these changes, the client wanted to move their website. Technically, changing a website while retaining the same URL is not difficult. All websites are composed of three types of files: Javascript, HTML, and CSS. You simply rent a computer connected to the internet, configure it to broadcast these files online, and you're set. To change the website, you would just modify these files.

If only things were this simple for Corium. Their situation was more complicated because they created a new website using a specific website builder service, which mandated linking the client's domain to their servers. This meant the client had to abandon their previously rented server and rent a new one.

What would this lead to? Browsers are configured to point towards the server computer that the URL (e.g., "google.com") indicates. Therefore, from a buyer's perspective who wants to visit the client's website, entering the URL will now direct them to a now-nonexistent server, preventing them from reaching the new website.

So how can you inform the browser about the new server address?

In the world of the internet, there are companies that store the addresses of various servers; these are known as "name servers." When you enter a URL in a browser, the browser smartly asks the name server to direct it to the appropriate server computer. The specific process is too detailed to go into here.

Ultimately, Corium had to ask the name server to remove the old server computer address linked to their URL and register a new one. Additionally, name servers globally update these addresses at their own pace, a process called propagation, which can take up to 48 hours.

Failure to execute this task could not only bring down the website but also other related services like email. Therefore, it required a delicate approach similar to an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team.

Da Vinci deployed Dongeun Paeng and Kwangil Cho for this project. They communicated with the client in real-time via messaging apps throughout the domain transfer process.

The most challenging part was the 24-hour propagation period and a temporary interruption in email services. During the domain transfer, it's crucial to provide something called a TXT record to the name server; without it, emails could be marked as spam. Da Vinci had to hurriedly obtain this TXT information from the email service provider.

There were other minor inconveniences, but ultimately the project was successful and both the client and Da Vinci regained peace of mind.

The larger the business scale, the more difficult and risky domain transfers become. If you wish to avoid unnecessary trial and error, feel free to contact us to share our experiences and challenges in detail.

Until next time,

Dongeun

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