Using the WHM Transfer Tool Guidance

[vix718]

Hi guys, could really use some peace of mind! Just want to make sure I'm doing everything right before I actually do it so I don't mess anything up. So a quick summary, we have a website hosted on vps.net with CENTOS 6.9 + WHM v78.0.17 and we run WHMCS on it, we have been in business for 5+ years so there's a lot of data on our WHMCS, and thousands of customers. We want to update all the systems without any errors or downtime for our customers so we bought a new VPS (same host vps.net) with the same specs as the first VPS but with CENTOS 7.6 + WHM v78.0.17. MYSQL on both is 5.6.43. Most important thing for us is to finish the transfer with everything intact, especially WHMCS and our mysql database is about 25GB

So we plan on using the WHM transfer tool to move over the cpanel account for that website from the old vps to the new vps

----------------------------------
My current step by step plan for using the transfer tool:

These are the steps we are planning to take, please let me know if we are forgetting anything or if we should do anything different

1. Put WHMCS on maintenance mode & disable cloudflare
2. Run transfer tool on the new VPS
3. Change nameserver information on WHM + Cloudflare
4. Go to WHMCS and transfer over the license

Am I forgetting anything? And does anyone have any idea how long the transfer tool would take if the size of the cpanel is lets say 25-30GB, like are we talking less than hour or multiple hours?

----------------------------------
3 Questions:

1. After I add the nameserver to the new VPS, what should I change on the old VPS, like should I remove the nameserver info on the old VPS, etc.?

2. Oh and should I use express mode for the transfer tool? I saw this warning and kind of confused as to what it means exactly?

Only use the Express transfers feature if the remote server controls the authoritative name servers for the domain. If the remote server does not control the authoratative nameservers for the domain and you use this feature, DNS will not resolve. This will cause your sites to experience downtime.

https://documentation.cpanel.net/dis...erTool-Abtxfer

3. Also I have read that firewalls might interfere with the transfer tool, should I disable CSF on both VPS? Anything else I should disable while doing the transfer?

----------------------------------

Thanks in advance you guys are awesome!!

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello @vix718,

The following document is useful for the scenario you described:

How to Move All cPanel Accounts from One Server to Another - cPanel Knowledge Base - cPanel Documentation

The additional steps you noted for WHMCS match the steps in their documentation (transferring the account it's hosted on and updating the WHMCS license post-transfer).

1. After I add the nameserver to the new VPS, what should I change on the old VPS, like should I remove the nameserver info on the old VPS, etc.?

There's no need to modify the name server configuration or DNS zones on the source server unless you want to decrease the potential downtime involved with propagation. Check out the "Minimize Your Downtime" tab on this document to see the additional steps you can take to reduce the downtime if the IP addresses are changing.

3. Also I have read that firewalls might interfere with the transfer tool, should I disable CSF on both VPS? Anything else I should disable while doing the transfer?

The default CSF rules should not block the transfer, but make sure no rules exist in WHM >> Host Access Control that could restrict access to port 2087.

And does anyone have any idea how long the transfer tool would take if the size of the cpanel is lets say 25-30GB, like are we talking less than hour or multiple hours?

25-30G may take a few hours, but it's difficult to provide an accurate estimate because it depends on factors such as network transfer speed.

Let me know if you have any additional questions.

Thank you.

 

[vix718]

@cPanelMichael thanks Michael really appreciate the help! Had a few more questions if you don't mind as well:

1 - Someone mentioned that for whm transfer tool to work, that the mysql and php versions should be the same on both vps is that true? I know mysql is the same on both vps but not sure about php, if this is true how can i check php version?

2 - Lets say after the transfer is complete, I click on suspend on the old vps cpanel account, and switch all the nameservers. But then find out something is wrong. If I click unsuspend on the old vps cpanel and switch the nameservers back would it work that easily to put everything back to how it was?

3 - once transfer is complete what's the proper way to add the cloudflare dns servers to the new vps whm?

 

[cPanelMichael]

1 - Someone mentioned that for whm transfer tool to work, that the mysql and php versions should be the same on both vps is that true? I know mysql is the same on both vps but not sure about php, if this is true how can i check php version?

