Difference between revisions of "Seamlessly Change Hosting to Hostek.com"

Revision as of 22:44, 7 October 2012

Steps to Changing Hosting Providers

1. Sign up with Hostek.com
2. Transfer your site files and databases Shared Hosting VPS Hosting
3. Test your site
4. Update Your Domain Name's Name Servers NOTE: you will find the Name Server information in the New Hosting Account Email.

Note: After registering a new domain name or updating DNS information there is a propagation period, this propagation can take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours.

Tips & Tricks: If you have full access to your DNS information for the domain name, you can change the TTL (Time To Live) for the all records (A, MX, CNAME, SOA). The standard is 14400 and 86400 (in seconds) between 4 hours and 24 hours. This means DNS Resolver cache around the world will check for updated information within that time frame. If you change the TTL to 300 seconds (5 minutes), lets say, the propagation will go faster.

Planning Ahead

Plan ahead as much as possible.

Make sure your customers are well informed of any possible service inturruption and changes they should consider well in advance.

Test your site after uploading your files and importing your databases to make sure no errors are occurring. Use the Testing URL provided in the email after setting up hosting.

For sites with constantly changing data

The most difficult sites to move are those that have constantly changing data. The main reason for this is that once you make a backup of the site or database, updates made during the transfer will not be reflected when the transfer is complete.

The best solution for this is to perform the transfer during off-peak hours(generally around midnight or later). What you will want to do is prepare for the move ahead of time by creating an 'Offline' page for the site. During the move, you will replace the site's homepage with the offline page to alert users that the site is currently unavailable until the move is completed. You may also want to alert your users to the maintenance in advance.

After the site move has been completed, you will want to update your DNS as quickly as possible so that visitors will begin using the site at the new location right away. The 'Offline' page should be left in-place at the old location so that users do not use the site at the old location while the changes propagate.

Sign up for hosting

The First step in transferring is to sign up for a hosting package. We offer a wide range of hosting packages that will fit your needs. After signing up for a hosting package, you will get an email with a Testing URL and Temporary FTP information. Use this information to complete the next task of moving your site files.

Web Hosting

Reseller Hosting

VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting

Virtual Dedicated Hosting

your-provider to Hostek.com Windows Shared Hosting

Moving Site Files and Databases

1. Open an FTP(File Transfer Protocol) client on your computer. If you do not have one, you can download FileZilla for free at "http://filezilla-project.org/download.php/".
2. Connect to your site on your old host. Generally, the connection details will either be in an e-mail you received from them or listed in your control panel with them.
3. Once connected, you should see two sets of files, local (files on your computer) and remote (files on your website). Under your local files, create a folder to store your site files.
4. Once the folder is created, open that folder on the local side. Then, select all the files on the remote site and download them into that folder.
5. Wait for the transfer of all files to complete. This may take several minutes.
6. Once the transfer is complete, disconnect from the server. Then connect to your site on our server using the FTP details that we sent in your account details e-mail.
7. On the remote side, open the /wwwroot folder. Also, on the local side, if there is a 'www', 'wwwroot', or 'public_html' folder, open that folder as well. #Select all files on the local side and upload them to the remote side.
8. Wait for the transfer of all files to complete. This may take several minutes.
9. Done - your site files have been moved.

Databases

MSSQL

1. Request a full backup of your database from your host, or create one through their control panel if you have that option.
2. Once you have the full database backup (should be a .bak file), login into your WCP control panel at "https://wcp.hostek.com" using the same e-mail address and password as your billing control panel.
3. Once logged in, select 'MS SQL', and click 'Add MS SQL database'. Enter the same name as the backed up database and give it a size that is larger than the .bak file. Enter a username and password and click 'Save'.
4. Now that the database has been created on the new server, choose the 'MS SQL Tools' option. Select the database and user, and click on the 'myLittleBackup' button.
5. Click 'Restore databases'.
6. Select the database from the drop-down.
7. Click 'OK'.
8. Click the 'Choose File' button and select the .bak backup file from your old host and click 'Ok'.
9. The backup file will most likely only have one backup set so you

will not have to worry about selecting one. If there are multiple, select whichever one has the most recent backup date.

1. Click 'Restore' and click 'OK' on the popup.

NOTE: If you have any issues restoring the database due to the size or structure of the database, you may need to upload the backup file to your website and ask support to restore the database. If you do this, it is recommended that you zip the backup file before uploading it as that will make it much smaller.

your-provider to Hostek.com Windows VPS

• We recommend setting up each domain using WCP as you move them, not all at one time. Doing so ensures there are less complications with mail delivery between two domains.

