Domain Migration for Google Apps - Alias Swap with Zero Email Downtime

Looking to make your Google Apps alias domain the primary domain name while minimizing email downtime?

Many clients have an alias set up and in use on an existing primary domain and will be migrating in order to have the alias domain become the primary. This post will show you how to swap your alias and primary domain using ShuttleCloud and an external MX forwarder.

How an alias domain migration with zero email downtime for Google Apps works:

Every migration requires both a source (old.com) and a destination (new.com). In the alias swap scenario, the alias (new.com) must be removed from the source primary domain (old.com ). We recommend using dyn.com MX forwarding as well as completing the process over a weekend to minimize email downtime to messages sent to alias addresses (new.com).

After removing the alias it must be set up as the new.com Google Apps for Business account and users provisioned to serve as the destination for the migration.

An IT Admin. will run the email migrations for all users while the users migrate their contacts, calendars, Drive/documents and sites (as required). This process requires the IT Admin. to change all users passwords on source in order to run the email migrations. We recommend changing the source passwords to the same unique password created for each user when they were provisioned on new.com.

Project plan & change management:

The detailed project plan is available here. ShuttleCloud provides a change management template here. This is the change management information you can use to create the email informing your users of the migration.

When you're ready to begin you may access our tool here.

If you ever need assistance, reach out to us at info@shuttlecloud.com.