Knowledgebase

This interface copies multiple accounts from a remote server to your cPanel & WHM server. To transfer accounts, you must obtain the following:

• SSH access to the remote server.
• root-level privileges with the su or sudo commands.

Important note about account transfers from Plesk

To transfer accounts from Plesk, first change any forwarded domains to physical hosting accounts. To do this, run the following command as the rootuser:

• example.com represents the forwarding domain.
• example represents the new account's username.
• 127.0.0.1 represents the new account's IP address.
• 12345luggage represents the new account's password.

If you need to convert several forwarding domains into hosting accounts, open a support ticket and our migration team will contact you.

How to transfer and restore multiple accounts

Remote server information

This section of the Transfer Tool interface allows you to specify information about the server from which to transfer accounts.

1. In the Remote Server Address text box, enter an IP address or a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).
   • IP address example — 127.0.0.1

   • FQDN example — host.example.com

     Note:

     In this case, the FQDN does not require the trailing dot.

2. In the Remote SSH port text box, specify the port to use.

   Note:

   The default value for SSH is port 22.

Authentication

In this section of the Transfer Tool interface, specify the authentication method with which to log in to the remote server.

To specify an authentication method, perform the following steps:

1. Select whether to log in as the root user or with a specific username.

   Note:

   If the PermitRootLogin value is no in the sshd_config file on the remote server, you must log in as a user other than the root user and then escalate to the root user.

2. If you selected User under Login, perform the following actions:
   • Enter the remote account's username in the Username text box.
   • Enter the remote account's password in the Password text box.
3. Use the Authentication Method menu to specify whether to use a password or an SSH public key to authenticate to the remote server.
   • If you select Password, enter the password for the account in the Password text box.

   • If you select SSH Public Key, select the key to use during authentication. Make certain that you installed the appropriate key in WHM'sManage root's SSH Keys interface (Home >> Security >> Manage root's SSH Keys).

     Note:

     If you encrypted your account's SSH public key, enter the SSH Key Passphrase.

4. If you select User under Login, select a root escalation method under the Root Escalation Method heading.
   
   • If you select su for the Root Escalation Method, enter the root password in the Root Password text box.

Security

In this section of the Transfer Tool interface, select whether to use the Restricted Restore feature or copy reseller privileges.

Advanced

In this section of the Transfer Tool interface, select advanced options for the transfer. Click Show to display the list of options.

To select the advanced options, perform the following steps:

1. From the Remote Server Type menu, select the web control panel that the remote server runs. Choose from the following options:
   • Auto Detect
   • cPanel & WHM
   • DirectAdmin
   • Ensim (Parallels Pro)
   • Plesk

2. Select Unencrypted to use an unencrypted session to transfer the files.

3. Select Compressed Transfers to compress the files before the remote server transfers the files.

4. Select Low Priority to use less CPU and input/output (I/O) on the remote server.

   Note:

   This option reduces the impact on performance on the remote server, but increases the duration of the transfer session.

5. Select Use Incremental Backups speed-up to decrease the amount of time that the system uses to package the account on the source server. If a daily incremental backup exists, WHM uses that backup as a starting point. The system then updates the package before transfer.

6. Select Use custom account packaging modules from /var/cpanel/lib/Whostmgr/Pkgacct to use packaging scripts in that directory.

   Important:

   The system does not create the /var/cpanel/lib/Whostmgr/Pkgacct directory by default. You must create the/var/cpanel/lib/Whostmgr/Pkgacct directory before you select this option, if the directory does not already exist.

   Note:

   cPanel & WHM always prioritizes custom restore modules in the /var/cpanel/perl/Whostmgr/Transfers/Systems directory over the cPanel-provided modules in the /usr/local/cpanel/Whostmgr/Transfers/Systems directory.

   • The /var/cpanel/perl/Whostmgr/Transfers/Systems directory stores any custom modules that you create.
   • The /usr/local/cpanel/Whostmgr/Transfers/Systems directory stores the modules that ship with cPanel & WHM.
7. Enter the number of transfer threads to use in the Number of Transfer Threads text box.
8. Enter the number of restore threads to use in the Number of Restore Threads text box.

Fetch account list

After you make your selections, click Fetch Account List. A new interface will appear.

The Account List interface

The top of the Account List interface displays the hosting software and version of the remote server. If this information is incorrect, click Reanalyze Remote Server.

Below the remote server information, the interface displays whether there are no available IP addresses.

Configurations

In this section of the Account List interface, select the configurations on the source server that you wish to copy over to a destination server.  You can select multiple configurations to transfer.

To select your desired configurations, perform the following steps:

1. Click Show next to Configurations to reveal all of the available configurations on your server. The Configuration Name and Analysis columns display the available configurations and versions.

2. Select the configurations that you wish to transfer to your local server.

   Note:

   The system displays any error messages in yellow and warning messages in red text.

    

3. Click Copy.

   Notes:

   • The Transfer column displays the status of all configurations from the source server.
   • The Restore column displays the status of all configurations to the destination server.
   • The system displays any error messages in yellow and warning messages in red text.

   The summary bar displays the transferred or restored configurations.

CentOS 5 Migrations

1. Contact your hosting provider and acquire a CentOS 7 server which to migrate to.
2. Read our Getting Started Wizard  documentation before you continue.
3. Log in to WHM as the root user and click Transfer Tool from the navigation bar on the left.

