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.