Prepare a website cutover

Checked against v1.241.1 on 2026-11-02 · Source reviewed

Before you start

Obtain the current zone export, intended DNS records, canonical hostname and final URL, critical pages, mail-provider requirements and a named rollback owner. These decisions come from your project.

Prepare the evidence

1. Capture the public baseline with Domain Snapshot and preserve a provider export separately.
2. Validate and compare zone changes before asking an operator to import them.
3. Review DNS Migration Readiness with intended nameservers and records.
4. If available to your account, use Launch Readiness with the expected canonical host, final URL, apex target and www target. Reachability alone is not proof of the intended destination.
5. Check critical redirects and status/content expectations. A certificate pass does not prove redirect correctness.
6. Prepare a Client DNS Handoff for the responsible person and review post-change monitoring needs.

After the operator changes DNS

Repeat propagation, TLS, redirect, content and mail checks. Compare with the baseline. Review unknown and blocked checks before sign-off. Reports and handoff packets document work; they do not make the provider change.

Recovery

Keep the previous provider configuration, decision owner and rollback criteria. Reverting DNS values is also subject to caching. An end-to-end cutover, saved report and provider rollback must be verified in an approved environment; this guide is a source-reviewed planning checklist.

Verification scope: Current form labels, registry and source reviewed; live provider, mailbox, saved-work lifecycle and host acceptance remain separate.