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Moving to a new server (cpanel to cpanel)

mmaciel
Hello my current server is from a pretty old plan from my hosting company, with centOS v6 and with limited disk space, and to only way to get more space is to move to a new server with a new plan (which for some reason happens to be cheaper and better at every single aspect) anyway, i never did a server transfer before, so i would like to know the easiest way to do this and how to proceed our current server has 90GB of disk space with around 60GB being used, most of it being emails (over 99%) that we absolutely can't lose and must transfer to the new server, in fact, we need everything to be exactly the same as it is now, only in a new server any help pointing me in the right direction or explaining how it should be done would be greatly appreciated... i've read that i can ask cpanel own team of specialists to do this

Comments

31 comments

Date Votes
  • ffeingol
    If you are going to do it yourself, the WHM transfer tool ( Transfer Tool | cPanel & WHM Documentation ) is what you want to look at. It can transfer a lot of the system level settings (you'll still need to tweak php.ini etc.) and then you can use it to migrate the accounts. Account transfers are effectively a backup and restore, so everything moves. The biggest part of migrating (IMHO) is planning. We put spreadsheets together and list information like name servers, who manages manage, who manages web etc. when we do migrates. If you handle DNS for everything it's pretty straight forward. If your customers are doing their own DNS it gets more complicated, as you have to coordinate with them to update DNS. There are lots of lots of threads that go into a lot more detail on do the transfers.
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  • mmaciel
    If you are going to do it yourself, the WHM transfer tool (
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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator
    Transfer Tool really is awesome. I know, I have to say that because I'm from cPanel, but it makes life so easy. I would recommend lowering the TTL in your DNS zone a few days/weeks before you plan to do the migration, and then you'll experience little to no downtime. If you are CentOS 64-bit, you wouldn't be eligible for our free migration services at this time as we are only moving the following servers/operating systems listed here:
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  • mmaciel
    Transfer Tool really is awesome. I know, I have to say that because I'm from cPanel, but it makes life so easy. I would recommend lowering the TTL in your DNS zone a few days/weeks before you plan to do the migration, and then you'll experience little to no downtime. If you are CentOS 64-bit, you wouldn't be eligible for our free migration services at this time as we are only moving the following servers/operating systems listed here:
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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator
    The Transfer Tool moves the data between servers, so it isn't concerned with IP addresses. Your DNS zones would be updated with the new IP address of the Destination machine you are migrating to. php.ini is just referencing the various PHP configuration files for each version of PHP you have installed, as the Transfer Tool can take care of those as well for you:
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  • mmaciel
    The Transfer Tool moves the data between servers, so it isn't concerned with IP addresses. Your DNS zones would be updated with the new IP address of the Destination machine you are migrating to. php.ini is just referencing the various PHP configuration files for each version of PHP you have installed, as the Transfer Tool can take care of those as well for you:
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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator
    Email is all handled with DNS, so if the DNS change is properly made so things point to the new system, that will work as well. There's never a good way to estimate how long it will take for a transfer to complete, as it depends on both servers and the network connection between them. You don't need to create a full backup as part of the Transfer Tool as it will stream the data to the new system.
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  • mmaciel
    Email is all handled with DNS, so if the DNS change is properly made so things point to the new system, that will work as well. There's never a good way to estimate how long it will take for a transfer to complete, as it depends on both servers and the network connection between them. You don't need to create a full backup as part of the Transfer Tool as it will stream the data to the new system.

    i see, and the transfer tool takes care of these dns changes as well? ah ok, i only asked because i was reading
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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator
    That's the one thing Transfer Tool can't do - it can't handle the DNS for you. It will create new DNS zones on the Destination server, but it's up to you to know where each domain's DNS is controlled and ensure that gets updated.
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  • ffeingol
    Is your DNS handled by the existing cPanel server or is it managed somewhere else?
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  • mmaciel
    That's the one thing Transfer Tool can't do - it can't handle the DNS for you. It will create new DNS zones on the Destination server, but it's up to you to know where each domain's DNS is controlled and ensure that gets updated.

    so if i copy all the settings under DNS Functions in WHM onto the new server, would that work?
    Is your DNS handled by the existing cPanel server or is it managed somewhere else?

