Migrated from Plesk, Ensim, or DirectAdmin To WHM

Sometimes, moving website accounts from servers like Plesk, Ensim, or DirectAdmin to cPanel using the usual automated tools can hit a snag. This might be due to slow network connections or small software glitches. The good news is that manually migrating an account is straightforward.

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WHY MANUAL MIGRATION?

Automated migration tools are great, but they can fail if:

• The connection between your old server and the new cPanel server is unreliable, causing the migration to time out.

• There are known issues with the migration scripts that haven't been fixed yet.

In these cases, a simple manual process can save the day.

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THE MANUAL MIGRATION PROCESS

Manually moving an account involves four main steps:

1. Getting a list of accounts on your old server.

2. Packaging a chosen account into a single file.

3. Copying that packaged file to your new cPanel server.

4. Restoring the account on the cPanel server.

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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

Here’s how to do it:

1. PREPARE THE SOURCE SERVER

On your old server (Plesk, Ensim, or DirectAdmin), you need two scripts: one to list accounts and one to package them.

• Download the account list script: wget http://httpupdate.cpanel.net/cpanelsync/transfers_DEVEL/pkgacct/updateuserdomains-universal

• Download the packaging script (choose one based on your old server type):

  • For Plesk: wget http://httpupdate.cpanel.net/cpanelsync/transfers_DEVEL/pkgacct/pkgacct-pXa

  • For Ensim: wget http://httpupdate.cpanel.net/cpanelsync/transfers_DEVEL/pkgacct/pkgacct-enXim

  • For DirectAdmin: wget http://httpupdate.cpanel.net/cpanelsync/transfers_DEVEL/pkgacct/pkgacct-da

2. MAKE SCRIPTS EXECUTABLE

After downloading, you need to give these scripts permission to run:

• chmod +x updateuserdomains-universal

• chmod +x pkgacct-* (This command makes the specific pkgacct script you downloaded executable).

3. GENERATE THE ACCOUNT LIST

Run the updateuserdomains-universal script to create a list of accounts:

• ./updateuserdomains-universal

This will create a file at /etc/trueuserdomains containing all the accounts that can be packaged.

4. PACKAGE THE ACCOUNT

Now, pick an account you want to move from the /etc/trueuserdomains file. For example, let's say the username is "alice". Run the appropriate packaging script (using pkgacct-pXa for Plesk in this example):

• ./pkgacct-pXa alice

This command will create a single archive file, typically named /home/cpmove-alice.tar.gz. The time this takes depends on the account's size.

• Important Tip: If your /home directory is full, you can specify another location for the packaged file. For example, to save it to /disk1: ./pkgacct-pXa alice /disk1 This would create /disk1/cpmove-alice.tar.gz.

• Stay Connected (Optional but Recommended): Use the screen command before packaging and restoring. This ensures the process continues even if your connection to the server drops. Just type screen before running the packaging command.

5. COPY THE ACCOUNT TO THE NEW SERVER

You can copy the packaged account file (cpmove-alice.tar.gz) to your new cPanel server in two ways:

• From the source server: scp /home/cpmove-alice.tar.gz root@x.x.x.x:/home (Replace x.x.x.x with your cPanel server's IP address)

• From the cPanel server: cd /home scp root@x.x.x.x:/home/cpmove-alice.tar.gz . (Again, replace x.x.x.x with the source server's IP address)

6. RESTORE THE ACCOUNT ON THE CPANEL SERVER

Once the file is on your new cPanel server, navigate to the /home directory and restore the account. Remember to use screen here too if you chose to earlier.

• cd /home

• /scripts/restorepkg cpmove-alice.tar.gz

After a successful restore, you can delete the cpmove-alice.tar.gz file from /home to free up space.