Moving all accounts from one server to another like cpanel does

[psalm91]

In whm of cpanel it was easy a long as I have root access of both servers
I come to whm and Transfer tool do it all without any issue. I have done it so many times and did not face any issue at all
Is there such a thing in Directadmin?

 

[factor]

No, it does not exist. It is really needed.

Vote here

Upvoty

feedback.directadmin.com

 

[Active8]

Both are DA servers ? then you can look here : https://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=57

 

[floyd]

I do use the Admin Backup feature to transfer accounts all the time. I don't know that I would use a more automatic feature though. I like to know what is happening. I have never been a fan of blind automation.

 

[Richard G]

Well... with Admin backup/transfer, your accounts are only back upped and transferred to the new server.
On the new server, you will have to start it again to restore the accounts. First restore admins, then resellers and then users.

Cpanel tranfersfer tool does more.
Select which accounts are to be moved and it will be moved and integrated automatically on the new server, this happens all via SSH, or at least the transfer tool needs SSH access.
It can also transfer accounts from Directadmin and plesk.
You can read about it on this page (click).

I used it once and it's very nice. Also there is a log so you can always see what's happened and you get an error notice if something goes wrong.

It's not urgent I guess, but it would be nice because with DA it would be easier to import cpanel and plesk accounts into DA maybe.

 

[floyd]

Well... with Admin backup/transfer, your accounts are only back upped and transferred to the new server.
On the new server, you will have to start it again to restore the accounts. First restore admins, then resellers and then users.

That's exactly how I want it to work. As long as they don't remove a current system in favor of another they can do what they want. If they remove it then I will have to write my own.

 

[Richard G]

That's exactly how I want it to work.

I like this part to, but a cpanel like transfer tool, where also accounts from CP and Plesk could be automatically imported into Directadmin would be a nice addition. I would alsno not advise to replace the current admin backup/transfer if possible.
Or otherwise, add the backup/transer option to the new tool, because the current one also makes easy backups when you don't need to transfer them but for example transfer them (manually or automatic) to a backup server.

 

[psalm91]

I can not imagine I have to do all these things just to transfer dictadmin to directadmin

https://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=57

Even centos web panel that is much inferior control panel than DA has easy to transfer tool .

 

[Richard G]

That's an old help file and step 1 and 2 you have to do with *any* panel you will be using. I think step 4-6 are absolete nowadays.
Just use admin backup/transfer and select all accounts.
On the new server, restore all accounts, however, first admins, then resellers and users as last. So it's quite easy.

 

[psalm91]

That's an old help file and step 1 and 2 you have to do with *any* panel you will be using. I think step 4-6 are absolete nowadays.
Just use admin backup/transfer and select all accounts.
On the new server, restore all accounts, however, first admins, then resellers and users as last. So it's quite easy.

Oh Man I just made a cup of coffee and started reading line by line so you mean Da guys do not update their help pages ?

 

[Richard G]

o you mean Da guys do not update their help pages ?

Well.... I can't give a straight answer to this.
Some are old and need updating. The way it says in the help file still works, but takes way longer.
There is a new help section started, you can find it here:

Directadmin Docs

but it does not contain everything yet. Because team is very very busy with all the new cPanel customers coming in and features being asked and implemented, I guess doc updates got a lower priority.
Even in the new docs, it seems some things are just copied from the old section and need to be adjusted later. And the account transfer thing is surely one of them that also in the new doc section needs being updated.

Several others are already adjusted in the new section, but also still a lot of work to go. Lots of things (maybe most) are working the same way.

 

[psalm91]

For a fast migrate : https://www.crybit.com/directadmin-account-migration/

It seems Active8 User sent me this link but later removed it. Is this link still valid

 

[Richard G]

Looks accurate to me. However I personally would skip step 1 and 5 and just let DA do everything.
Might take a bit longer for the backup when home directory's are included, but on restoring everything is complete at once.