    sorry, not sure, but think it's by the existing cpanel server
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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator
    It would be good to confirm what server is handling your DNS in the early stages of the migration plan. You can use a tool like intoDNS: checks DNS and mail servers health to check the nameservers for a domain and confirm they are or are not pointing to the cPanel machine. Your hosting provider may also offer help for a migration as well.
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  • mmaciel
    It would be good to confirm what server is handling your DNS in the early stages of the migration plan. You can use a tool like
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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator
    That's correct - your IP address will change when you perform the migration. What you need to find out is where the DNS is handled. You can use that tool to check each domain, and the very first thing on the page will be the nameservers the domain is using. You'll have to confirm if those are pointed to your current cPanel server. If so, all you would have to do is update the IP address of the nameservers at the registrar. I would recommend working with your host to see if they offer migration assistance as they may take care of the whole process for you.
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  • mmaciel
    That's correct - your IP address will change when you perform the migration. What you need to find out is where the DNS is handled. You can use that tool to check each domain, and the very first thing on the page will be the nameservers the domain is using. You'll have to confirm if those are pointed to your current cPanel server. If so, all you would have to do is update the IP address of the nameservers at the registrar. I would recommend working with your host to see if they offer migration assistance as they may take care of the whole process for you.

    thanks again... i talked to them and they can help with the migration, but they don't configure the dns, which is weird, because it wasn't me and there's no one else in the company working with this anyway, another question, if for some reason i mess up the migration and the new server doesn't work, would the old (current) server still work normally? or does the transfer tool mess up with it? also, is it possible to have two servers up at the same time using the same nameserver with different ips/dns?
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  • cPDavidL
    Greetings @mmaciel!
    anyway, another question, if for some reason i mess up the migration and the new server doesn't work, would the old (current) server still work normally? or does the transfer tool mess up with it?

    This depends largely on whether the "Live Transfer" option is used. If this is enabled in Transfer Tool, then it will set the old server so that traffic comes to the new one. As of now there is no means to undo this if things go sideways. Hindsight edit: There is a means to revert in the event of a failed live transfer also, is it possible to have two servers up at the same time using the same nameserver with different ips/dns?
    Yes, technically speaking. However, I would discourage it. Things like mailboxes and databases will present issues.
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  • ffeingol
    This depends largely on whether the "Live Transfer" option is used. If this is enabled in Transfer Tool, then it will set the old server so that traffic comes to the new one. As of now there is no means to undo this if things go sideways.

    Not to sidetrack this, but @cPDavidL is this really true? We have not yet used the "live transfer" but with the old "express transfer" all we had to do to back out was:
    • Undo the DNS changes on the old server
    • Unsuspend the account
    • Remove the redirects added in the .htaccess file
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  • cPDavidL
    Oh my, that is embarrassing. Partially true. The live transfer option makes changes at the account level that the old express transfer tool did not. As it turns out tools have been implemented(relatively recently) to revert the live transfer changes.
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  • mmaciel
    Greetings @mmaciel! This depends largely on whether the "Live Transfer" option is used. If this is enabled in Transfer Tool, then it will set the old server so that traffic comes to the new one. As of now there is no means to undo this if things go sideways. Hindsight edit: There is a means to revert in the event of a failed live transfer
    Not to sidetrack this, but @cPDavidL is this really true? We have not yet used the "live transfer" but with the old "express transfer" all we had to do to back out was:
    • Undo the DNS changes on the old server
    • Unsuspend the account
    • Remove the redirects added in the .htaccess file

    Oh my, that is embarrassing. Partially true. The live transfer option makes changes at the account level that the old express transfer tool did not. As it turns out tools have been implemented(relatively recently) to revert the live transfer changes. this short video explaining how to move servers... would this be all i have to do regarding the dns/nameserver thing after transfering?
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  • mmaciel
    hey @cPRex and @cPDavidL sorry to double post, but i'm trying out the transfer tool but it can't even connect to the remote (source) server, i always get an error about "(publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password)" i've followed the steps , same servers versions and all, but i've been trying with both user and root option selected and still get this error, even with password or ssh keys, nothing works i've tried the methods from
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  • ffeingol
    I'd suggest opening a cPanel support ticket. You'll get a much quicker reply vs the forum.
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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator
    For the issue you're describing, it sounds like there is an SSH connection issue between the two machines. Are you able to make an SSH connection directly from the command line of the Destination to the Source server? If not, the Transfer Tool wouldn't be able to connect either.
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  • mmaciel
    For the issue you're describing, it sounds like there is an SSH connection issue between the two machines. Are you able to make an SSH connection directly from the command line of the Destination to the Source server? If not, the Transfer Tool wouldn't be able to connect either.

