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DocumentationMoving an account to another server

Moving an account to another server

An account moves, with everything it has, to another server managed by the panel and linked in Linked servers: sites with their files, MariaDB and PostgreSQL databases, mailboxes with their messages, forwarders, cron jobs, HTTPS certificates and DNS records. Users and clients keep signing in with the same passwords (account, databases, mailboxes). Administrators only.

Before you start

  • Link the target server in Linked servers with an API token of that server (see Linked servers). The move goes through the panel API with that token: no SSH access is needed.
  • Both servers must run the same panel version (0.38.0 or later).
  • On the target server set the public IP address (Server › Network) and enable mail, if the account has mailboxes.

How to do it

Open the account in Accounts, press Move to another server, choose the server and press Check. The target server answers with:

  • what moves: sites, databases, mailboxes, cron jobs and the space used;
  • what prevents it: an account, site, database or mail domain with the same name already there, disk space (about twice the space used plus 1 GB is needed), mail not enabled;
  • good to know: a PHP version not installed there (the site will use the default one: install it first from Server › PHP if needed), Apache compatibility not installed, a Node.js or Python application to start again, a package or reseller that does not exist there;
  • where the DNS changes: for each site the DNS connection that manages its zone (this server, Cloudflare, 1PrimeCDN) or "to be changed by hand".

Then press Move the account. The work goes on in the background, with the log of the steps:

  1. First copy: everything is copied to the new server while the sites keep running here. There the account stays suspended and the cron jobs paused.
  2. Suspension: here the account is suspended (the sites show the "site suspended" page), so nobody works on two copies.
  3. Final copy: only what changed since the first copy, deleted files and messages included; the databases are copied again. It usually takes a few minutes.
  4. DNS: the records of the sites (and the other records of their zones that pointed to this server, such as mail.) are pointed to the new server, in the DNS connection that manages them. There the account is reactivated and the cron jobs start again.

If something fails, the move is rolled back automatically: the new server deletes what it received and the account is active here again.

Afterwards

Here the account stays suspended, with all its data: check that everything works on the new server, wait for the DNS to propagate, then delete it from here. Until you delete it you can press Undo the move: the DNS records come back to this server, the account is active here again and it is deleted from the new server (with whatever changed there in the meantime).

DNS records managed elsewhere (at the registrar or at a provider not connected to the panel) must be changed by hand to the address of the new server, which the check shows.

What does not move

  • The SFTP keys and the logs of the sites; the temporary folders.
  • The passkeys and the authenticator app of the account (they are bound to the panel address): they must be set up again on the new server.
  • Node.js and Python applications: the files arrive, the application is started again from the site's Runtime tab.
  • The backups already made stay on this server.