It's not a requirement, but it's a good idea to observe MySQL and PHP version differences between the source and destination servers in the event a website's script doesn't work correctly on the destination server. You can browse to WHM >> MultiPHP Manager to see the PHP versions assigned to each account, and to see the default PHP version configured on the system. WHM >> Transfer Tool will detect the existing PHP version utilized by a domain on the source server and enable it for the domain on the destination server as long as that PHP version is installed.

2 - Lets say after the transfer is complete, I click on suspend on the old vps cpanel account, and switch all the nameservers. But then find out something is wrong. If I click unsuspend on the old vps cpanel and switch the nameservers back would it work that easily to put everything back to how it was?

Yes, however keep in-mind any account level data that was changed while the domain resolved to the destination server (e.g. new file uploads, MySQL database modifications, account password changes) is not synced back to the source server automatically.

3 - once transfer is complete what's the proper way to add the cloudflare dns servers to the new vps whm?

If you want the DNS zones to use your CloudFlare name servers by default, then you can enter them as your default name servers via WHM >> Basic WebHost Manager® Setup. For existing DNS zones, use WHM >> Edit DNS Zone to replace the name servers for existing domains with new ones.

Thank you.

 

[vix718]

@cPanelMichael thanks again Michael! So was in the process of running the transfer tool but ran into an issue unfortunately


Source: “X” Roundcube database type is “mysql” …
Target: “Z” Roundcube database type is “sqlite” …
The source server is not running the same Roundcube database type as the target server. cPanel highly recommends that the source server run the same Roundcube database type at least 24 hours to ensure that email accounts using Roundcube will transfer properly.


So apparently my new CENTOS 7 VPS is using sqlite and my old CENTOS 6 VPS is using mysql for roundcube database, so I have a few questions:

1. How important is it that I do this before running the transfer tool, if I don't do this would the biggest risk just be losing a few emails or could it be worse than that?

2. What would be the easiest & safest way to change the source server from using mysql to sqlite for roundcube database? And is there any chance that this could mess something up, cause again I have a lot of customers on this old server and over 25GB on mysql database

3. Would it be possible to instead just change the new server from sqlite to mysql?

 

[cPanelMichael]

1. How important is it that I do this before running the transfer tool, if I don't do this would the biggest risk just be losing a few emails or could it be worse than that?

2. What would be the easiest & safest way to change the source server from using mysql to sqlite for roundcube database? And is there any chance that this could mess something up, cause again I have a lot of customers on this old server and over 25GB on mysql database

There's no risk of losing actual emails. If for some reason an issue with the conversion resulted in data loss, it would only pertain to Roundcube data (e.g. Roundcube contacts, signatures, preferences). We include information on how to create a backup of your Roundcube data before converting it in-case something goes wrong on the link below:

How to Convert Roundcube to SQLite - cPanel Knowledge Base - cPanel Documentation

3. Would it be possible to instead just change the new server from sqlite to mysql?

You cannot convert Roundcube back to a MySQL database once SQLite is already enabled (it's enabled by default on new installations).

Thank you.

 

[vix718]

@cPanelMichael

so just finished the transfer and having a weird problem / everything seems to have transferred over well and cloudflare dns updated but whmcs is telling me this

Site error: the ionCube PHP Loader needs to be installed. This is a widely used PHP extension for running ionCube protected PHP code, website security and malware blocking. Please visit get-loader.ioncube.com for install assistance.

so i followed this tutorial below and used easyapache and installed php56-php-ioncube10 Installed 10.3.2-2.2.5.cpanel


https://help.whmcs.com/m/75601/l/847...er-6-1-0-error


but still getting the same error on whmcs any ideas?

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello @vix718,

Can you browse to WHM >> MultiPHP Manager and verify which PHP version is assigned to the domain associated with the WHMCS account? If it's not assigned PHP version 5.6, then you'll need to follow the same steps to enable IonCube Loader for the version of PHP assigned to the domain.

Thank you.