Our cPanel Server Specialists support the server infrastructure of hundreds of hosting companies around the world.

We perform server migrations very often for these companies in response to hardware failure, infrastructure upgrade sor even security incidents.

One common hosting platform we support is cPanel. In this post, we’ll discuss host best to perform cPanel to cPanel migration.

Pre-migration checklist for cPanel to cPanel migration

To ensure that the migration happens without any failures, our cPanel technicians follow a pre-migration checklist that covers all checks to be ensured before performing the migration. This include:

1. Connectivity between the two servers

The source and destination servers should be able to communicate with each other. The checks we do, include removing any firewall blocks and establishing SSH connectivity to the required port.

2. Compatibility of application versions and enabled modules

The destination server is installed and configured with cPanel/WHM, PHP/MySQL versions and settings, PHP modules, Apache version and modules, other custom software, etc. that are compatible with the ones in the source server, to avoid any site errors.

3. Disks and the partitions in the new server

Number of partitions and disk space availability is ensured in the destination server so as to map the data from the source server optimally and without causing any disk space errors.

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4. IP address availability in new server

Every cPanel server would have a main shared IP and one or more dedicated IPs for some domains. We perform IP mapping from source to destination server to avoid IP wastage and to fulfill the requirement of sites.

5. Reseller account and addon domain list

There are different types of accounts in cPanel servers, such as reseller accounts which possess multiple accounts under them and Addon domains which are parked over ordinary domains. Making a list of these helps us to check and confirm them in the new server.

6. SSL certificates

SSL certificates are specific to the domains. We check and copy these SSL certificates to the new server to ensure SSL availability in the destination server too.

Steps for cPanel to cPanel migration:

Migrating accounts from one cPanel server to another takes proper planning and execution, to avoid a downtime. Here is a brief summary of what is involved when we perform cPanel to cPanel migration.

1. Reduce the TTL value

A major problem usually faced in domain migration is the DNS caching problem. DNS resolvers usually cache query results for sometime, and this will cause delay in resolving the domain to the new server.

To reduce this caching time, we reduce the TTL value of domains to a lower value and let it propagate, before doing the migration. Thus we achieve zero down time for sites, instead of 24 – 48 hours down time that usually occurs in migration.

There may be some domains that resolve to external servers or use external mail servers. Such domains are specifically detected and extra caution is exercised to transfer them intact to the new server.

2. Migrate the domains to the new server

Once the DNS propagation is complete, we perform the migration. While cPanel/WHM allows transfer via the interface, sometimes connectivity issues and huge accounts cannot be transferred via the interface.

To avoid time-outs and errors while transferring huge sized accounts or databases via WHM, we isolate such accounts and transfer them manually between the servers securely using rsync utility.

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3. Re-sync the databases, mails and site contents

In case of accounts transferred via cPanel/WHM interface, some data may get lost in between or data changes may take place in the source server after the migration is done.

To ensure zero data loss for domains, we re-sync the databases and mails after the DNS propagation is complete. This helps us to ensure that all the dynamic changes that happened in the source server are copied over to the destination too.

4. Verify that the websites are loading well

The DNS records of the domains should be updated with the new IP addresses that are mapped to them in the destination server. We perform this using custom scripts to update the records in bulk.

A study of the top 10 domains that use maximum resources on the server is done before and after migration and we monitor them to ensure that the websites are loading fine without causing any hiccups in the new server.

Database-driven websites and ones that use custom software are audited specially to ensure that the database connectivity is working fine and the sites and emails are working fine in the destination server.

For sites with custom settings for PHP or email filters or redirection links in .htaccess file, these aspects are verified and updated in the destination server to facilitate their seamless functioning.

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5. Post-migration updates

After domain migration, we confirm that the domains are resolving to the nameservers and IP addresses in the new server, to avoid DNS conflicts. We then increase the TTL value of the site to the original value.

For software like WHMCS, kayako etc., there are licences set with the IP address of the server where the domain is hosted. We update these software license in the new server with the new IP address.

In case where the same IP of source server is reused in the destination server, we shut down the old one after configuring and activating the IP in the new server, to avoid conflicts.

[ Want to know how we handle server migrations seamlessly without incurring a downtime? Click here to know more.. ]