Knowledgebase

This is a general overview, not a comprehensive guide. 

When reviewing your account for migration, please consider the following steps that will be required to ensure your website is working properly within the cPanel system:

• Websites
  
  
  • Depending on the number of domain names you have associated with your account, the number of websites to transfer may be more than just one process.
  • List out the domains that you will need to transfer. You can see the list of domains and which folders they are pointing to via Site Manager >> Domains.
  • If you have an SSL set up with any of the domains, you will want to make sure it is able to be transferred to cPanel. If your account has a Dedicated IP Address, this IP Address will change and could incur an extra cost depending on which new web hosting package you choose.
  • In the Site Manager system, all accounts have a shared cgi-bin folder, whereas the cPanel system sets up a cgi-bin unique to each Addon Domain's folder.
    
    
• Email Accounts
  
  
  • You may have several accounts associated with your Site Manager.
  • Email accounts in Site Manager are not dependent on the domain name, so user@domain.com is the same as user@addondomain.com. This is not the case in cPanel where user@domain.com and user@addondomain.com are two separate accounts.
  • WestHost Support will need to transfer your email accounts for you. Please contact our Support team for help transferring your email accounts.
    
    
• Email Aliases
  
  
  • If you have aliases or forwarders configured in Site Manager, you will need to configure them similarly in your new account for continued operation.
  • Similar to the way Users are handled, aliases in Site Manager are not domain-specific. Aliases [called forwarders] are domain-specific, so you would need alias@domain.com as well as alias@addondomain.com if you had separate domain names to utilize.
    
    
• FTP Accounts
  
  
  • The primary username on either Site Manager or cPanel also operates as an FTP user.
  • If you have any secondary FTP users then you need to create them on your new account.
    
    
• DNS [Domain Name Servers]
  
  
  • You will need to update the DNS for domain registration to move it when you are ready.
  • If you have any custom DNS information for any of your Site Manager domains, you may need to re-add the settings.
    
    
• Site Applications
  
  
  • If you run any Site Manager installed tools like WordPress or Drupal, you will need to manually move them over to your new account.
  • The cPanel has an excellent tool called Softaculous that allows you to install a blank application. From there, it is possible to use a database backup to restore the site to its regular appearance. We will cover databases in more depth below.
  • Applications frequently include site files, theme/module folders, configuration files, database users, and databases. ALL site files must be migrated for the application to run properly on your new account.
  • NOT ALL APPLICATIONS WILL WORK in the new environment. Please check with the software provider for a list of server specs to make sure your application will work. 
  • Any tools like PHP, MySQL, or PHPMyAdmin do not need to be migrated by you, as they are installed by default at the cPanel server level.
  • cPanel accounts do NOT allow you to make modifications to the main php.ini file, although you can perform most changes with a local php.ini configuration file.
  • Some applications WILL BE FORCED to upgrade to cooperate with newer versions of PHP or MySQL in the cPanel system.
    
    
• Cron Jobs
  
  
  • You will need to manually recreate cron jobs in the new environment.
  • You may need to update how certain scripts work to execute cron jobs successfully.
    
    
• Files and Permissions
  
  
  • If you have files outside the standard web directory [Which is /var/www/html in Site Manager], you may need to ensure all files are copied over and organized as required in the new cPanel system.
  • If you have a lot of files in Site Manager with 777 or 775 permissions, these are NOT permitted in the cPanel area. You will need to lower them to at least 755.
  • Use a File Transfer Protocol [FTP] client to download files to your local computer and then upload them to your new account.
    
    
• Perl Modules
  
  
  • Check for custom Perl modules, as you may need to reinstall them in cPanel.
  • Not all Perl modules are available in cPanel.
    
    
• Databases
  
  
  • Make a backup of individual databases through PHPMyAdmin. You can install PHPMyAdmin through Site Manager >> Install & Manage. It connects with your Site Manager username and password.
  • Save the backed-up databases as .sql.gz [a compression type] on your local computer.
  • You will need to use the MySQL Database Wizard in cPanel to create databases with specific users and passwords. Once the databases and users are created. you will need to upload the database backups.
  • To import a database you will need to use the PHPMyAdmin tool.
  • Once databases are imported, you will need to update the connection settings for each site application via their configuration file.