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Manual Migration Documentation

This document provides instructions for manually migrating a website from another hosting provider to cPanel. It outlines 4 key steps: 1) lowering DNS TTL before changes, 2) creating matching cPanel accounts, 3) preparing files by moving them to the proper cPanel directories, and 4) completing the migration and updating DNS. Helpful resources are also included to assist with the migration process.

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29 views

Manual Migration Documentation

This document provides instructions for manually migrating a website from another hosting provider to cPanel. It outlines 4 key steps: 1) lowering DNS TTL before changes, 2) creating matching cPanel accounts, 3) preparing files by moving them to the proper cPanel directories, and 4) completing the migration and updating DNS. Helpful resources are also included to assist with the migration process.

Uploaded by

Anonymous a49Xzs7
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Documenting Manual Migrations to cPanel

Initial: Supported services

Please take into consideration the supported services;

apache this is the supported web server


bind/nsd these are the supported DNS daemons
exim utilizing maildir, accepting conversions from mbox
mailman the supported mailing list tool

Any other similar services are not supported, and would require customization and or custom
conversions to work in our environment.

Step 1: Lower your DNS TTL

We recommend lowering the DNS TTL (Time to Live) on all domains, prior to any zone changes. This
will force updates to happen quickly. Lowering it a few days before the transfer would be ideal as
many servers default to a twenty-four hour TTL.

Step 2: Account Creation

Create a new account on your cPanel/WHM server that matches the domain, username, and password
as your current setup. (you most certainly want things to remain the same as much as possible) - Here is
some documentation on accomplishing this: http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/AllDocumentation/
WHMDocs/CreateAccount

Step 3: Preparing for the migration - Understanding file structure logic

You will need to migrate files/folders into the appropriate locations on the cPanel environment for them
to operate properly. Below you will find how our user directories are mapped and what they are for,
please note this only includes the essential files/folders/databases that most people need on transfer:

/home/user/public_html
This directory stores all of your web files, folders, and content. You will need to move all web
data that you want visible on the internet into this directory. Ownership of the files and folder must be
owned by the user of the account, and permissions of folders must be 755, while files are 644. On other
systems you may be used to this folder being equal to www or vhost.
/home/user/mail
This directory stores all email files for every email account under this 'cPanel account',
including addon/parked/sub domains. Below is an example structure of /home/user/mail:

You will notice that the above image structure is that of a maildir structure separated into folders. Each
domain/addon domain will have it's own folder here. cpdomain.com is the domain on this account so
the email accounts under this domain will be in this folder;

cpemail is the email account that is existing currently, and within this folder holds the contents and
folders of this particular email account;

If your mail happens to be in an mbox format, you can place the files in the appropriate locations above
and then run /scripts/convert2maildir and it will convert the mbox formatted email accounts in maildir.
Please note that you will more than likely have to create the email account in cPanel and then import
the mbox file(s) inside of the created folder.
/home/user/tmp

This directory stores the temporary files for the account, as well as bandwidth and web
statistics. You may want to bring over awstats data, an example directory would be: /home/user/tmp/
awstats we format this data into awstats files. The same for webalizer: /home/user/tmp/webalizer and
so forth.

/home/user/etc

This directory stores the email account passwd, shadow, and quota files for existing email
accounts. The example format would be /home/user/etc/cpdomain.com/passwd and so forth. These look
just like the system passwd, shadow, and quota files.

/home/user/ssl

This directory holds the SSL certificates associated with the domains on the cPanel account,
copy any certificates associated with the domains on this account into these directories an extra step
is needed after they are moved here, you will need to activate the SSL in the cPanel interface (http://
docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/AllDocumentation/CpanelDocs/SslTlsManager);

and the files only hold the key/csr/crt in them:


/var/lib/mysql
This location stores the mysql databases for every account on the server. You will need to create
a dump of your database and you can import it via SSH (mysqlimport) or phpMyAdmin. Please note
that you will need to create the empty database on the cPanel account first, and then restore it on to that
database.

/var/lib/pgsql
This is the location of the pgsql databases, you will need to use the postgres dump tool and then
restore it on cPanel. Just like MySQL, you will need to create the database in cPanel first.

Step 4: Migration Completion & DNS Updates

The first thing we recommend is spot checking some of the content you have transferred to
ensure it is working as expected in the new environment and that you are not missing any modules and/
or incorrect credentials.
Once you have migrated all data over to match our file structure and ensured integrity, you may
go ahead and update your domainss name servers to the new ones on your cPanel server. You may also
choose to edit the records on the old name server to point to your new cPanel server so all content is
directed to the new server.
Appendix

Backup Tarball Contents - http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/AllDocumentation/WHMDocs/


BackupTarballContents
This is an excellent resource if you want to see how our backup tarball maps incase you want to
bring over additional data or automated the process.

cPanel Home Screen - http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/AllDocumentation/CpanelDocs/


CPanelHomeScreen
This would be a great link to provide to the customer which entails information about the cPanel
home screen and how to utilize/navigate it.

System Requirements -
http://cpanel.net/products/cpanelwhm/system-requirements.html
If your not aware of what cPanel requires, you can refer to this link which details the supporter
operating systems and structures.

Troubleshooting Guide - http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/pub/AllDocumentation/WebHome/


troubleshooting-guide.pdf
This document maps out some common troubleshooting issues that may be useful when
utilizing cPanel/WHM.

Frequently Asked Questions - http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/AllDocumentation/AllFAQ/


WebHome

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