Migration went wrong or production is unstable? Stabilize critical systems first
The migration finished but email stopped working. SSL certificates show warnings on half the pages. The cron that processes orders has not run since the cutover. Customers are reporting payment failures but the logs look clean on the new server. Post-migration instability is not a single problem — it is a cascade of small misconfigurations that interact unpredictably. Recovery starts with triage: identify what is broken, what is degraded, and what only appears broken, then stabilize the revenue-critical paths first.
The problem
A server migration, hosting change, or major deployment looked successful in the staging checklist — but production tells a different story. DNS propagation is inconsistent, causing some users to reach the old server while others hit the new one. SSL certificates were issued but not for all subdomains or alternate domains. Background processes — cron jobs, queue workers, scheduled imports — were not migrated or are running with stale paths and credentials. Payment callbacks still point to the old server IP. Email delivery broke silently because SPF, DKIM, and MX records were not updated in sync. File permissions changed during the transfer, breaking upload directories or cache writes. Database connections intermittently time out under load because connection pooling was not reconfigured for the new environment. Each issue is solvable individually, but together they create a crisis that is difficult to triage without a systematic approach. Meanwhile, every hour of instability costs revenue, erodes customer trust, and compounds the pressure on the team.
Scope of work
- DNS and SSL verification — full audit of DNS propagation state, certificate validity across all domains and subdomains, HSTS configuration, and redirect chain correctness
- Queue and cron job health check — inventory of all scheduled tasks and background workers, verification that each is running, using correct paths and credentials, and completing without silent failures
- Payment flow validation — end-to-end test of payment provider callbacks, webhook endpoints, and order status updates to confirm transactions complete correctly on the new infrastructure
- Email delivery check — verification of MX records, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configuration, transactional email delivery testing, and SMTP connection validation
- Data consistency audit — comparison of critical data between old and new environments, identification of records that may have been lost, duplicated, or corrupted during transfer
- Admin and deployment access review — confirmation that SSH keys, deployment pipelines, admin panels, and CI/CD integrations point to the correct servers with proper permissions
- Log analysis and error triage — systematic review of application, web server, and system logs to identify errors introduced by the migration, separated from pre-existing issues
- Service dependency mapping — identification of all external services, APIs, and internal microservices that require configuration updates after the infrastructure change
What you get
- Stabilization plan — prioritized action list with the most revenue-critical fixes first, estimated effort for each item, and recommended execution order
- Rollback/forward decision framework — assessment of whether rolling back is safer than fixing forward, with specific criteria and a step-by-step procedure for whichever path is chosen
- Post-incident checklist — comprehensive verification list covering every system, integration, and configuration that should be validated after any major infrastructure change
- Monitoring and alerting setup recommendations — specific tooling and threshold recommendations to detect the classes of failures encountered, preventing silent regressions
- Hardening next steps — medium-term improvements to migration procedures, deployment pipelines, and testing practices to reduce risk of recurrence on future changes
When this is not the right fit
If you are planning a migration that has not started yet, our Server Migration service covers the full process from assessment through cutover. This page is specifically for situations where the migration or release has already happened and something is broken or unstable.
Related services
Server & Site Migration
Full migration service from planning through execution — server moves, hosting changes, and platform transfers with validation at every step.
Backup & Restore
Backup strategy design, automated backup implementation, and restore testing — the safety net that makes recovery possible.
Monitoring & Alerts (Grafana/Prometheus/Loki)
Infrastructure and application monitoring setup — dashboards, alerting rules, and log aggregation for ongoing visibility.