We are considering to make a switch from the standard model with dedicated servers and cPanel, to Linode cPanel servers. Can you help us?

That was recent support request we received at our Managed Cloud Services from a Web Hosting provider.

Top notch web hosting providers always try to improve their hosting server configuration by including latest technologies. Apparently, moving to cloud based servers is one among them.

Today, we’ll see how our Cloud Engineers effectively migrated websites to Linode cPanel server with zero downtime.

Why Linode cPanel server?

Firstly, let’s have a look at the benefits of having cPanel on a cloud solution like Linode.

In early days of web hosting, we used to have single servers with a set of accounts hosted in it. Here, when the website size grows, there will always be a need of more resources on the server. Unfortunately, increasing resources often resulted in migrating web contents to new server.

But, that’s not the case in cloud hosting. Linode has options to add additional memory, disk space, etc. on the go.

Again, for server providers, it helps to create servers with minimum effort and time. When there is domain management panel like cPanel, things become more easy. That explains why more and more web hosting providers look for Linode based cPanel servers.

Steps to migrate website to Linode cPanel server

We just saw the benefits of having cPanel on Linode servers. Getting a Linode cPanel server is pretty easy. All you have to do is create a CentOS based Linode server and install cPanel in it.

But, the real challenge is bringing in the existing websites to new Linode server. Any wrong step can bring down your website, which no one likes.

Let’s see how our Support Engineers migrate websites from dedicated servers to new cPanel Linode.

1.Preparing Linode server

After deploying Linode cPanel server, we need to prepare the server to receive website content. For this, our Dedicated Engineers analyze the current server and check the software versions. Ideally, we match the destination Linode server with these versions itself.

But, there can be scenarios that the source server uses outdated software versions. In that case, we recommend customers to go ahead with the latest compatible software version. Similarly, if it’s a shared hosting server migration, we ensure perfect Apache, PHP settings on the Linode cPanel server.

2. Modifying DNS of domains

Our primary goal is to make the website live in the new Linode cPanel server. This requires website IP address change. That’s why, we lower the TTL (time to live) value to 300 seconds in the existing DNS records of the websites. As a result, after migration, the DNS changes will propagate within 5 minutes. Our Dedicated Engineers make it a point to do this TTL change at-least on week ahead of the migration.

3. Migrating website contents

Next comes the critical step of web content migration. There are multiple ways to do this.

l) Using WHM migration tool

For example, in case of migrating all websites on a server, our Dedicated Engineers prefer to use the WHM migration tool. For this, we access the WHM of new cPanel Linode server at http://new_linode_ip_address:2087. Here, we fill in the required details and select the accounts to copy.

Basically, we migrate accounts in batches. This helps to track errors in a better way. Now, this would place all the website content, databases, ssl certificates, mails, etc. in the new cPanel Linode server.

ll) Command line method

Similarly, if we are migrating only few accounts, we often make use of the manual method too. If source server is cPanel based, we use the package account functionality. This gives us a single backup file for the domain. We extract the backup file on the new Linode server.

Again, at times the migration can be from non cPanel servers too. Here, our Support Engineers compress the site contents as a single backup file and also take the backup of the databases. We copy this file to the destination server using scp command. And, restore the contents on the new Linode server.

4. Verifying accounts in new Linode server

When the site content is available on the new server, we need to verify the contents and website settings. This includes checking proper IP address assignment, comparing website home folder size and so on. After this, our Dedicated Engineers check if the website is loading properly with the Linode server IP address. For websites based on WordPress, Joomla, etc., we use the /etc/hosts file method to ensure that website points to Linode server.

5. Updating cPanel license

If you are not planning to use old server, you can transfer the cPanel license to the new Linode server IP address. Or, there are options to fetch new license. For this, we can either get License directly from cPanel, or from server providers.

6. Modify DNS

As the final step, we modify the domain’s DNS to point to the new Linode cPanel server. Here, our Support Engineers make the DNS switch at off peak hours. Since we have already lowered the TTL value, the website will start pointing to new IP in 5 minutes. Additionally, we do a final rsync of the web content and database to ensure the latest content on the websites.

[Need help in migrating websites to cPanel based Linode server? Our Linode experts can help you.]

Conclusion

Linode cPanel combo is one of the easiest ways for website management in cloud solutions. This involves migrating existing websites to Linode cPanel servers. Today, we saw how our Cloud Engineers effectively copy websites to cPanel based Linode servers with zero downtime.