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HostGator VPS Migration — Completed Record and Evidence Index

HostGator VPS Migration — Completed Record and Evidence Index

Original migration ticket: MIG-39120 · Accepted modification request: MOD-152482 · Independent completion work: August 28, 2026

Final disposition: The HostGator-managed migration did not deliver a reliably verified production environment. The sites were ultimately recovered, corrected, deployed, and independently verified on a KnownHost VPS. A final September DNS incident was resolved with KnownHost’s help; current verification confirms that AnyKey’s registration, DNS, web, TLS, and mail path no longer depend on HostGator. This report is retained as a technical and historical record, not as a submission to HostGator.

What was completed

  • KnownHost VPS brought online with public addresses 67.222.17.89 and 67.222.17.90.
  • Sparkles the Clown’s intended local database, Kadence design, plugins, and media installed on the new server.
  • AnyKey Cafe’s database, Phoenix theme, custom book reader, listening stations, music collection, and media changes installed on the new server.
  • Local development URLs converted to production URLs.
  • Rollback database and content archives preserved before production replacement.
  • Public Sparkles routing verified on KnownHost.
  • AnyKey web and mail records prepared in the KnownHost DNS zone.

What remained pending when the August 28 report closed

Historical checkpoint: every item in this list was revisited. The current result appears in the final resolution immediately below.

  • External propagation/verification of the registrar child nameserver changes.
  • Public AnyKey website and mail cutover; authoritative queries still returned the former HostGator address at the last check.
  • Issuance of AnyKey’s public TLS certificate after its DNS reaches KnownHost.
  • Incoming/outgoing AnyKey mail testing after cutover.
  • Removal of migrated HostGator-specific calendar/contact DNS service records.
Closeout · verified September 10, 2026

The exit is complete.

After one final outage and a direct KnownHost intervention, AnyKey Cafe no longer depends on HostGator for registration, authoritative DNS, website delivery, certificate service, or mail routing.

Registrar

NameSilo, LLC, confirmed by the official .com registry.

Nameservers

ns1.sparklestheclown.net → 67.222.17.89
ns2.sparklestheclown.net → 67.222.17.90

Public website

anykeycafe.com → 67.222.17.89; successful HTTPS response with a valid certificate.

Mail route

mail.anykeycafe.com → 67.222.17.89; stable IPv4 configuration retained on KnownHost’s recommendation.

The last incident is documented in The DNS Exit’s September 10 resolution. KnownHost’s quick final response deserves explicit credit: once the team took ownership of the problem, the website returned far sooner than expected and the remaining old-provider records were reported removed.

Evidence records and the customer process review

The three service records keep provider-facing conversations separate from the contemporaneous Darren–Codex work sessions. The fourth entry gathers the customer-side process analysis, proposed solutions, and final dated outcome.

  1. August 20, 2026: The Modules Were Enabled—Except Where the Website Was Running
    A PHP-FPM diagnostic proved that the running website contradicted the provider’s dashboard and command-line status.
  2. August 22, 2026: Sparkles Migration — Support Chat and Companion Notes
    The migration was reported complete while the active site and control-panel route remained tied to the former shared-hosting environment.
  3. August 28, 2026: The DNS Exit — Support Chat and Companion Record
    A two-address registrar correction expanded into authentication loops, registrar/reseller confusion, and the final effort to exit HostGator.
  4. Prepared August 22; completed September 10, 2026: Customer Experience and Support Process Feedback
    A long-form customer review of the migration, the organizational conditions it exposed, practical system improvements, and a reusable AI-assisted support-learning proposal.

Measured result

  • New VPS capacity: 196 GB filesystem, approximately 135 GB available at completion.
  • Core web, database, mail, DNS, DirectAdmin, and firewall services operating normally.
  • Scheduled local server backups configured; off-server backup remains a later improvement.

Record integrity

Provider transcripts are preserved as service records. Companion sections are either contemporaneous conversation extracts or explicitly labeled reconstructions. Authentication codes, credentials, and private email addresses are excluded or redacted from public copies.

Conversations Phoenix