Migrating from Plesk Discussion

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srqwebguy

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I did not want to post this in tech support, as I am really just looking for info at this point. I have 3 dedicated servers at the moment (looking to add a fourth shortly). 2 of the existing run Plesk 8.4, one runs DA 1.29.4.

LOVE Direct Admin....

On the Plesk machines I use the Plesk backup utilities to back up my domains every night. This program makes a complete gzipped file of all elements of the domain - email, mysql, images, files, etc., similar to the DA backup process. If I want to migrate these domains to a new DA server, would I be able to use thes plesk back ups? How proprietary are they, or how much is "standard' fare? Would I completely hose the domain set up?:confused:

Sorry if it is a stupid question, but I was just curious if this could even be done.

Thanks for any response.
 
Plesk no longer uses the same backup structure i wrote about then, but I have no idea if the new one is any more open.

srqwebguy, can you untar or otherwise unpack the Plesk backup?

Jeff
 
I have not tried, but will give it a shot. They are fairly meaty files, about 1.5 to 2 gig, so it will take a bit to download and work with one.

Thats one thing I should add - The two Plesk machines back up the domains nightly to my DA machine. I wanted to have one of the Plesk units act on a reciprocal basis for the DA machine, but I have never been able to successfully FTP to those damn machines. Now it might be a DA issue, but I suspect it is the Plesk system.
 
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Hello Guys,

I think it's importante for DA to workup a solution somehow to migrate Plesk users to directadmin. This all translates into money.

I get about 1-2 customers a month that end up not coming aboard becuase we haven't been able to give them an "import" solution for thier plesk backups. I?m sure there are a lot more that have not purchased a DA plan for this same reason, that we aren't aware of.

We are thinking to start offering plesk as a CP, but we would rather convert those new customers to DA, instead of welcoming those customers as Plesk users.

Obviously both DA, and DA customers could benefit from such a script.

Now. I understand that this would take time, and resources to create, but I think we can all pitch in, becuase I think many of us have this same impediment for some new customers.

Jeff, you think it would be worth it to start a thread in the community, and start attacking this issue and come up with some script ? I could get my techs involved and even the spanish community involved to try to come up with something that works somewhat, like the cpanel converter.
 
I just moved 15 domains from Plesk to DA and the only thing I did not move was the email.

To move the files I simply tar/gzipped the directories and used scp to move the files. After untaring them I ran chown and chgrp to make sure the permissions were correct.

For large databases (too big to upload via phpmyadmin) I simply created an empty DB and used SCP to move the DB files themselves. After changing the permissions/ownership of these files everything went fine.

Because I used horde on the plesk machine and did not want to install it on the new I simply worked with each client to be sure they downloaded all of their email prior to doing the DNS switch.

I would have liked a one-stop migration option but as long as you know where the files are (which is half the battle) you can get through a migration with only a few hassles.
 
Emails, redirections, subdomains and FTP accounts are the most complicating factor when migrating, everything else is pretty easy and straightfoward.

Thanks squirrelhost, but my idea goes far beyond a company that will quote you on this service.

I'm talking about a script we can all start building and updating,. and make it free for all.

It is in my interest, and I assume in DA's interest to convert people from Plesk to DA, easily.
 
cyberneticos said:
Jeff, you think it would be worth it to start a thread in the community, and start attacking this issue and come up with some script?
Click to expand...
You just did.
squirrelhost said:
it's already been done, but isn't for free
Click to expand...
That appears to be a service rather than a script. We offer it as a service as well, and I've got experience with Plesk, Cobalt RaQs, and DirectAdmin as well, but doing it as a service can be expensive and generally doesn't scale well.
HMTKSteve said:
To move the files I simply tar/gzipped the directories and used scp to move the files. After untaring them I ran chown and chgrp to make sure the permissions were correct.
Click to expand...
Since Plesk keeps the cgi-bin outside the public html directory, and DirectAdmin keeps it inside, that's not all you have to do if your users have any cgi-bin files.
Because I used horde on the plesk machine and did not want to install it on the new I simply worked with each client to be sure they downloaded all of their email prior to doing the DNS switch.
Click to expand...
Because Horde and many of the DirectAdmin webmail clients (all except UebiMiau) use IMAP, you don't have to install Horde to move the email. You can create the mailbox threads on the DirectAdmin machine and move the email files easily enough, but you have to maintain the DirectAdmin ownerships and directory structures. They should be similar if not the same, since both use Maildir, and the Maildir directory structure is well laid out and is independent of the OS and control panel. But locations are very different.
I would have liked a one-stop migration option but as long as you know where the files are (which is half the battle) you can get through a migration with only a few hassles.
Click to expand...
Not to say it's easy, though; cybernticos makes some good points in his last post above.

