Alright. Time to get back to work!

Two weekends ago I spent almost 3 solid days (which melded into nights) on moving web hosting providers from that of a reseller package to a VPS account. After spending so many hours straight on the computer, I didn’t want to look at it again so decided to pull out of work mode to ensure I didn’t burn myself out or go postal. You can read Stuck in a Holding Pattern as to why I had to move each of the websites over manually.

I moved a total of 19 websites over – including two parked domains:

7 WordPress blogs
3 forums (1 vBulletin, 2 phpBB)
4 custom built PHP websites with MySQL databases
4 static content PHP websites

I have to admit that I did get a bit overwhelmed with this project upon discovering I would have to move each website and MySQL database manually. All of a sudden something that was supposed to be a relatively smooth transition turned into a bit of a nightmare. I think this tends to be most peoples reactions when presented with a large project: “All this work to do and I don’t know where to begin!” I knew from the get go if I didn’t manage this properly and in a logical fashion, I would end up with an even bigger headache on my hands that might have equated to not moving everything over that needed to be done and possibly missing entire sites and important in-development code bases.

Taking Inventory

First things first, I went into my WHM (Web Host Manager) under “List Accounts” and printed the list of websites currently setup on my now former web hosting companies web servers. This gave me the list of domain names, usernames, which package they were on, disk quota, and disk space used. From here I went thru each of my sites via the browser and FTP to see which sites were still active and just how much “crap” was on the web server. I purged what files weren’t needed including files, MySQL databases and any sub-domains or add-on domains. You don’t need to “drain the swamp” before moving servers but I prefer to keep my stuff as clean as possible. It reduced the amount of resources being utilized (disk space) as well as the time it would have taken me to move web servers (bandwidth).

Creating New Nests on the VPS Web Server

Knowing what needed to be setup in WHM, it was about a 5-10 minute process including creating a standard web package for the four types of websites:

1. WordPress Blogs
2. Forums
3. Custom built PHP websites w/MySQL
4. Static HTML content

Rather then moving and then (possibly) upgrading WordPress, I elected to download the latest version and install it. This may or may not be easier for some given the number of posts and version of WordPress being used. Thankfully this blog (with currently 64 posts) was only one version behind allowing me to export. For blogs without the ability to import/export, I manually re-created each blog post which thankfully was less then 10 posts per WordPress blog. Overall, it wasn’t at all painful moving seven WordPress blogs!

The forums I had left until last dredging major hiccups. I was hoping I could just move the PHP code and MySQL databases over and it not give me any grief. Thankfully, this turned out to be the case! This was also the case with the PHP static content websites and those that used MySQL databases.

Testing before flipping the switch!

Great! Now everything is moved over… but will it worked once the DNS propagates? There is a file stored on the computer that most users aren’t aware of called the HOSTS file. From Wikipedia.org:

The hosts file is a computer file used to store information on where to find a node on a computer network. This file maps hostnames to IP addresses. The hosts file is used as a supplement to (or instead of) the domain name system on networks of varying sizes. This file is (unlike DNS) under the control of the user who is using the computer.

Sound Greek? Think of IP addresses as phone numbers and DNS/Name Servers as telephone operators connecting “calls”. The computer looks first at the local HOSTS file for an entry before querying a DNS server. By testing in this manner, you ensure the website is functioning as it will once the Name Servers are updated and the DNS entries have propagated pointing to the new web server. In other words, your phone number has changed because you’ve moved to a different location and you need your new number updated in the phone directory.

You need to test the crap out of everything to ensure its working! You want to ensure before your old hosting account is shut off whether or not you have missed anything. Once all of the websites have been moved over, tested, and you are satisfied they are working, update your Names Servers and remove the entries from your HOSTS file to ensure it doesn’t make the switch “appear” to have worked.

Reflecting on the Move to a VPS Web Server

What is a web server hosting move without a headache? Almost unheard of I’m sure! I know my web server move was a lot less of a headache then it could have been. I attribute part of this to having websites with little to no traffic. Part of why I made the move sooner then later was in not wanting to move hosts when having to deal with traffic on my websites. This is something you have to strategize depending on the nature of your website and something I’ll write about another time.

I thankfully only lost two things in my hosting move. The time I took to move the websites and my webstats which in reality was my web server log files. The good part is that most of my websites now have Google Analytics implemented on them so I at least have some stats from prior to moving web hosting companies. Overall, I’m quite happy with how things went.