Transfer data to new server

inomi13

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Jan 7, 2022
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I'm going to transfer all data to new server. On the old server I have backup which, one admin account and 10 users. I know that DA has a doc how to do it but some information is for me not clearly.

1. On new server willI I have to create admin account with the same name like old server?
2. First will I have to create users accounts then I can be able to restore users data from files tar or I don’t have to create users accounts to restore data from old server ?
3. I use softaculous so aftrer restore data on new server, softaculous will jve tje same installations wordpress per user ?
4. Is exist any solution how block email on old server until change transfer dns domain to new server ? because I want to prevent copy new messages which delivered to old server?
 
There are already several topics about similar situations, but lets see if I can answer for you.

1.) Admin = admin. Normally it will become admin again with a different password. If you restore the admin account on the current server, then the account will be overwritten and the password of the admin account on the current server is used.
However, if you changed the admin name to something else on the current server, then you will have 2 admin accounts.

2.) No you first have to create admin or reseller. Users come last. Best is to use the admin backup/transfer on the old server. That way you can backup all accounts (including the users) and even also have them transferred to the new server (if the new admin account is present on there already) or rsync them later. Then on the new server first restore admin and then restore all users via the admin backup/transfer on the new server. The accounts and all content will be automatically created again.

3.) The restore of DA will restore all useraccounts completely, including mail, website and database so wordpress will exist anyway as they are now. However, to transfer Softaculous and it's settings, follow the procedure of Softaculous itself.

4.) Yes. We always stop Exim first from within Directadmin. Then we backup and restore accounts. There are probably more options, like just backup and transfer and then rsync th email accounts later so new mails will be transferred.
For us stopping Exim is the easiest way as we normally tend to do server transfers at night time, also because DNS change takes several hours.

We normally do it like this:
1.) Install and configure new server as far as needed
2.) Backup admin account which (in our case) also has the domain with the nameservers
3.) Restore the admin account on the new server. Then adjust nameserver settings where needed, so we are done with admin. This also makes you have an FTP account for admin with password so you can also transfer account backups with admin backup/transfer from the old server.
4.) Stop Exim on old server and start backup of user accounts
5.) On registrar, change nameserver ip's to new server. Since the admin account is restored there already, you don't need to do anything else.
6.) If you did not directly transfer accounts, then rsync them to the new server and restore them there. Check local ip and dns is used.
7.) Wait until nameservers are synched and check if all is working again correctly. Could take 4-8 hours. And if you're satisfied, then you can decide when to shutdown the old server. We normally wait a full working day to see if customer complaints will arise.
 
I can’t be able to stop exim because I have to transfer data partly because some of my clients have domains in another company. Can I stop exim to specific user ? until I will trasnfer user to new server and when DNS will change for user’s domains?
 
No. It's possible to suspend a user, but I'm not sure if all data is backed-up or the user when the account is suspended.

If some users have domains in another company you will have an issue anyway because the nameservers need to be changed.
Because if you move the specific user now, and you change the nameserver to the new server, then other cliens with domains in the other company will not get any mail anyway anymore after then dns is synchronized.

In that case you could use another domain of yourself and create new nameservers and then only transfer clients who have domains with your company and change the nameservers to this new nameserver.
Once synchronized you can use rsync to synchronize their mail and imap folders so no new mail is lost.
 
Could you send me more information how to synchronize mail between servers via rsync? because usually to transfer mail I use tool „Mailobox Imapsync Online”, this solution works but has slow transfer and after copy, must change password to both mailboxes.
 
I normally backup all mail so I don't do this in bulk. Probably @Zhenyapan has toe correct command to do this.

You could try this:
rsync -avzHpWP -e /path/to/file root@DESTINATION_IP:/path/to/file
so for imap it would be like:
rsync -avzHpWP -e /home/user/imap/* root@DESTINATION_IP:/home/user/imap/
watch the trailing slashes.
And you can do the same for /home/user/Maildir/* ofcourse.
 
Everything works excelent, rsync is great solution to quickly transfer data beetwen server but I have found one an issue about softaculous. For example user had installation wordpress via softaculous in old server. When I transfered user to new server I don't see any installation wordpress in softaculous.

I trasnfered softaculous settings beetwen server and in new serwer in admin panel I see information about Active Users, Total Installations but in user miss information abour wordpress instalation.
 
Everything works excelent, rsync is great solution to quickly transfer data beetwen server but I have found one an issue about softaculous. For example user had installation wordpress via softaculous in old server. When I transfered user to new server I don't see any installation wordpress in softaculous.

I trasnfered softaculous settings beetwen server and in new serwer in admin panel I see information about Active Users, Total Installations but in user miss information abour wordpress instalation.
go into User > Softaculous > Wordpress Manager > Scan for installations

it should scan and show the missing installations.
 
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