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Cloudlinux OS upgrade

amaze646
Hello, i have one question that you all probably heard many times as web hosting administrators. :) We have few cloudlinux 6 cpanel servers that have many users on it. Now, EOL for CL 6 is in 2020. So it is still a long way till then. My question is, how do you guys upgrade your CL cpanel servers to new OS release when is necessary? I know that there is no way to simply upgrade from CL 6 to CL 7 when cpanel installed, so I guess there is only migration tool left. Manualy migrate all users from old server to new serever. How do you handle those upgrades when server has a large number of users and data. It is necessary that there is not a lot of downtime for our customers. Also, we have php selector so a lot of users uses custom php versions. How to transfer this cloudlinux data to new machine? So, what are yours best experiences and practises about this matter? What is the fastest, safest and most realiable way to do this? Thank you and kind regards, Igor

Comments

9 comments

Date Votes
  • cPanelMichael
    Hello :) I suggest using the "Transfer Tool" option in Web Host Manager. These documents will help you get started: How to Move All cPanel Accounts from One Server to Another - cPanel Knowledge Base - cPanel Documentation Transfer Tool - Documentation - cPanel Documentation In addition, this thread is helpful when attempting to transfer server configuration values: Transfer cpanel configurations to new server You may also find this thread helpful: cPanel Migration - cloudlinux php selector Thank you.
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  • amaze646
    Thank you. I already read your documentation, of course. :) But migrating about 400G of data can take a lot of time through transfer tool. So I guess in this case we could inspect about 1 day downtime. Not really downtime, but when transfer would complete, most of data on new server would be outdated (new mails on old server ...). So I dont know if this is realy right aproach. Regards, Igor
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  • cPanelMichael
    On average, how large is each account? 400G total is fine, but if a single account is large (e.g. 20G+) then it may take some special care and require you to package the account via the command line: How to Manually Transfer an Account Between Servers - cPanel Knowledge Base - cPanel Documentation Otherwise, smaller accounts are suitable for the "Express Transfer" feature: Transfer Tool - Documentation - cPanel Documentation Thank you.
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  • amaze646
    Accounts varies in size. Some are just a few M, some are 20G or more. But as I said, there is a big problem then if we just try to migrate ALL accounts at once via transfer tool. Data on new server will then be outdated because lets say, emails, will still be reciving on old server while transfer is working. Also new uploaded files, database enteries ... So i guess this is not so great solution after all. So how to transfer all at once, quickly and realible as possible, so there wouldnt be lets say, 1 day downtime or thons of untransfered emails and data on old server. :). Account by account migratin is not an option becouse we have hundrets of accounts and it would last god knows how long to do this.
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  • Valetia
    Accounts varies in size. Some are just a few M, some are 20G or more. But as I said, there is a big problem then if we just try to migrate ALL accounts at once via transfer tool. Data on new server will then be outdated because lets say, emails, will still be reciving on old server while transfer is working. Also new uploaded files, database enteries

    I think you might be mistaken about how the cPanel Transfer Tool works. It doesn"t move all the email and databases at one go. When you do a migration using the Transfer Tool: 1. The accounts are placed in a queue, and each one is moved separately on its own. This includes its own email messages, databases, etc. So the propagation time is not 1 day, it is only in the minutes or maybe an hour or two, for each account, depending on the amount of data in that particular account. 2. The Transfer Tool by default moves 5 (that number is adjustable under Advanced) accounts at a time, while the rest wait in the queue until a spot opens up. This greatly reduces the total transfer time of all accounts, so depending on the actual amount of data, it could all be finished in a lot less than a day. But again, this total transfer time has nothing to do with the propagation time for each account, its email or databases (see point 1 above).
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  • amaze646
    Hello, I know that transfer is doing account by account. But, if transfer tool migrates account 1 first and migration process is finished in lets say 10 hours later. So account 1 will be outdated for 10 hours? Is there any option that when transfer tool finishes migration, that I can somehow rsync all data from old server to new one. So those data that came on old server while migration? Kind regards, Igor
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  • Valetia
    You mentioned that you have to transfer many accounts making up 400 GB of total data. You also mentioned that some accounts are only a few MB while others are 20 GB or more. Based on that information, it"s highly unlikely that it"d take 10 hours just to transfer a single account. Maybe 10 hours for all accounts, depending on the bandwidth between the source and destination, but certainly not 10 hours for a single account. So no, in your example, account #1 would only be "outdated" (if at all) by several minutes, perhaps an hour at most " whatever"s the time taken to transfer that account. If it takes 10 hours just to transfer account #1, you likely have bigger things to worry about, like uncharacteristically slow bandwidth speeds or disk drive problems. As for rsync, if desired, you could always run that after a transfer, the same way you normally run any other rsync operation, so not sure exactly what you"re asking here. I personally have never seen the need to perform an rsync after a migration. Each account really doesn"t take that long to transfer, and keep in mind that migrations are often best performed during off-peak hours anyway.
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  • amaze646
    Hello, problem is that we have external DNS management. So when account is transfered, dns is stil pointing to old server untill we change it manualy. Kind regards, Igor
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  • Valetia
    problem is that we have external DNS management. So when account is transfered, dns is stil pointing to old server untill we change it manualy.

    This setup is not typical and probably should have been mentioned in your initial post. Everything else that you brought up " the amount of data, number of accounts, the cPanel Transfer Tool, having to use rsync, etc. all have nothing to do with this issue at all. In your case, you would have to find a way to have the external DNS sync with cPanel, such as using cPanel hooks to automate API calls to the external DNS. Having to manually update an external DNS for numerous domains isn"t really how cPanel is meant to be used.
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