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DocumentationCheck, resume and cutover

Check, resume and cutover

From 0.83 every migration, from a backup file or over SSH, ends with a check of the sites and is completed with a single button. If it stops, it starts again from where it was. Everything is on the migration's page: Migration › the migration in the list.

Before copying: the risks

In the step where you choose what to import, the panel lists for each site the risks it already sees, without blocking the start:

  • a PHP version that is not installed here (and which one will be used);
  • files encoded with ionCube, SourceGuardian or Zend Guard, and the PHP extensions they need;
  • .htaccess rules that nginx does not read (with the suggestion to turn on Apache compatibility);
  • paths of the old server in the configuration files and in the cron jobs;
  • very large databases, or databases with MyISAM tables.

The check: the traffic light

At the end of the import the panel checks every site by itself and gives it a light: Works, To check or Does not work. It works before the DNS change too, because it asks the pages straight to both servers.

  • The home page and up to 10 pages (from the sitemap or the links) are asked to the old and to the new server and compared: response code, title and text.
  • The resources of the home page that are not found here, the ones that still point to the old domain and the ones loaded over http:// on an https site.
  • The PHP and nginx errors written during the check.
  • WordPress: the sign-in page answers and the site connects to its database.
  • The paths of the old server left in the configuration and in the cron jobs, and the mail MX records to change.

Click a site to see its checks and the pages compared. Check again runs the check whenever you want.

Complete the cutover

Complete the cutover runs in a row what is left to close the migration. You can run it now or at a time you choose, for example at night:

  1. Final sync (migrations over SSH): changed and deleted files, databases and the mail arrived meanwhile.
  2. Site check: a site that does not work here stays on the old server, and its DNS is not touched.
  3. DNS change: automatic where the panel manages the zone (this server's DNS or a DNS connection); otherwise the panel tells you the address to point the records to.
  4. SSL certificates: requested as soon as the names point here. If the DNS has not arrived yet, the panel tries again by itself for 48 hours.
  5. Cron: the jobs imported paused are turned on.

With a time set, the credentials of the old server stay only in memory until then: if the panel restarts before, the cutover is canceled and must be started again.

A safer final sync

  • The files deleted on the old server are removed here too, but only the ones that came with the migration: a file made or changed here afterwards stays.
  • During the last copy of the databases, the WordPress sites of the old server show "Briefly unavailable" for a few minutes, so that no order or comment is lost. Then they are back as they were.
  • The messages arrived in the mailboxes of the old server after the migration are copied into the mailboxes here (cPanel and Plesk).
  • Both options can be turned off in the final sync window.

If the migration was made with the panel key, the key stays on the old server for the 7 days of the final sync and the password is not asked again. It is removed when you delete the migration or when the 7 days end. If the panel restarts meanwhile, the page shows the command to remove it by hand.

If the migration stops: Resume

A migration over SSH that stopped (an error, a dropped connection, a restart of the panel, canceled) does not start from scratch: Resume the migration skips the accounts already downloaded and extracted, and what was already imported is updated, without duplicate databases or cron jobs. The credentials stay in memory for 24 hours; after that, or after a restart of the panel, they are asked again. The files to resume stay on the server for 3 days, or until you choose Don't resume.

If the migration ended but some accounts or sites failed, Retry the failed ones migrates only those.

A migration no longer has a time limit: it stops only if it makes no progress for 30 minutes. Migrations have their own queue, so backups and updates don't wait for them.

The hybrid method (cPanel)

When you migrate from cPanel as root and the old server has rsync, the recommended method is Hybrid: the cPanel backup brings the configuration, the databases, cron, DNS and forwarders, while the sites' files and the mail come with rsync. Everything comes as with the full backup, but:

  • the old server needs no room for an archive of the files;
  • if the connection drops, the copy resumes from where it was;
  • the final sync is faster.

Faster

  • While an account is downloaded, the old server already prepares the backup of the next one and the previous one is extracted here.
  • The databases are imported three at a time.
  • The progress shows bytes and the estimated time for databases and mailboxes too.

Upload from the browser

The backup file is uploaded in pieces. If the connection drops, the upload starts again by itself from where it was. If you close the page, the upload stays in the list with Resume the upload: choose the same file again and it goes on from where it stopped. There is no longer a 10 GB limit per file.

Notice at the end of a migration

At the end of every migration and every cutover, the administrators receive an email with the outcome and the light of the sites. It is turned on and off in System email, under Migration ended.