use the WHM transfer tool without loss of dynamic data, email
We've found documentation on how to use the cPanel/WHM transfer tool to migrate accounts from our server with our previous hosting company to our new Linode, but nothing about last-minute synchronization of dynamic data such as databases and IMAP email. We ran the transfer tool successfully yesterday. Obviously(?) data is going to have changed over 24 hours if not 24 seconds. If we try to re-run the transfer tool, the tool does not seem to be aware that it's already been transferred. Seems to us there must be some additional steps to copy over live content and data such as mysql and email. Thank you for any guidance.
1 Reply
mjones
Linode Staff
There's a tradeoff between keeping the site online as long as possible, and the technical requirements needed to make sure all the data stays up to date. The easiest method is to just take the site offline while it's being migrated over. The next level up would be to put the site in "read only" mode where the content is static during the migration, though that wouldn't work in every setup.
From there, you move into the arena of data replication. The easiest way I can think of is to run rsync to copy all the data over, though you'll need to install it on both your Linode and the original server for your site. We have a guide on rsync here:
https://www.linode.com/docs/tools-reference/tools/introduction-to-rsync/
You can also set up master-master replication in MySQL, though I'm not sure how well it would work for servers that aren't in the same data center, or with a suitably low latency:
https://www.linode.com/docs/databases/mysql/configure-master-master-mysql-database-replication/
I would recommend either taking the site offline for the duration of the migration, or taking the site offline after everything's set up on your Linode and using rsync to copy over the final data.