Transferring a service
A company is sold, a project changes hands, a reseller hands a customer over. The server can move with it; the paperwork is the part that takes the time.
What we need
A transfer needs confirmation from both sides, from someone we can tie to each account:
- The current account holder confirms the service may move, naming the service and the receiving party.
- The receiving party confirms they accept it, and provides their own account details — company name, address, VAT number if applicable, billing contact.
- Any outstanding invoice on the service is settled first.
We will not act on one side's word alone, however plausible it sounds. That is the same rule as everywhere else — see keeping your account secure.
What moves with it
- The machine and its data
- Untouched. A transfer is an administrative change; nothing is reinstalled and nothing is wiped.
- The IP addresses
- Normally yes, as assignments from our space. If you hold your own space that is separate — see bring your own IP space.
- The contract terms
- Usually re-agreed with the new party rather than inherited. Colocation in particular is annual and the new holder takes on the remaining term — see contract lengths.
- Ticket history
- Stays with the old account. It may contain things the old holder does not want shared, and we do not move it by default. Ask if you need specific items.
- Account credit
- Stays where it is. Credit belongs to the account, not the service.
The loose ends
These are the ones that bite afterwards, and they are yours rather than ours:
- Root access and keys. The outgoing party almost certainly still has them. Rotate everything on the machine the day the transfer completes — see users and sudo.
- Reverse DNS pointing at the old owner's domain — reverse DNS.
- Monitoring and backups that run from the old owner's infrastructure and will silently stop.
- API keys issued against the old account — API access.
- Who is the controller now, if there is personal data on it. The GDPR responsibility moves with the service — see who is responsible under the GDPR and sign a new data processing agreement.
If you would rather not transfer
Sometimes the cleaner answer is a new service for the new party and a migration between them: the data moves at port speed, the old machine stays untouched until everyone is satisfied, and there is no shared history to untangle. See moving to another server.
Resellers
If you resell, your customers are yours and we do not deal with them directly. A customer leaving you is your administrative matter, not ours — unless they are becoming a direct customer of ours, in which case it is a transfer like any other and needs your confirmation first. See starting as a reseller.
Still stuck? Mail support@novogara.com — an engineer answers, at any hour. Back to the knowledge base