Redirect customer.pl & index.pl

[harish]

I have installed OTRS 2.4.7 on windows xp machine. It is currently supporting about 600 users. Currently our users are log in using http:\\x2sy23\otrs\customer.pl.
Everything is working very nicely. It is an intranet site. Nobody from outside can log in.

I have also created ubuntu 9.10 and installed otrs 2.4.7 on it. I used mysqldump and back up the all my tickets from windows xp machine and imported them in Ubuntu.The windows xp machine and Ubuntu machine looks exactly same in otrs. I can see all the tickets from windows xp machine. I am logging in Ubuntu using http://k2sydp21/otrs/index.pl and http://k2sydp21/otrs/customer.pl respectively .

I would like all my users on windows xp machine, switched to Ubuntu 9.10. I want my users to keep same http:\\x2sy23\otrs\customer.pl. How can I redirect the website from windows xp machine to Ubuntu 9.10 machine. This will be permanent move. I like the windows xp machine turned off for ever.I tried to change the Apache-->Conf -->http.conf file but It did not worked. I also tried .htaccess file without any success.

In short when the user log in windows using http:\\x2sy23\otrs\customer.pl and Agent log in with http:\\x2sy23\otrs\index.pl they are taken to Ubuntu OTRS without their knowledge.

Thanks,
HS

[crythias]

If this is a permanent redirect, you have to either tell them to change their shortcut (send an Agent Notification) or change dns so the old servername resolves to the Ubuntu server's IP address. Further, you probably should consider changing the hostname of the ubuntu box to reflect the new hostname. If your Config.pm FQDN isn't properly set to your desired hostname, you'll want to check that as well. Don't forget to change the /etc/hosts of ubuntu to reflect your *good* hostname.

Edit: also note that you shouldn't have two boxes with the same name, so change the XP box's name before duplicating the name. The DNS change can be made invisibly to the users on the LAN.

[harish]

Crythias,

Thank you, for replying to my post. I can not ask our users(customers) to changed how they access the customer.pl. I have to rewrite the documents and make 600 copies and distribute them. I have to changed it in a such way that they do not have to retype the another address.

I have changed the host name in Ubuntu. I also changed the FQDN in ubuntu. I also changed host name of xp machine.
The IP address for ubuntu machine is 10.108.9.12. The windows xp machine 's IP 10.108.9.31. Both machines are under same Domain name.

You mentioned "change dns so the old servername resolves to the Ubuntu server's IP address."? and "The DNS change can be made invisibly to the users on the LAN." How do I accomplish these? Do you mean change DNS IP address of windows xp (10.108.9.31) to Ubuntu's IP address(10.108.9.12) ? If I do then is not there a conflict of IP?

Thanks,
HS

[crythias]

You'd have to of course remove the XP machine from the domain so its own name isn't in the DNS list, but you'd have to manually point the name to the ubuntu IP address.
DNS wouldn't duplicate IP addresses. It would potentially have two different reverse resolutions (ping -a 10.0.3.1 resolves to something, 1 of 2 names) to an IP address, but otherwise, no big deal. Your clients are on the domain? They're using DNS on a domain controller to ask "where is OTRSServer"? (by name) DNS returns an IP address, and then the browser does its thing. Manually assigning/changing the DNS entry of (oldxpboxname) from (oldxpboxIPaddress) to (ubuntuboxIPaddress) should be enough. in a few minutes or so, all on the domain will be asking "where is oldxpboxname" in the browser and the DNS lookup will say "it's at (currentIPaddress), which should be (ubuntuboxIPaddress)."

In fact, this is the best and only way you're going to do it. You *have* to make sure DNS resolution for the xpboxname points to the ubuntuboxIPaddress.