This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
A 301 is a permanent redirect. Clients and indexes may remember it. A 302 is temporary. The checkers show the chain for a URL you are allowed to test. They are not a crawler you point at someone else's site.
A chain that loops, or a chain that drops HTTPS, is the defect. One hop you meant is the design. Write the from, the to, and which status you want before you change the server.
Do not edit the site during the reading. A redirect is not a way to send a visitor somewhere they did not ask to go.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing during the writing of the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the device named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the device, then decide.
Rollback is the file or the revision you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the URL you administer.
- Read the chain.
- Write 301 or 302 and why.
- Reject a loop.
- Reject a drop from HTTPS.
- Do not change the server yet.
Mistakes that outlive the command
HTTP Redirects Explained (301 vs 302) goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A 301 you cannot undo in other people's caches.
- A loop.
- Testing a site you do not administer.
- A redirect used to mislead.
- Changing production during the reading.
Decisions to write down
One decision for HTTP Redirects Explained (301 vs 302): The URL is yours. The status matches the lifetime. The chain ends. HTTPS stays. And nothing was changed yet.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The from and to are written. The status is written. No loop. No foreign site was tested. And no server was edited. If one of those fails, stop.
| Status | What you are promising |
|---|---|
| 301 | This move is permanent. Caches may keep it. |
| 302 | This move is temporary. Say when it ends. |
| A loop | Neither. Fix the chain before you publish it. |
Before you leave the device
HTTP Redirects Explained (301 vs 302) ends when the hostname on the device matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong box. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong box is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the device and does not know which interface is the uplink. You delete a line that names a device, a zone, or a prefix you did not write down.
0.0.0.0/0 is not kept because a sample included it. A source you can say is the source you keep. 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. They belong in the note. They are not prefixes you type onto a production device because they appeared in a draft.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, a community string, or a pre-shared key you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the store.
One change is the window. A VLAN and a routing protocol and a VPN do not share it. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next feature waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied config produces a device nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the device name and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the device alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not a permission to touch a network you do not administer. The pillar guide owns the wider design. This page owns one lab proof.
Tools for this guide
These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.
Related pillar guides
More in this cluster
The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.