Moving Domains

Familiarize yourself and your team with our Windows Control Panel. If you have any questions please ask our support team.

1. Create the domain using the "addon domain" icon in the WCP.
   • When initially logging into WCP the domain which was used for referencing your VPS will be listed and new domains added.
   • If you selected a database server be installed locally or remotely it should be integrated with your control panel and databases can be added under each domain using the appropriate Icon.
   • Note if you ordered the FREE SmarterMail edition which only includes mail for a single domain, upon adding your second domain you may encounter an error. If so contact support for upgrading your SmarterMail license or disabling the action for adding new domains to the mail server.
2. DNS zones are automatically created for new domains, for the name servers which are used for domains added to your VPS click on the "Site Details" icon within the WCP for the domain in question.
3. Copy files to your VPS. Use FTP directly from your VPS to transfer site files, this is extremely fast and efficient.
4. Test the domain. Each domain will have a "Testing URL" within the "Site Details" area of WCP, note that if the database is not moved over and or DSN not created you may encounter errors.
5. Prepare the DNS for moving. Before switching your DNS we suggest a shorter TTL such as 300 (5 minutes), after this change you must wait out the original TTL before the new value will take affect. For example if your original TTL was 7200 seconds (2 hours) you must wait 2 hours after submitting any change before the new TTL will be take effect.
6. Switch your DNS. By now your site is tested and you're ready to make the switch.
   • In most cases we suggest moving the database first so data will be consistent from the old location to the new.

SSL

• Our Windows Control Panel has provisions for creating a CSR and installing a new certificate but you cannot "import" an existing certificate. There are two ways to resolve "moving" a certificate to a Windows server easily.

Pkey format

1. Export the certificate in PKey format. Within the certificate manager, export the current certificate in PKey format, you will be asked for a "passphrase" assign one and remember it.
2. Copy the certificate to the new server.
3. Open IIS on your VPS, open the main server node then click on the icon "Server Certificates" found under >> IIS >> Server Certificates.
4. Click import and follow the prompts.
5. Edit the bindings for the specific site to assign the certificate
   • Right click on the website in Sites >> your-website.abc select "Edit Bindings".
   • Select "Add" change the type to https, select the IP Address, select the "SSL Certificate" from the drop down.

Re-key the certificate

• Using this method could render the SSL certificate expired on the old server.

1. Click on the "Dedicated SSL" icon in WCP.
2. Fill in the appropriate information to generate a CSR.
3. At your certificate provider request a "rekey" using the CSR provided from WCP.
4. After receiving the new certificate back from your provider, complete the installation in WCP.

Databases

MSSQL

1. Add the database and user in MSSQL using the WCP under the correct domain.
2. Set the database to single user mode on the new server.

   • USE database_name ALTER DATABASE [DB_NAME_HERE] SET SINGLE_USER WITH NO_WAIT

3. Using SQL Studio Manager restore from backup selecting the file you exported from your previous server.
4. Set the database to multi user mode on the new server.

   • USE database_name ALTER DATABASE [DB_NAME_HERE] SET MULTI_USER WITH NO_WAIT

5. To fix user a created user which existed before the database was restored.

   • USE database_name Exec sp_change_users_login 'auto_fix','USERNAME'

6. In some cases you may continue to receive errors. Try adding double slashes for the file restore paths. Here's a scripted example:

RESTORE DATABASE [exampledatabase] FROM  DISK = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\Backup\exampledatabase.bak' 
WITH  FILE = 1,  MOVE N'old_database_name_Data' TO N'c:\\Program Files\\Microsoft SQL Server\\MSSQL10_50.SQLEXPRESS\\MSSQL\\DATA\\exampledatabase.mdf',  
MOVE N'old_database_name_Log' TO N'c:\\Program Files\\Microsoft SQL Server\\MSSQL10_50.SQLEXPRESS\\MSSQL\\DATA\\exampledatabase.LDF',  
NOUNLOAD,  REPLACE,  STATS = 10
GO

Don't forget

• Scheduled tasks, add them on the new server remove them from the old.
• Change the DNS TTL back to default.

Why move one at a time?

Say you setup domain X, Y, and Z via WCP, then migrate X from your old server to Hostek. If a user on X tries to email someone on domain Y or Z they'll get a kickback saying "No such user." This is because you haven't migrated the data over into these other accounts yet. The server will try to send the message locally before it goes "outside" to resolve it's IP address. Setting up new domains "as you go", will avoid this possibility.

If mail is not involved in the migration, then you may not need to worry about this issue.