Migrating Your Website to a New Host

[Jennifer]

I recently migrated to a new host and I had a down time of 24 hours. Moving a website can be tricky. What steps reduce downtime and data loss? Do you prefer manual migration, plugin tools, or host-provided migration services? Which method usually works best for a forum site?

 

[Tracy]

Errr... the longest I have ever been down from a site migration has been about 45 minutes. Of course, I only use a VPS or dedicated server and perform the migration myself.
It helps since I do full site backups (files and database) and save them at 3 different locations. I also save the currently working nginx config file so that I can simply cut/paste the necessary content into the new site config file.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

For migration, I've never really went down for more than an hour but I'm good at doing it.

My host has had issues in the past, and I've had downtime for more than 24 hours once but then got about a week's worth of credit on my account which says a lot.

Unexpected downtime rarely happens and when it does, I'm all in asking what caused it and how to prevent it. Sometimes that involves me getting moved to a different VPS server.

 

[Cpvr]

I recently migrated to a new host and I had a down time of 24 hours. Moving a website can be tricky. What steps reduce downtime and data loss? Do you prefer manual migration, plugin tools, or host-provided migration services? Which method usually works best for a forum site?

I usually use the CPmove tool and I generally don't have any downtime.


If there's any downtime, it's less than 35-45 minutes like @Tracy stated.

 

[Nomad]

It is easier to migrate Wordpress site as there are plugins, and their is almost no downtime. For forums it can be little tricky if you are new to migration. I have been down for a few hours sometimes and that was usually related to DNS rather than migration.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

It is easier to migrate Wordpress site as there are plugins, and their is almost no downtime. For forums it can be little tricky if you are new to migration. I have been down for a few hours sometimes and that was usually related to DNS rather than migration.

I try to make sure the DNS and all that works before I migrate the forum.

If you choose a software that doesn't have a migration help document, ask for it. Be careful of software that doesn't offer that.

 

[Jennifer]

I usually use the CPmove tool and I generally don't have any downtime.

Please explain to me more about this.

 

[Tracy]

Please explain to me more about this.

A tool in cPanel/WHM to allow easy migration of a site to another cPanel/WHM installation.

Transfer or Restore a cPanel Account | cPanel & WHM Documentation

This interface lets you perform a transfer or restore for a cPanel account via an account archive file.

docs.cpanel.net