Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : VPS Hosting : ello bit of help with moving domains/new vps hosting

[Randoma]

Ello!

were looking to move some busy IPBoard forums soon to a VPS package

With moving to the VPS package we're looking at it would seem unlike the shared hosting you don't get nameservers to aim at, and i just want to be sure i've got this right on how i set it up before i start trying to move our stuff

#1 I log into cpanel on the VPS and in dns zone section, create 2x A-records for ns1.ourdomain.com and ns2.ourdomain.com, using whatever ip's get provided for my vps
#2 delete the current nameservers out of our registar, and change them to ns1.ourdomain.com
#3 also in cpanel create A-records for the domain.com record=vps ip , and cnames for things like ftp.domain.com with the record:domain.com

Or is #1 done through WHM (which i've seen mentioned when googling but i've never had access to through our current shared hosting so not sure what the options are in here)


any info would be great

[Hsunami]

When WHM is installed, you'll run through a brief initial setup when you first log in as root. Nameservers and IPs are set up during that time so you won't have to do it later. Also, when you create a new account, all the DNS records should be automatically set up for you for the particular domain of the account.

Only thing missing from those steps you've listed is registering your nameservers at your registrar.

Hope this helps.

[PaulM]

Yep, sounds like you've got it correct there

[Alivedead]

Don't add any DNS settings in your VPS for the account being moved before you move the account. If you move the account from one cpanel server to another or just make the account on your VPS the DNS settings will be automatically generated.

[Randoma]

Ah!

So all I should need to do is the initial setup when I login to whm, and then change the nameservers on my registar to point at ns1.mydomain.com instead of what they are currently?

One other thing, Would this work the same if there was two domains?
Say if i bought a cheap domain and used that for the initial setup,

could i then point my main domains at ns1.cheapdomain.com?
or would the maindomain need a separate account in whm?

(basically i was going buy a cheap domain just to do a run through and get it up and running before attempting the move)

(from what i understand whm is i guess what the resellers would use to currently give me the access to cpanel like i have in my shared hosting currently, but with this change to the vps i'm getting access to it all but still only really need the "one account")

[httpEasy]

As rightly said before, you usually change the name servers at your registrar only after the transfer but with a busy dynamic site you'll better make a backup for the transfer and run it in maintenance mode anyway if you won't/can't rsync the data.

A full-featured WHM gives you much more gear over the VPS than the usual reseller version. Good luck!

[Alivedead]

Originally Posted by Randoma

Ah!

So all I should need to do is the initial setup when I login to whm, and then change the nameservers on my registar to point at ns1.mydomain.com instead of what they are currently?
")

Yes that is how it works it is very simple and you go through a stet by step setup process!

Originally Posted by Randoma

One other thing, Would this work the same if there was two domains?
Say if i bought a cheap domain and used that for the initial setup,
")

You could do that as well.

Originally Posted by Randoma

could i then point my main domains at ns1.cheapdomain.com?
or would the maindomain need a separate account in whm?
")

You will have to make the hosting account as you will only have one hosting account on this server. You wont need a separate account. The main account will be the WHM and the servers host name.

Originally Posted by Randoma

Once every thing is setup you can change the main domain in WHM and either not use the cheapdomain or park that under your main domain and use both.

(basically i was going buy a cheap domain just to do a run through and get it up and running before attempting the move)
")

that is a very good idea. It would help you learn before you experiment with your main domain causing it more down time.

Originally Posted by Randoma

(from what i understand whm is i guess what the resellers would use to currently give me the access to cpanel like i have in my shared hosting currently, but with this change to the vps i'm getting access to it all but still only really need the "one account")

Yes that is exactly how it works!

[Randoma]

Dead on thanks for the help lads, i'll order the vps/spare domain this weekend and give it a run through see how i get on.
I've left myself a few weeks (2nd weekend in oct) before the planned move so should have time to iron everything out.

