Sub-domain to domain

I have a domain that's hosted with another company and I would like to move it to Dreamhost. I'd like to do some preparatory work on Dreamhost before I change the nameservers, though, including creating a MySQL database. I thought I would put everything in a subdomain for now and then move it to the domain when everything is ready to be switched over. I'm not sure how to do that, though.

If I create a database in the subdomain, how do I move it to the new domain? Moving the files isn't a problem, but I don't know how to move the database. Would I have to export it from one and then import it into the other or is there something where I could just switch which domain the database is associated with?

Did that make any sense at all?

Just create the database and hostname at your soon-to-be-transfered domain name, then add an other host name to that server - whatever.dreamhosters.com. That way you'll be able to access phpmyadmin for the domain is transfered.

Oh, when you're setting up whatever program to access that database, give it the hostname for your domain - NOT dreamhosters. That way it's all set, and you don't have to switch things around later if you decide to remove the dreamhosters.com hostname. Your program (and you from ssh) can access teh database and all at the regular name because all DH servers check the local DNS first, thus finding your database at DH.



--Matttail
art.googlies.net - personal website

Thanks so much. I really appreciate your help.