One question that we receive mainly in connection with changing the control panel or when switching to WordPress hosting is the question of how to switch/migrate the website from one server to another. We want to give you a little more information about this in this article.
Please read through the entire instructions before you start. There are various places where the further steps depend on how your site is structured.
The instructions are not complete and do not apply to all websites. It always depends on how the website was designed, which CMS was used or whether the site is migrated to us from an external server.
Vorbereitungen
Good preparation is the most important thing when migrating. For example, you should be aware that there are two different servers and that you always have two different access data. Both for FTP , MySQL or for email addresses . Therefore, you should find out the following access data in preparation if you do not know them yet.
- FTP user and password of the new server
- MySQL user and password of the old server
- MySQL user and password of the new server
- User and password of the e-mail addresses on the old server
- User and password of the e-mail addresses on the new server
DNS Records
Last but not least, it can be helpful to set the so-called TTL value of your DNS records as low as possible. It is best to do this 6-12 hours before the website is migrated. This can help change the IP address of your DNS record faster. If you write to our support that you need an adjustment of the TTL value, we can set this value lower than you can do it yourself. It is important that the DNS records for your domain are managed by us.
Confixx Control Panel
You should also be aware of the directory in which the website data is located.
If you are currently still using our Confixx Control Panel, this depends on whether you have the website forwarded to a subfolder or not. If you are unsure, it is best to contact our support, who can then help you.
Plesk Control Panel
In the Plesk control panel, each website has its own home directory. The website data must be stored in the /httpdocs folder.
If you have an external provider, it is best to ask your current provider in which directory your web data is stored if you are unsure.
FTP Client
You will also need an FTP client to download the web data from the server and upload it back to the new server.
Datenbank
Create a database for the domain on the new server beforehand. It is an advantage if the name of the database is the same as on the old server, but it is not mandatory.
E-Mailadressen
You can also create the e-mail addresses on the new server that you will still need after the migration. During a migration, it can make sense to think about whether certain e-mail addresses are still needed at all, because that would be the best time to “clean up”.
Migration unter Confixx durchführen
Based on the preparations above, you should now be able to migrate your website to the new server using the following steps.
- Make a backup of all data first. In the Confixx Control Panel you can create this under “Tools > Backup” on the left.
- Set the TTL value of the affected DNS records as low as possible 6-12 hours before the migration.
- If your CMS has a feature that allows you to put the site into maintenance mode, turn that on.
- Export your website’s database. If you are currently using the Confixx Control Panel, you do this in phpMyAdmin (https://XYZ.hosttech.eu/phpMyAdmin where XYZ must be replaced with the server number of your Confixx server – e.g. https://124.hosttech./phpMyAdmin)
- Connect to your old server using your FTP client and the old server’s FTP credentials
- Download your website data to your computer.
- Now connect to the new server using your FTP client and the FTP access data for your new server.
- Now upload the data of your website here in the correct start directory
- Now import the database of your website, which you previously exported, onto the new server. To do this, you can click on “Databases” on the left in the Plesk Control Panel and click on “Import image” for the corresponding database.
The website data is now on the new server. Now comes the tricky part that we can’t fully explain to you. These specialties are listed below in the “Specials” chapter.
The data is now on the server. If you haven’t set up anything special anymore, or have handled all the specifics, it’s now time to adjust the DNS records as described above. Depending on how low you were able to set the TTL values in front of it, it will take longer or shorter until the website can be accessed on the new server.
Migration von Plesk Hosting zu WordPress Hosting
Migration mittels FTP
- Create a backup of all data in Plesk.
- Set the TTL values of the affected DNS records as low as possible.
- Set your current WordPress to maintenance mode.
- Export the database via PHPMyAdmin: Select the database, click on the “Export” tab and select the SQL format.
- Connect to your data on the current (old) server using FTP. You can find the access data on your access data sheet.
