How to upload before DNS update?

I'm trying to migrate a WordPress install, keeping the same domain name throughout, but I can't find the ip of my new DreamHost server.

I don't have the unique ip option, and if I wanted to use the "one step migration" shell command clearly I can't use "mydomain.com" for both my old and new servers, but surely I can access the new server before I switch the DNS. Surely?

I'm particularly interested in accessing my SQL settings, but of course I can't get to the DreamHost mysql.mydomain.com admin pages before the DNS for mydomain.com switches.

I see that my new SQL db lives on a DreamHost server named "tweety:etchison". I want to log into that server so I can upload data from my old host. How do I find the ip for my new server?

Oy. I feel like my brain has been left on the burner too long.

Wiki:
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/DNS_-_Viewing_site_before_DNS_change

The end of the article talks about SQL as well.

-Scott

Thanks for the help Scott -- I have a couple of points I'd like to clarify, for the record... the wiki pages are sometimes less than perfectly clear.

Firstly -- does the yourdomain.dreamhosters.com subdomain only work if you've explicitly registered that domain as a mirror of your dreamhost yourdomain.com site? I've added and deleted them so many times I can't tell what's working or why.

And secondly, for everyone who may have the same trouble -- if you have a unique user associated with a domain in your DreamHost domain management, you must log in as that user to see your files. Logging in with your DreamHost login information will take you to the same place, but your domain-specific files will be invisible to you.

You don't need to register anything to use yourdomain.dreamhosters.com.

You can build a Fully Hosted site at yourdomain.dreamhosters.com that will work, or you can build a Fully Hosted site at www.DOMAIN.com and then mirror it as yourdomain.dreamhosters.com.

As far as users and permissions. The basic setup is One (sub)Domain, One Owner. Sharing FTP access among multiple users is pretty tricky.

-Scott

I see -- but I'm actually wondering about if you have yourdomain.com already registered with DreamHost -- does that mean yourdomain.dreamhosters.com will automatically work, like a domain alias? Or do you have to explicitly register and mirror it for it to work that way?

I ask because I registered such a site and mirrored my DreamHost site, then deleted it, but the mydomain.dreamhosters.com site still works, just as though it were the same as mydomain.com. I can even ftp to it, and it acts as though it's my normal home directory.

Thanks for your help,
P

You have to actively mirror it. If it's still working after you deleted the mirror, then it'll probably eventually go away.

yourdomain.dreamhosters.com can either be a mirror, or a fully hosted domain. Same goes with www.yourdomain.com. It actually can mirror yourdomain.dreamhosters.com, or be a fully hosted domain. It sounds like you created yourdomain.dreamhosters.com as a fully hosted domain.

-Scott

Thanks again -- I've updated the wiki, hopefully improving it. I tried to explicitly state a lot of hidden assumptions which caused me great confusion, but it's possible that I got my site to work without understand exactly why. It'd be great if somebody could check my work:

http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Migrate_MySQL
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Move_WordPress_to_DreamHost
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/DNS_-_Viewing_site_before_DNS_change
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/DNS_-_Accessing_your_Database_before_DNS_change