    yeah i can't either... i've been talking to godaddy team now, they are looking into this, will update here when i have more info
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  • mmaciel
    @cPRex @ffeingol hey guys, sorry for the delay, but unfortunately i don't have an exactly answer the problem was. I talked to godaddy and they actually did the transfer and couldn't tell me what the problem was, other than some server sided setting being disabled that blocked external ssh connections. I talked to them on the phone and the person i talked to wasn't the same who actually fixed the problem, so he wasn't sure either. Anyway, not sure if i should create another thread now, but i'm facing a new problem. The transfer was complete and i updated the dns server with my registrar to point to the new server ip, but the the nameservers are now resolving to two different ips, the new and the old one, causing many conflicts especially within our emails. I talked to my registrar and they said the new dns is already propagating, and godaddy told me ask them to re-sync the dns settings on their end so it stops resolving to the old ip. If i consult intodns, everything is mixed up in there, the new and the old ip address. Can anyone point me in the right direction please? also, godaddy wont give me a secondary ip and my registrar won't accept the same ip for ns1 and ns2.
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  • ffeingol
    I assume that ns1/ns2 point to the "new" server? Of so, check if there are ns1/ns2 records in the main zone and also check if there are ns1.xxx.yyy and ns2.xxx.yyy zones. My guess is that you'll find the old IP's in one of those places.
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  • mmaciel
    I assume that ns1/ns2 point to the "new" server? Of so, check if there are ns1/ns2 records in the main zone and also check if there are ns1.xxx.yyy and ns2.xxx.yyy zones. My guess is that you'll find the old IP's in one of those places.

    hey, thanks for answering.... actually, the ns2 is still point to the secondary ip from the old server, as godaddy won't give me a new secondary ip for the new server and my registrar won't accept the same ip for ns1 and ns2, so i had to leave that secondary ip in there ns1 is pointing to the new ip, so i think the problem is mainly the secondary ip pointing to the old server secondary ip? but the weird thing is our domains are not resolving to the old secondary ip, they are resolving to the old ns1 ip... could this be because the secondary ip redirects to the main one?
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  • ffeingol
    The line you pasted appears to come from intodns.com. As far as I understand that check it means that the IP that intodns got from the registrar (registered name server IP's) match what it got from the actual DNS zone. That is why I was checking that you check your doamin zone and ns1/ns2.domain zone to see if any of them have the wrong IP.
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  • mmaciel
    The line you pasted appears to come from intodns.com. As far as I understand that check it means that the IP that intodns got from the registrar (registered name server IP's) match what it got from the actual DNS zone. That is why I was checking that you check your doamin zone and ns1/ns2.domain zone to see if any of them have the wrong IP.

    i thinks this is exactly the problem yes, it's from intodns, it also gives me this the ip starting with 1 is the OLD SERVER SECONDARY IP and is being used by ns2, the one starting with 7 is the new, correct ip from the new server, appointed to ns1
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  • mmaciel
    @ffeingol hey sorry to double post, but would i have any problems for not having an ns2? i've been talking to godaddy and they said this gen4 server i'm use CAN'T have more than one ip, it's not possible to have a secondary ip, and my registrar won't let me use the same one for ns1 and ns2, but it will let me use only ns1 and no secondary server
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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator
    I believe most registrars and domains do require you have two nameservers. I'm guessing this is a foreign domain? I know .de domains often have the requirement of ensuring the nameservers do not have the same IP address, to help ensure things stay online if one nameserver system goes offline. If that's the requirement from the registrar directly you'll need to comply with that by getting a server that would support an additional IP address.
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