Jeff
 
I'm currently developing such a script.
So far it:

- grabs list of all domains/emails & forwarders/databases/subdomains from plesk
- generates a new username & password for usage with DA
- builds a new account on the DA server with those parameters
- transfers all files from plesk to DA server and chowns them correctly
- emails to server admin with new account details

In the works are:

- mail migration (shouldn't be too much work)
- DNS transfer (not that much work either, but a bit more depending on what approach I'll end up taking)
- support for the extra modules in plesk such as tomcat etc
- need to find a fix for databasename/db-username changes

Drawbacks:

- you need root access to both servers
- DA server needs to be clean before install: ie. no other users on it
- lots of hardcoded settings atm..

After all is done, I'll consider releasing it to the community - granted my employer will agree ;)
 
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I dont see why da needs to be a new install doubt that will ever be useful to anyone then.
 
scsi said:
I dont see why da needs to be a new install doubt that will ever be useful to anyone then.
Click to expand...

Quite simple: right now it's being developed as a migration tool in the purest meaning of the phrase: we're migrating a bunch of servers from Plesk to DA. As such it doesn't take into account existing domains on a server which might result in username conflicts.

That doesn't mean it's useless though, if you have a slight understanding of scripting languages (it's being developed in PHP), you can simply add that functionality after it's released to the community.
 
Nice Earindel, I hope you share this with us in the end, or at least give us some tips on some of the harder aspects of the migration.

Eve if it's just from DED to DED server, at least that's a start. As a matter of fact, I would say about 50% of our inquieries about having Plesk comes from users who are migrating ded servers, so in effect, they shouldn't have any users in a freshly installed DA anyways.

:)
 
Earendil said:
I'm currently developing such a script.
So far it:

- grabs list of all domains/emails & forwarders/databases/subdomains from plesk
- generates a new username & password for usage with DA
- builds a new account on the DA server with those parameters
- transfers all files from plesk to DA server and chowns them correctly
- emails to server admin with new account details

In the works are:

- mail migration (shouldn't be too much work)
- DNS transfer (not that much work either, but a bit more depending on what approach I'll end up taking)
- support for the extra modules in plesk such as tomcat etc
- need to find a fix for databasename/db-username changes

Drawbacks:

- you need root access to both servers
- DA server needs to be clean before install: ie. no other users on it
- lots of hardcoded settings atm..

After all is done, I'll consider releasing it to the community - granted my employer will agree ;)
Click to expand...

It's a good a great work that you do! Could you please post here beta version? I would appreciate yuo a lot if you can give me beta verstion of your script. I have a good oportunity to test it for moving about 100 users from plesk to DA.

Best regards,
Vladimir Karzhavin
 
Earendil said:
I'm currently developing such a script.
So far it:

- grabs list of all domains/emails & forwarders/databases/subdomains from plesk
- generates a new username & password for usage with DA
- builds a new account on the DA server with those parameters
- transfers all files from plesk to DA server and chowns them correctly
- emails to server admin with new account details

In the works are:

- mail migration (shouldn't be too much work)
- DNS transfer (not that much work either, but a bit more depending on what approach I'll end up taking)
- support for the extra modules in plesk such as tomcat etc
- need to find a fix for databasename/db-username changes

Drawbacks:

- you need root access to both servers
- DA server needs to be clean before install: ie. no other users on it
- lots of hardcoded settings atm..

After all is done, I'll consider releasing it to the community - granted my employer will agree ;)
Click to expand...
It would be awesome if you make this script public when its done.

We got a plesk server and all other are DirectAdmin, also the Plesk server we want to migrate to Directadmin.
 
Small update on this, as I've received some private messages about it:

I'm still (actually again) working on this after a period I spent abroad. It also transfers e-mail now. However, this only works on Dovecot. Database-related issues such as changed usernames/passes/names should be fixed in the next development cycle.

As for now it's unsure whether this will be fully released to public, that's all up to the company I'm developing it for. If they decide to release it, it'll be announced on these forums.
 
Plesk keeps email in the Maildir format; while it could be converted back to mdir format, there's no real reason to do so; the future of DirectAdmin is Maildir.

Jeff
 
jlasman said:
Plesk keeps email in the Maildir format; while it could be converted back to mdir format, there's no real reason to do so; the future of DirectAdmin is Maildir.

Jeff
Click to expand...

I know. That's why it only works with Dovecot and not with plain old Exim using mdir format. I'm not going to put in effort to convert it either as it would be a waste of time :)
Databases are being renamed if needed now + their usernames & passes are adjusted in the config files.

Thing should be fully functional by the end of the month, which is when a decision will be made on whether it'll be thrown into public domain.
 
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