[FAQ] Plesk to cPanel Migration for Dedicated Servers FAQ

[GlowSteve]

GlowHost support team will be happy to assist you with this migration, and we will try to make it as smooth as possible for you. However this service won't be free and it will require a custom price quote which will depend on factors like number of accounts you would like to be transferred, their total diskspace consumption etc. You can find more information about our Data Migration Policy here.

We would like to point out that due to some differences between Plesk and cPanel, manual intervention may be required on your behalf once the migration is complete.

Please also note that some of the below advices and notes are for dedicated server customers and reseller account owners only. Shared customers do not have access to WHM panel and they may need to ask our support to adjust settings that they don't have access to from our side.

If you don't have a support ticket yet and have some questions or requests for our system administrators please create a support ticket using this link.

In order to ensure the smoothest migration possible, our migration specialists must know the following:

1) May we change your PHP handler to dso on the cPanel server (if the Plesk server is also using PHP as dso)? cPanel uses the "suphp" PHP handler by default, and some websites may not function properly with this handler. You can switch to suphp in the future if desired to take advantage of its features.

[ ] Yes [ ] No

2) Do you have any sites on the Plesk server that are using SSL certificates that will need to be copied? If so, please supply our support with the list of such websites in a support ticket. Please note that 1 dedicated IP address is required for each SSL enabled site on the cPanel server.

3) May we recompile Apache and PHP on the cPanel server to add support for any PHP modules that exist on the Plesk server, but not on the cPanel server (note that we can only add PHP modules that cPanel supports)?

[ ] Yes [ ] No

4). May we install the "screen" utility if not already installed? You can find detailed information about this utility here.

[ ] Yes [ ] No

Important note about cPanel's database naming convention:

By default, cPanel servers use "Database Prefixing". This means that databases created from within cPanel will be named in the following format:

USERNAME_DBNAME (for example: alice_wordpress1).

Please check this article for detailed description of this cPanel feature. If you do not want to use prefixing, you can disable it at WHM -> Disable Database Prefix. Once disabled, it cannot be re-enabled at any time.

Note: Database names are always copied exactly as they exist on the server they're migrated from, regardless of the prefixing setting in WHM.

Some of the known issues when transferring from Plesk are:

Horde Address Books
- Only the default Horde address book is copied. You can, however, export any additional address books from Horde, then import them into Horde on the cPanel server. This can be done via Horde -> Address Book-> Import/Export.
- By default Plesk adds a wildcard grant ("%") for all database users. cPanel does not currently restore that grant (though all other grants will be restored). This is generally not an issue unless you are using a remote MySQL server. If you are using a remote MySQL server, please let us know in advance.

Zones
- DNS zone files won't be transferred. Instead, we will generate a new zone based on cPanel zone templates that you can modify in WHM/cPanel.
- This means that if you have IP based sites and/or external zone entries, they will not be carried over tentatively.
- Custom records inside of zone files will not be carried over.

Software Configuration
- Any additional custom configuration that you have performed on your current panel you will need to be replicated on the cPanel server. This includes email Smart Hosts, MySQL optimization, etc.

Packages
- cPanel do not currently support the transfer of packages from other control panels.
- Packages will be set to unlimited and will need to be adjusted once transfer completes.

Resellers
- cPanel control panel does not have a convention to identify resellers from other control panels at this time.

Forwarding / No Hosting domains
- While cPanel supports bringing over forwarding if it's underneath a domain, it does not have a convention that will bring over forwarding domains that exist under a client.
- If you would like us to copy a No Hosting domain, you must turn it into a hosting account first.

Final Testing
- The final testing of domains and validation that data has been transferred will be your responsibility. During the process we will make every reasonable effort to provide accurate information. The final testing, data validation, and review of the migration is your responsibility.

Please note that there is always the possibility of unforeseen problems due to customized setups and/or changes to the other control panel that differ from our testing environments. We will do our best to accommodate these issues. However, we do not make any changes to files or data.

Before we proceed, please review over our entire process:

Step 1: Initial evaluation
We will perform an evaluation on the source server to determine whether it is a suitable candidate for a successful migration. We will analyze various server resources, and verify connectivity between the source and destination servers.

Step 2: Scheduling the migration
We will coordinate with you for when to begin the migration.

Step 3: Coordinate DNS switchover
Your DNS records will remain pointing at the original server, even after the transfers are complete. If your server's DNS records are controlled or hosted by the domain registrar, you should transfer them to a local DNS server which you control before migrating to avoid delays.

Step 4: Confirmation of completion
Once the migration process is fully complete, we will confirm your satisfaction with the process.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How long will the migration take?
A: Due to network, hardware and other variables outside of our control, we can only make an estimate on the actual duration of your migration. Estimations can only be done after some data has already been copied. Migrations may take longer than expected due to unforeseen circumstances.

Q: Is email also copied?
A: Yes. All account data is copied: website files, email, databases, and so on.

Q: Some databases have been added manually, and not from within the control panel. Will they be copied?
A: No. Our migrations scripts can only associate databases with users if the databases were created using the control panel.

If you are ready to proceed with the initial server evaluation, we will need the following credentials to begin the analysis:

Source Machine Hostname:
Source Machine IP:
Source Machine SSH port:
Source Machine Wheel User (if applicable):
Source Machine Wheel User Password:
Source Machine Root Password:
Source Machine Control Panel URL:
Source Machine Control Panel Administrator Username:
Source Machine Control Panel Administrator Password:

If there are any aspects that weren't covered in this post or you need further clarifications regarding some of the above notes please create a support ticket at our helpdesk or post in this thread (you may need to register for a forum user account before posting) and our technical specialists will be happy to answer your questions at any time.

[jaishree]

Nice article for the newbies.