My company's site needs to be moved to a new server. To give you a little taste of my experience level I just updated the SSL today with a little help from the GoDaddy support concierge, and I feel like a web guru....well not really.

 

It's a Joomla e-commerce site so I know I will have to move the SSL along with it. Now some questions:

 

The site has a large inventory of items we manage with Virtumart. Will this make it any harder to move?

 

What I need is just a general guide line to what I should do and keep in mind. I thought the SSL update was going to be rough but now I got it. I know this will be the same deal. If my bruthas here can't help I guess I can resort to the GoDaddy concierge again.

The general method of migrating a site is:

 

1. Prepare - note all folder/files/hidden files (like .htaccess)

Check for database export functionality - can you export your DB via a control panel, phpmyadmin, or a terminal prompt?

Check permissions on folders - most specifically, file upload folders.

Check where your config files are and ensure you know what they do! - very important!

Check what PHP version your using on existing and new, check what PHP modules you need on existing and new - make sure your new host supports everything you'll need - very important!

If you've got users who login to the site, let them know a good few days prior to migration!

Check whether any external sites connect to yours via an IP address - if they do, inform them a few days prior to migration!

Is the URL going to be the same?

If it's going to change, you'll want to look at 301 redirects and a redirect from your old URL.

 

2. When is the DNS transfer going to take place? Once it's initiated, it will start to kick in anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours. Time your migration around this.

 

3. When your ready, take your site offline, with a 'routine maintenance' message.

 

4. On your existing webhost control panel (or via terminal), Tar or Zip up the entire contents of your web root. It's easiest to just have everything in a single archive file, regardless of how large the file size is. You have to ensure that the archive contains any hidden files.

 

5. On your existing webhost control panel, Export your database

 

6. Login to your new host control panel, check everything is up and running as expected.

7. Create a new database and import your previously exported database - if you can, keep the same database name.

8. Upload your site archive file to web root on the new host and extract it. Ensure that the extracted folders and files match *exactly* with your existing hosting.

9. Change file/folder permissions if required

10. Edit your config file and modify any database settings and file paths! - important

11. If your DNS hasn't kicked in yet, modify the hosts file on your computer to match the new hosts IP address - that way, you can test to see if your site is going to function. If it does, take it out of maintenance mode.

12. Relax and let DNS propogation take care of the rest - your old host website should remain in 'maintenance mode'

13. Pray

 

 

This routine is applicable to pretty much any PHP based website migration.

 

The best thing you can do, prior to DNS changes, is to do a 'dry run' - get all the files and database onto the new host and use the method outlined in point 11.

The 'dry run' means you can leave your existing hosted site online as normal.

Once your sure your procedure works, your good to go.

 

Maintenance mode is *very* important - as your running a database, your site content is constantly changing. You want to make sure you have a clear cutoff point, so you know that NO additional data is going to be added/changed/removed from your site whilst your migrating.

 

It should be noted, you *can* do some clever redirecting at server level on your old host that'll take care of things until DNS propogates - that means your downtime will be as long as it takes you to copy everything over to the new host.

Edited July 9, 201115 yr by bb_matt