Transferring from one Host to another (Both have CPanel)

Hosting
1

I am planning to move from Hostgator to Godaddy.

Is there a way we can transfer all websites easily?

I have downloaded home directory = Public_html
and all databases individually(40+ DB’s)

what is the easiest way to perform this operation.

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Whenever I’ve moved hosts (on shared hosting), I’ve used the cPanel backup facility to create a backup of the site, then uploaded this at the new host and asked them to install it for me. I’ve never had a problem with that.

Off Topic

I have no experience of either, but I’ve seen a lot of people posting here saying that GoDaddy is a good registrar, but not a good hosting company. Just so you’re aware.

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Yes, they even do not provide e-mail or chat support. Where should we go then? Any suggestions?
They even do not provide twitter support.

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It’s really not possible to answer that, because we have no idea of your requirements, why you want to move away from Hostgator or anything else.

I suggest you use the SitePoint guide to choosing a hosting company to help you through the process. Only you have enough information to make an informed decision.

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5

Many hosts offer a free migration service if you are moving to them, have you check to see if Gobaddy offer this?

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6

Even if any host offer free migration that is only for 1 website, maximum.

7

Any opinion/review about ipage.com hosting?

8

Normally for Cpanel > Cpanel they will transfer the whole account so if you have multiple sites on one Cpanel account they’re all included. At least that’s what the host I generally use does.

iPage are in the same league as Gobaddy and Hostgator, personally I stay away from budget hosts :slight_smile:

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So which hosting company do you use?

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According to them this is quite large and they are not allowing us to do this.

433×368 15.9 KB

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Assuming the slash is
“what there is” / “max that will backup”
you need to get the “what there is” lower.

i.e.
you have
518,330 too many files
4,239.53 too much weight

Not as easy as a backup, but unless you want to delete files I would FTP download a bunch of files until there are few enough to run the back up, transfer the site, then FTP upload the files to the new server.

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12

Any idea If we can also back up domains and subdomains that we have added in the Cpanel and transfer those settings to the new host?

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Sorry, I’ve never done subdomains cPanel or otherwise so I don’t really know. I would replicate the file system organization exactly unless maybe if I wanted to change it while I was touching the files.

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14

Hostgator at least has a human interface and the twitter support is also supportive. I have written to Adam Farrar once, the CEO they listen and solve. HG is comparatively better than GoDaddy and Ipage, but there is a different reason to migrate.

15

Assuming both sites use Apache and have PHP installed the easiest way is to use PHP’s rsync command. It is well worth trying simple examples and notice the speed difference between other methods which just copy files such as FileZilla.

Simple example called from an Apache2 terminal command window:

rsync -avh directory/file_from directory/file_to

Where:
1, -avh - archive, verbose and compress/decompress
2. directory/file_from - can be a full path or an individual file (accepts *)
3. directory/file_to - can be a full path or an individual file

Between online servers the speed is amazing. The command was first written in 1996 and last updated 28th January 2018. I use it daily to backup all my Home directory files from a 128 GB SSD to a 2TB harddrive. It only takes seconds!

Some advantages and features of Rsync command

  • It efficiently copies and sync files to or from a remote system.
  • Supports copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions.
  • I t’s faster than scp (Secure Copy) because rsync uses remote-update protocol which allows to transfer just the differences between two sets of files. First time, it copies the whole content of a file or a directory from source to destination but from next time, it copies only the changed blocks and bytes to the destination.
  • Rsync consumes less bandwidth as it uses compression and decompression method while sending and receiving data both ends.

Further details with examples:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync#Uses

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16

Moving many databases can be time consuming.

Here’s how I do this when I take on new hosting clients with many databases.

  1. At new hosting, service mysql stop

Also rm -rf /var/lib/mysql + mkdir /var/lib/mysql + chown mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql

  1. rsync old hosting to new hosting /var/lib/mysql which pulls data.

  2. rsync old to new /etc/mysql/* (Ubuntu/Debian) + ~/.my.cnf (RedHat/CentOS) which pulls root credentials for database access… as root…

  3. At this point /var/lib/mysql on new hosting will be mainly correct + still unusable, because data is inconsistent.

  4. At old hosting, service mysql stop

  5. rsync old hosting to old hosting /var/lib/mysql to new hosting. Since mysql is stopped on both servers, data will be consistent.

  6. Then on new hosting, service start mysql, which may take a while if there’s a large version mismatch between mysql on both old + new hosting.

Note: Always use MariaDB, not MySQL, because MySQL’s code quality has become so bad.

Code quality is so bad that Debian/Ubuntu/Derivatives now install MariaDB when for MySQL packaging targets.

I use this same process when moving all client sites between LXD containers on different machines, when a machine requires a major OS upgrade… so I’ve done this process 100s of times now.

As long as you use MariaDB as your target (new hosting), this process works well. If you really do use MySQL, your mileage will likely vary (process will likely fail if the version mismatch covers many major versions).

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This path is also available in shared hosting?

Currently, I think WP uses MYSQL only.

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For most HostGator accounts, you have ssh available. To use rsync, requires setting up ssh on both ends, as rsync uses ssh for connections.

For the above process to work, you’ll have to setup ssh, which may require working a ticket with them, if you’re new to this process.

Also… sigh… GoDaddy is great as a Registrant (domain registration).

Their hosting can only be used for proof of concept + will break under the most modest of traffic.

In fact, all my hosting clients come to me because their project succeeds, then increasing traffic takes down their site.

This also relates to the CDN myth. The first thing I always do is remove any cruft tech like CloudFlare, NGINX, any thing else standing between Apache + visitors.

I also only host WordPress sites, because tuning WordPress for high traffic is a known, clearly defined path.

So… sigh… If you have no traffic + never expect any traffic, GoDaddy will be sufficient.

If you’re moving out of HostGator due to increasing traffic, best you choose different hosting than GoDaddy.

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19

Hi there,

You have given a very deep insight. Thanks for that. Traffic will increase over time, but it will take 1-2 years to reach a significant level. In that case what hosting will you recommend?

Have you ever heard that its some hosting has also set cpanel cache so that even when you upload your files css and JS files are taking 30-45 minutes to get downloaded by the browser(I mean the new files)? Browsers caches are cleared manually then also new JS/CSS files do not get downloaded although in cpanel they are updated instantly.

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if you are looking into getting a great hosting service provider you need to learn a few terms. all hosting providers gives you attractive offers but it will always depend on what features you need for your website and how much you can spend for a hosting.