- Download all files in the WordPress directory (
wp-content,wp-config.php, etc.) to your local computer. - Now upload all data to the new server (WordPress hosting). You can find the access data on this access data sheet. Connect here again via FTP. Upload all previously downloaded data to the main directory httpdocs.
- Create a new database on the new server.
- Go to PHPMyAdmin (or another administration tool) and create a new database. Make a note of the database name, user name, password and database host, this information is required.
- mport the database: Go to PHPMyAdmin and click on the “Import” tab. Select the previously exported
.sqlfile and import it into the new database. - Edit the
wp-config.phpon the new server to create the new database connection.
Migration mittels Plugin
Duplicator is a plugin to easily migrate websites.
Install plugin and create archive:
- Install the “Duplicator” plugin in the WordPress backend.
You may need the Pro version, depending on the size of your site, but the free version should be sufficient for normal sites (without a store). - Create a new archive by clicking on “Create New” and following the instructions. The default name is usually sufficient.
- Leave all settings unchanged and click on “Next”.
- After a successful check, click on “Build”.
- Download the created files (archive and installer) by clicking on “Download Both Files”.
Upload files to the new server:
- Log in to your Plesk.
- Upload the two downloaded files to the “httpdocs” directory.
- Create a new database in Plesk under “Database/Databases” and make a note of the access data.
Installation on the new server:
- Access the new website by either changing the DNS entries or making a temporary adjustment to the hosts file on your PC. Find out more in this FAQ article.
- Open the URL of the website, followed by “/installerphp” (e.g.: https//deinedomain.ch/installer.php)
- Enter the database information you created in Plesk and click on “Validate”
- Carry out the installation
E-Mails migrieren
What is still missing is the migration of the e-mails. Receiving emails is possible without interruption with these instructions if, as mentioned above, you have already created the email addresses on the new server.
As soon as the change to the DNS records is active, emails are received on the new server instead of the old one.
What you still need to do is move the emails from the old server to the new server.
The easiest way to do this is to set up the email address in your email client (Outlook, Thunderbird etc.) once with the access data from the old server, and at the same time set up the same email address with the access data from the new server.
As soon as you see that emails arrive in the inbox of the email address on the new server, you can simply move the emails from the old mailbox to the mailbox of the new account with the mouse. After that’s done, you can delete the old server’s email address setup.
DNS Records
As soon as all data has been migrated, the DNS records can be adjusted. Where you do this is explained in another FAQ.
It is important that the following records are adjusted:
- A record for yourdomain.eu
- A record for www.yourdomain.eu
If you also migrate e-mails, the MX record may also have to be adjusted. Which changes are necessary depends on how it is currently set up.
If the MX record refers to mail.yourdomain.eu, you must change the A record for either mail.yourdomain.eu or *.yourdomain.eu.
If the MX record refers to a server name (example.yourprovider.com), it is best to change the MX record to mail.deinedomain.eu and make sure that there is either an A-record called mail.deinedomain.eu or an A-record for *.deinedomain.eu, which in turn refers to the IP address of our server.
Spezielles
Depending on how your site is structured, you may have to make various adjustments after the data has been uploaded to the new server. We list some examples here, but the list is certainly not exhaustive.
- Database user and password
When you create a database on the new server, you also define a user and a password. These values usually have to be adjusted in certain configuration files of your website.
For example, with WordPress, you have to adjust the values for “DB_USER” and “DB_PASSWORD” in the wp-config.php file. If you have also chosen a new name for the database, the value for “DB_NAME” must also be adjusted. - Some settings for plugins also need to be adjusted.
If you use the “Wordfence” plugin, for example, you need to adjust the absolute path in the .user.ini and wordfence-waf.php file.
For example, the following could be written there.
Old: /var/www/web123/html
New should then read /var/www/vhosts/deinedomain.eu/httpdocs, for example
Before you change the DNS records, you can check whether your website can be accessed on the new server. This requires an adjustment of the hosts file on your computer.