Take down website to public, but leave for testing... "We're Not Open"

Question

We are rolling out a site for a client using IIS tomorrow.

I am to take the site down to the general public (Sorry, we are updating message) and allow the client to test over the weekend after we perform the upgrade.

If it is successful, I open it to everbody - if not, I rollback.

What is the easiest way to put a "We're not open" sign for the general public, but leave the rest open to testers?

Answer 1

Redirect via IIS. Create a new website in IIS and put your "Sorry updating" message in the Default.aspx. Then switch ports between the real site (will go from 80, to something else (6666)) and the 'maintenance' site (set on 80).

Then tell your testers to go to yoursite.com:6666.

Then switch the real site back to 80 after taking down the 'maintenance' site.