4. Follow the steps in the Configurations section.

   Note:

   We recommend that you migrate your accounts and configurations separately. Migrate your configurations first.

    

5. Verify that your server operates as expected. For more information on one method to do this, read our Service Manager documentation.

6. Migrate your desired accounts with the Transfer Tool.

Packages

In this section of the Account List interface, select the packages on the remote server to copy to your local server.

How to copy packages

To copy a package, perform the following steps:

1. Select the packages to copy in the table under the Packages heading.
   • Select the checkbox in the table header to select all of the packages from the remote server.
   • Use the Search text box to filter the list of packages.
   • Use the navigation controls to page through the list of packages.
   • Click a column header to sort the packages by that column .

2. Click Copy.

Accounts

In this section of the Account List interface, search for and select accounts to transfer to your local server.

How to copy accounts

To copy accounts, perform the following steps:

1. Select the accounts to copy in the table under the Accounts heading.
   • To copy all of the accounts on the remote server, select the checkbox at the top of the column in the table header.
   • Use the Search text box to filter the list of accounts.
   • Use the navigation controls to page through the list of packages.
   • Click a column header to sort the accounts by that column.

2. Specify the copied account's new username and enter the new username in the User text box.

   Note:

   The User text boxes use the following colors as warning indicators:

   • Red indicates that the username exists on this server, and the account fails to copy if you do not change the username or selectOverwrite.
   • Yellow indicates that the account has a dedicated IP address on the remote server. 
   • Green indicates that the account does not already exist.

3. Select the accounts to which the system will assign dedicated IP addresses under the Dedicated IP Address heading.

   Warning:

   The interface does not allow you to assign more dedicated IP addresses than the number of available IP addresses on your server. If you select an account with a dedicated IP address on the remote server but an available IP address does not exist on your server, the transfer fails.
4. Select the accounts that will transfer their home directories under the Copy Home Directory heading.
   • Use the Filter text box to filter the list of accounts by the Domain, User, or Reseller columns.

5. Select the accounts that will retain their reseller privileges under the Copy Reseller Privileges heading.

   Note:

   This option is not available if you selected the Restricted Restore feature in the Security section of the previous interface.

6. Select the accounts that will transfer their account databases under the Copy Databases heading.

7. Select the accounts that will transfer their bandwidth data under the Copy Bandwidth Data heading.

   Warning:

   If you transfer an account from cPanel & WHM version 11.50 to an earlier version, the account loses its bandwidth data.

8. Select accounts for express transfer under the Express transfer heading.

   Note:

   For more information, read the Express transfer section of this document.

9. If an account exists on the server, the Overwrite Account column displays a checkbox that allows you to transfer the account and overwrite all the data in the account.
    
10. Click Copy.

After you click Copy, the Account Transfer interface will appear.

The transfer process

When you use the Transfer Tool interface to transfer accounts, the system performs the following actions:

1. The system creates the account.

2. The system compares the DNS zone file from the account's backup file with the template-generated zone file that the system generated during account creation.

   Important:

   The Transfer Tool feature does not transfer DNS zone templates. If custom DNS zone templates exist on the source server, the system ignores these zone templates when it recreates the account on the destination server.

3. The system updates the SOA record to match the target server's zone templates and comments out the existing SOA record from the source server.
4. The system updates domain NS records to match the target server's zone templates and comments out any duplicate domain NS records from the source server.

5. The system updates ftp.domain A, AAAA, and CNAME records to match the target server's DNS templates and comments out any identicalftp.domain records from the source server.

   Note:

   cPanel & WHM uses the IP address in the destination server's virtual-ftp zone template (usually, the server's main IP address) for virtual FTP when the account exists on a shared IP address.

6. The system checks whether the template-generated zone file uses an MX preference of 0, and then performs the following actions:

   • If the zone file's MX preference is 0 and the zone file is  $PRIMARY_DOMAIN  or  mail.$PRIMARY_DOMAIN , the system does not merge in the generated templates and does not update the MX preference from the source server.

   • If the zone file's MX preference is 0 and the zone file is not $PRIMARY_DOMAIN or mail.$PRIMARY_DOMAIN (a non-standard mail configuration), the system merges the generated templates and comments out templates from the source server.

   • For example, when the zone template's MX record defines an external mail service, the system prefers that entry over the record in the backup.

7. The system comments out duplicate records.

8. The system comments out CNAME records that conflict with any other records. If two or more CNAME records conflict, the system comments out all but the first CNAME record.
9. The system increments the SOA serial number for the domain.
10. The system updates records that reference the old IP address to use the account's new IP address.
11. The system removes comments that are older than 30 days.
12. The system updates CalDAV and CardDAV records to match the target server's DNS template.
13. If the zone file contains an $ORIGIN directive for an additional domain, the system will not update that additional domain's records.

Express transfers

An express transfer performs the following actions on the remote server:

1. Updates the account's A record to point to the destination server.
2. Whenever appropriate, changes the domain's nameserver entry to point to the destination server.
3. Updates the email routing configuration, so that mail arrives at the destination server.

4. Adds a redirect for the Account Moved page (cgi-sys/movingpage.cgi) for the following file extensions:

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

   .dynamiccontent .pl .plx .perl .cgi .php .php4 .php5 .php6 .php3 .shmtl

5. Suspends the transferred accounts on the source server. For more information, read our What Happens When You Suspend an Accountdocumentation.

The system performs changes on the source server in the /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/xferpoint directory.