I've also seen on the new doc de Admin Backup/Transfer is mentioned but still to many steps because the only thing needed is 1 admin account on the new server and the Admin backup/transfer on both.
You can even restore the root admin account so you can use old login credentials for admin which were used on the old server.

 

[Richard G]

This is how I do such things.
1.) Install and configure new server as far as possible (with nameservers, exim.conf and spamassassin, firewall, letsencrypt, dkim and all the fun needed).
2.) User admin backup/transfer to create a backup of al accounts (if needed including admin).
You can instantly have DA ftp this to the new server, but takes longer mostly, so I use
3.) From /home/admin_backups sftp or rsync all accounts to the /home/admin_backups folder on the new server
4.) On new server go to admin backup/transfer and configure (if not already done) that nameservers etc. from new server are to be used.
5.) Start admin backup/transfer on new server and restore admin account (if needed), then reseller accounts and users last.
Don't forget to select the new ip on restore.

Ready.

 

[floyd]

I normally skip the domains directory and email data and rsync the home directory after restoring the users on the new server and after all the data has been synced I then change the dns.

If you use the automatic way you will have some down time or data will not be complete. When I move accounts there is less than 5 minutes of down time and no missing data.

 

[Richard G]

If you use the automatic way you will have some down time or data will not be complete.

I don't understand why this would be better or faster.

I move at night. First I stop Exim on the old server, transfer accounts, then I change nameservers. No data lost, no down time at all.
Mails which can't be delivered will be automatically retried later by sending servers, so no mail lost either.

Changing nameservers takes an average of 4 hours for synching, so if you change dns after you sync the homedirs, you will loose data because in the time between changing and namserver synchronisation, mails will be delivered to the old server.

Using rsycn to transfer the home dirs seperately takes extra work, at this moment, I might be missing something but I don't see any benefit agains the default method. Even more risk at loosing data (emails), and I don't understand where you find the downtime. So I'm curious now as what I'm missing here.

 

[floyd]

I move at night. First I stop Exim on the old server, transfer accounts, then I change nameservers. No data lost, no down time at all.
Mails which can't be delivered will be automatically retried later by sending servers, so no mail lost either.

Well it takes 4 hours if you don't change the TTL in advance. I change it to 100 so the cache only lasts for 100 seconds.

I move at night. First I stop Exim on the old server, transfer accounts, then I change nameservers. No data lost, no down time at all.
Mails which can't be delivered will be automatically retried later by sending servers, so no mail lost either.

How can you have all the data if you leave the web server and mysql still running on the old server while you do the transfer? Are you running just static sites?

 

[floyd]

So this is what I do to make sure there is very little downtime and all the data is preserved.

First, hours before I change the TTL on the zones.
Make the backup and restore on the new server which really just creates the accounts and directories.
Run an initial rsync on the home directory for that user. If its a large amount of data I might run rsync again.
I then suspend the user so that the data is frozen and no changes are made.
Stop exim.
I make another backup of just the databases and restore on the new server.
I run the rsync one more time which doesn't take long since I have already copied most of the data.
Then change the DNS.

There is some time spent waiting for the rsync to run but my actual time doing anything to move the user about 5 minutes. It's not hard and it's not time consuming. But you have to think about how things work. What happens if during the back up people visit the web site and changes are made to the database? Data is lost.

This can actually be scripted so that it is more automatic. But you can't just make a backup and transfer it to the new server and restore. Its not that simple. That would work years ago for static sites.

Doing the way DirectAdmin would currently have you do it there is going to be either be some database missing or significant downtime because while the backup is being made changes are still happening to the database and even web content.

The same is true with an automatic process.

 

[psalm91]

Guys why life is so complicated ?

 

[Active8]

It seems Active8 User sent me this link but later removed it. Is this link still valid

aagh you are fast
the reason i deleted was that i had somewhere a quick howto and plannen to share this instead that link
yeah the link is valid if you want to give it a try