Transfer All from a Plesk to Plesk setup

[PSCGi]

Greetings,

Need to determine the best method to migrate server setups, domains, databases and the whole shootin match from a Plesk 8.6 box to another Plesk 8.6 box - both on Fedora 8. Now the trick is that the first box is a virtual setup under Virtuozzo, the other is back to a dedicated box (thankfully) with straight up Plesk 8.6. I notice some differences already in the options I have on the open new copy vs. the restricted Virtuozzo I'm moving from.

The migration tool obviously doesn't seem to understand moving things from another server, just from other servers with other OS's or older Plesk on them. It may, but the help docs don't really explain that very well if that's the case.

Anyone know a smooth way to transition my existing stuff and client's data from the old 'mess' at my former HSP to the new dedicated box without losing a ton or having to manually snag and drop every last little bit? Even if I'm just manually migrating certain elements I can live with that. But I've got about 15 days to fully accomplish this before the old virtual slice takes a permanent hike. Yes, fully aware of 'services' who do this stuff but that's not what I'm after because it should be something we can perform locally without that much of a hassle with the right clues.

Open to checklists of things to be watched for, not missed, possible problems and the like as well!

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Amin Taheri]

Ive used the migration tool in plesk to move over 500 accounts from the same plesk versions, even accross other distros and distro versions with out problems

The only thing I ran into is that the migration tool doesnt like it when you use a centralized database server it will attempt to recreate the DB the client has which will fail becuase it already exists.

I submitted a bug to swsoft and they may include that fix in psa 9.0 - I also have a script to fix the problem if necessary, but the migration tool should work for your needs.

 

[PSCGi]

So you're simply using the Migration Tool on the new box to **** over the contents of the old? That's all? Works for me, I can even deal with a little db issue here and there to get it done. Not a ton of domains, but still easy is far better than what I was seeing to do it manually!

Is it even taking the existing mail, existing Applications and their respective settings and histories and such? Like I've got Mailman running a couple of things, would it **** up the archives too or simply leave that for me to contend with?

I was off, the original's Virtuozzo on FC7 thus some of the differences I saw and then the new is 8.6. on FC8 straight Plesk.

 

[Amin Taheri]

Yep, just used the included migration tool - it should move everything, including stats, logs, domains, site applications, ips, certs, etc.

One good thing about it is that once you do the migration using that tool the site will exist on both servers, nothing on the original gets moved or deleted, it only gets copied to the target.

So you can now use a load balancer or a fail over to have it in two servers, and it also gives you the opportunity to go onto the new server and verify everything is there as expected before moving DNS.

 

[PSCGi]

Excellent! My last attempt from Ensim to Plesk 7 a couple years ago wasn't so pretty using the MT, so to hear it's vastly improved and will do all that work is great. Hours and hours of time saved right there. We're simply getting out of a really crappy HSP (won't same name to avoid lawsuits but everyone knows who they are and can find tons of similar complaits by a Google) to a much more solid and stable one on a dedicated box so it's move, flip DNS, kill old box, have a nice day!

Thanks for the info on this, time to get to work and see how she does on a few minor sites now that the new IP's are loaded up on the new box.

 

[PSCGi]

OK, almost!

Well PMM and I just get along so well... Determined the login to use, but I can't find any instructions that make a bit of total sense as to what it's trying to do!

Using the main login and PW for the admin-level account (not root, won't fly with that possibly due to Virt layout on the old server) it starts the process but then I'm popping some sort of sudo error about not having tty available? I found some posts around the Net on changing things to fix this problem but they're from 2006 and it appears Plesk has changed enough that they no longer apply. Can't edit anything it mentions to allow any specific or even all accounts the ability to log in and stick the 'scout' over on the old server to pull the data for me to select what should come over to the new box.

Any tips or tricks on how to deal with that error? Can't find any settings in the CP that restrict tty usage or that could be restricting the admin-level account from letting the scout do it's job.

 

[PSCGi]

And this continues to get more ignorant! Apparently due to the old HSP's settings I can't change anything in visudo and even when I found more information on /etc/sudoers that had some effects - none of them good when changed.

So it appears I'm being totally limited by the HSP who has no info on this and won't touch anything without giant $$$ in their pockets, one of the many reasons I'm leaving them!

Data Import seems to be an option here, but the KB stuff on it is very confusing to say the least, not even sure if it applies to me under Virtuozzo setup or if that won't fly either.

Anyone with any clues on how to pull from a Virt Plesk 8.6 box on FC7 to a full Plesk 8.6 box on FC8 I'm all ears! Not even worried about the overall server settings at this point - the most vital is the clients. Even their backups seem to have no way to be restored on the new server without recreating all the Clients and then Domains, does that sound right?

Wasn't this hard getting over to this HSP but they've sure got it rigged up so you can't easily leave! Times running out and we planned for quite a bit to allow for things like this but that's evaporating as we speak.

 

[Amin Taheri]

for the TTY thing, make sure they are set to spawn in /etc/inittab


For Sudoers file add this

## Allows people in group wheel to run all commands
%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Then add your user to the wheel group if not already

usermod -G wheel username