This is really a big issue for us.
We have a client that has a few VPS services with us. We needed to migrate their cPanel/WHM servers to a server running a newer version of CloudLinux.
We made sure to transfer the configuration for cPanel, EasyApache and stuff like that using the transfer tool. Once we made sure everything was as similar to the old server as possible, we started migrating.
This is where the first issue started... The Transfer Tool refused to transfer more than 1 account at a time. I stopped the transfer, made sure that the transfer threads was set to 5 and started again. It still refused to transfer more than 1. I had to do this a couple of times before it managed to transfer 5 accounts at a time. Both servers had 12 CPU cores and 12GB of RAM.
I started researching the issue and came across this: https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us...-at-once-Transfer-and-Restore-Thread-options-
The server almost always had a load of 1 so it wasn't overloaded.
Well, moving on because that wasn't deal breaking for us. We managed to get all accounts transferred.
Now the annoying part starts...
After migrating all accounts, I took a few samples to make sure everything was alright. I checked around 20 websites, clicked around them and noticed that everything seemed to be working. I notify the client that the migration is over and we close the case.
Then hell broke lose. I received a call saying that one of the websites suddenly stopped working. I check the website, and sure enough - it throws a 500 error.
I find out that the PHP version has been changed for the website. It's set to PHP 8.0 (the default PHP version on the new server - the old one had PHP 8.1 as the default) while it should be running PHP 7.0. I know it's a deprecated version but it's needed for some websites.
It's worth noting that at this point, our client didn't even have access to the server. Neither did our client's clients.
No biggie, I fixed the issue. However, these exact problem kept happening - cPanel somehow changed the PHP version after the accounts were migrated. I fixed them and went to bed.
Then the cPanel cron job ran... Holy f****** hell. We suddenly had a huge list of websites not working anymore (that had been working for hours previously). A lot of these websites had had their .htaccess updated exactly at 04:00 - and the cPanel cron job runs at 03:59. I started changing their PHP versions back and thought everything was fine.
Nope, some websites still didn't work. According to MultiPHP Manager, they were running the correct version of PHP. I checked .htaccess to see if everything was fine - and it was indeed using the correct PHP version.
After troubleshooting for a few minutes, I tried changing to another PHP version and then back to the original - and then it started working all of a sudden.
We've performed many of these migrations before and while there's often small issues, we've never had major issues like these.
Needless to say, our client's clients are not happy, our client is not happy and we're not happy. What was supposed to be a very simple transfer of less than 100 accounts turned out to be a big pain.
We were supposed to migrate multiple servers for the client but these migrations has been put on hold indefinitely.
During the summer, we have to migrate all of our own servers as well, hosting tens of thousands of websites. We cannot afford to have those migrations go wrong.
I've already created ticket #94767181 regarding this issue but would be happy to know if anyone else has experienced something similar. I've never seen cPanel just randomly change PHP version like this. I was the only one with access to the server and I know I didn't change them.
We have a client that has a few VPS services with us. We needed to migrate their cPanel/WHM servers to a server running a newer version of CloudLinux.
We made sure to transfer the configuration for cPanel, EasyApache and stuff like that using the transfer tool. Once we made sure everything was as similar to the old server as possible, we started migrating.
This is where the first issue started... The Transfer Tool refused to transfer more than 1 account at a time. I stopped the transfer, made sure that the transfer threads was set to 5 and started again. It still refused to transfer more than 1. I had to do this a couple of times before it managed to transfer 5 accounts at a time. Both servers had 12 CPU cores and 12GB of RAM.
I started researching the issue and came across this: https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us...-at-once-Transfer-and-Restore-Thread-options-
The server almost always had a load of 1 so it wasn't overloaded.
Well, moving on because that wasn't deal breaking for us. We managed to get all accounts transferred.
Now the annoying part starts...
After migrating all accounts, I took a few samples to make sure everything was alright. I checked around 20 websites, clicked around them and noticed that everything seemed to be working. I notify the client that the migration is over and we close the case.
Then hell broke lose. I received a call saying that one of the websites suddenly stopped working. I check the website, and sure enough - it throws a 500 error.
I find out that the PHP version has been changed for the website. It's set to PHP 8.0 (the default PHP version on the new server - the old one had PHP 8.1 as the default) while it should be running PHP 7.0. I know it's a deprecated version but it's needed for some websites.
It's worth noting that at this point, our client didn't even have access to the server. Neither did our client's clients.
No biggie, I fixed the issue. However, these exact problem kept happening - cPanel somehow changed the PHP version after the accounts were migrated. I fixed them and went to bed.
Then the cPanel cron job ran... Holy f****** hell. We suddenly had a huge list of websites not working anymore (that had been working for hours previously). A lot of these websites had had their .htaccess updated exactly at 04:00 - and the cPanel cron job runs at 03:59. I started changing their PHP versions back and thought everything was fine.
Nope, some websites still didn't work. According to MultiPHP Manager, they were running the correct version of PHP. I checked .htaccess to see if everything was fine - and it was indeed using the correct PHP version.
After troubleshooting for a few minutes, I tried changing to another PHP version and then back to the original - and then it started working all of a sudden.
We've performed many of these migrations before and while there's often small issues, we've never had major issues like these.
Needless to say, our client's clients are not happy, our client is not happy and we're not happy. What was supposed to be a very simple transfer of less than 100 accounts turned out to be a big pain.
We were supposed to migrate multiple servers for the client but these migrations has been put on hold indefinitely.
During the summer, we have to migrate all of our own servers as well, hosting tens of thousands of websites. We cannot afford to have those migrations go wrong.
I've already created ticket #94767181 regarding this issue but would be happy to know if anyone else has experienced something similar. I've never seen cPanel just randomly change PHP version like this. I was the only one with access to the server and I know I didn't change them.
Last edited by a moderator:
