A real-world production migration from DigitalOcean to Hetzner dedicated, handling 248 GB of MySQL data across 30 databases, 34 Nginx sites, GitLab EE, Neo4j, and live mobile app traffic — with zero downtime.

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A detailed account of migrating a production server from DigitalOcean to Hetzner dedicated hardware, cutting monthly costs from $1,432 to $233 while gaining more powerful specs. The migration covered 248 GB of MySQL data across 30 databases, 34 Nginx virtual hosts, GitLab EE, Neo4j, and live mobile app traffic — all with zero downtime. The strategy used six phases: full stack setup on the new server, rsync file cloning, MySQL master-slave replication for live sync, DNS TTL reduction, converting the old Nginx to a reverse proxy during propagation, and a scripted DNS cutover. Key technical challenges included the MySQL 5.7 to 8.0 upgrade (sys schema imported as tables, wrong user table column count), SUPER privilege bypassing read_only on the replica, and bulk-updating GitLab webhooks post-migration. All Python automation scripts are open-sourced on GitHub.

Migrating from DigitalOcean to Hetzner: From $1,432 to $233/month With Zero Downtime

Converting Old Server Nginx to Reverse Proxy ⌗