(and aye i'm going take the forum offline in the early hours and sqldump the database to move it, it's a fairly large forum the posts table alone is 1.5-2gb)

[Alivedead]

You wont be able to upload that database via PHPmyadmin it is to large. I would recommend having your current host create a cpmove file for you and upload that to your new server and then restore the account on the VPS.

In the VPS WHM you can also try to transfer your account with your user name and password but allot of times this fails.

Get the VPS going and play around with WHM before you start the move look at the transfer site options and try those first.

You current host can tar up an nice backup and place that file in your old accounts web folder and on your vps use the wget command to download that to your VPS put it in your /home folder then go into your WHM/transfer/restore/cpmove and you will see the restore file you just uploaded to the server. Start the restore and you should have every thing perfectly back. It will even set up you DNS settings for you. Just make sure you dont try just a regular cpanel backup this wont work it needs to be a full Cpanel move file. Good luck

[manhalab]

Hi,

May be you have thought of this before anyway.

I recommend that you register another set of nameservers (usually free no extra charge) pointing to your new server. Then wait 2 to 3 days for the dns propagation to complete. Set the newly created nameservers in you WHM.

Now create the domain that host your forum in the new server cpanel control panel.

After the forum files and databases are moved over to the new server account and making sure that it is working fine switch the nameservers of the domain at the domain registrar end to the new nameservers. This could help save propagation delay downtime considerably for the live forum site.


For setting up nameservers in WHM please see link below,
http://knowledgelayer.softlayer.com/...nel%7B47%7DWHM

[Randoma]

@Alivedead -
ah naw i'm grand with the database side of things etc(i'm a programmer by trade) so doing the sqldumps and importing/exporting etc is wee buns, i've sorted the scripts for doing that already and have tested the upgrade procedure for the forums on some other hosting for the ip board software etc.

it was really just the domain/nameserver movement/cpanel i'm unsure about as all the hosting previously has been managed and i've never had to bother with it more than setting up new email accounts and the like.

Ah so theres actually a form of import/export based for the cpanel account itself? righhtio i'll have a look at that as well.
I've ssh access for the current shared hosting so i've it's a matter of just taring up the homedirectory to attempt an import i'll try that as well.


@manhalab -
Aye that's what i was thinking with registering a cheap domain to setup the nameservers on that on my new VPS as ns1.cheapdomain.com, then when it comes to moving my proper domain i can just aim the registar for that @ ns1.cheapdomain.com , or have i misread what you mean.
Cheers for the link i shall read through it now

[Randoma]

Ello

vps bought + cpanel license(only has one ip though)
cheap domain bought.

logged into the vps, installed cpanel, went through the initial setup created the ns1.cheapdomain.com and ns2.cheapdomain.com and changed my registar to point at them for my vps IP
cnames created for www ftp mail etc in cpanel


so far so good, cheapdomain.com works grand www,cheapdomain.com still goes to the registar (i assume this is a population thing that'll take some time)


just one quick question cpanel has a "warning trial license" in the top corner, i've checked my ip with the license validator and it's been activated, what have i to do to get cpanel to catch onto it? i've restarted the service and ran upcp but no joy.

[Alivedead]

SSH to the server and run this command /usr/local/cpanel/cpkeyclt

This will tell the server to contact the cPanel main license server and activate you license!

[Randoma]

Originally Posted by Alivedead

SSH to the server and run this command /usr/local/cpanel/cpkeyclt

This will tell the server to contact the cPanel main license server and activate you license!

aye ran that as well before the other two, contacted the hosters apparently they need to manually order the license with cpanel and wanted to confirm the fully qualifed hostname.

guess the ip being valid when i checked the license threw me off


tomorrow shall be spent running through the opimising/securing your vps tutorial and setting up some test forums.

the help was much appreciated i'd a fairly vague knowledge on the dns/nameserver topics, but so far so good.

[Randoma]

All up and running, so far so good, just need to sort out downtime to do the main transfer for the proper domain and forum and that should be me !