Plesk Automation Moving to Plesk Automation

Transcription

1 Plesk Automation 11.5 Moving to Plesk Automation

2 About This Document Contents About This Document...5 Introduction...6 Preparing for the Move Install the Plesk Automation Moving Tool Install Mail Sync Software (Windows Servers) Configuring Firewalls Prepare Source Servers Prepare Service Nodes Register Service Nodes in Plesk Automation Check Disk Space on Service Nodes Install MySQL on IIS Web Server Nodes (Windows Servers) Install Server Side Includes (Windows Servers) (Optional) Create Reverse DNS Zones (Optional) Prepare for Assimilating SmarterMail Servers (Optional) Prepare for Assimilating Database Servers Transfer Scenario for Plesk 8.6 and Later Multiple Webspaces in a Single Subscription Configure the Tool Import Resellers to Plesk Automation Import Plans to Plesk Automation Generate a Transfer List Associate Subscriptions with Plans Check for Possible Conflicts Install MySQL on Target IIS Nodes Run Transfer Redirect DNS to the New Servers Verify the Transferred Data Finalize the Synchronization of Content Transfer Scenario for Expand Import Resellers to Plesk Automation Import Plans to Plesk Automation Configure the Tool... 37

3 About This Document 4. Generate a Transfer List Associate Subscriptions with Plans Check for Possible Conflicts Run Transfer Transfer Scenario for H-Sphere 3.5 and Later Prerequisites Prepare Source Servers Configure the Tool Generate a Transfer List Import Resellers to Plesk Automation Associate Subscriptions from H-Sphere with Plans in PPA Perform the Migration Verify the Transferred Data Transfer Scenario for PBAS Import Plans to Plesk Automation Connect Plesk Automation to Odin Business Automation Standard Generate the Transfer Data and Configuration Files Configure the Tool Check for Possible Conflicts Install MySQL on IIS Web Server Nodes (Windows Servers) Run Transfer Finalize Transfer Transfer Scenario for Helm Prepare Source Servers Configure the Tool Import Resellers to Plesk Automation Import Plans to Plesk Automation Generate a Transfer List Associate Subscriptions from Helm with Plans in Plesk Automation Check for Possible Conflicts Run Transfer Redirect DNS to the New Servers Verify the Transferred Data Finalize the Synchronization of Content Transfer Scenario for Helm

4 About This Document 1. Prepare Source Servers Configure the Tool Import Resellers to Plesk Automation Import Plans to Plesk Automation Generate a Transfer List Associate Subscriptions from Helm with Plans in Plesk Automation Check for Possible Conflicts Run Transfer Redirect DNS to the New Servers Verify the Transferred Data Finalize the Synchronization of Content Troubleshooting Known Issues and Limitations... 96

5 About This Document C H A P T E R 1 About This Document This document describes how to move from a number of independent servers controlled by some hosting panels to a multi-server environment controlled by Plesk Automation. The document is intended for administrators who are considering moving their hosting servers under the Plesk Automation control and are willing to gain all benefits of centralized server management.

6 Introduction C H A P T E R 2 Introduction Currently, a large number of hosting providers use control panels like Plesk as a means to manage web hosting on a single server. Typically, such servers are administered separately, so server maintenance costs grow with each new added server. To reduce the costs and simplify server maintenance, we offer the providers to transition their existing infrastructure to a multi-server environment managed from a single web interface called Plesk Automation. Plesk Automation is a web hosting control panel where one central server (management node) controls an arbitrary number of other servers with various roles - web, mail, DNS, and so on. In terms of Plesk Automation, these controlled servers are called service nodes. When a customer subscribes to a web hosting plan, Plesk Automation allocates all the necessary resources on service nodes and links these resources to the customer's account. For example, when a customer subscribes to a shared web hosting plan, Plesk Automation creates a webspace for the customer on one of the available web server nodes. If the subscription also includes mail services, Plesk Automation creates mailboxes for the customer on one of the mail server nodes. Note: This document assumes you already have a working Plesk Automation installation. For information about how to install Plesk Automation, refer to the Plesk Automation: Deployment Guide. Moving to Plesk Automation Moving to Plesk Automation involves transferring of hosting data from existing servers to Plesk Automation service nodes. All business objects (service plans, customer and reseller accounts, and other) are transferred from the servers to the Plesk Automation management node. All subscriptions, websites and mailboxes are relocated to registered Plesk Automation service nodes. When migrating from Plesk or Expand, you also have the option to keep existing SmarterMail mail servers and assimilate them in a Plesk Automation installation. Supported Source Platforms The following source platforms are supported: Plesk 8.6 and later Plesk Expand H-Sphere 3.5 and later Odin Business Automation Standard and later Helm 3. Helm 4.2.2

7 Introduction Prerequisites Before starting a transfer, you should perform a number of common preparation steps (on page 8). Once the steps are completed, you can proceed to transferring data. The transfer scenarios vary depending on the source platform.

8 Preparing for the Move C H A P T E R 3 Preparing for the Move You should perform the following preparation steps before performing the move: 1 Install the moving tool (on page 9). To perform your move to Plesk Automation, you should use a command-line tool called panel-migrator, which is available from the Odin website. 2 Install mail sync software (Windows servers) (on page 10). This step is required only if you perform the move from Windows-based Panel servers. Without this software, the tool will be unable to transfer mail from such servers. 3 Open ports in firewalls (on page 11). To ensure that the data transfer is possible, configure the firewalls on the source and destination servers to allow connections on the necessary ports. On Windows-based source servers, also make sure that the administrative shares (admin$, c$, d$) exist. 4 Prepare the source servers (on page 12). Carry out several checks and install the rsync software on Windows-based nodes. 5 Prepare the destination service nodes (on page 13). Add the required number of servers to Plesk Automation and install additional software. Once the preparation is finished, you can start the data transfer. In this chapter: 1. Install the Plesk Automation Moving Tool Install Mail Sync Software (Windows Servers) Configuring Firewalls Prepare Source Servers Prepare Service Nodes (Optional) Create Reverse DNS Zones (Optional) Prepare for Assimilating SmarterMail Servers (Optional) Prepare for Assimilating Database Servers...18

9 Preparing for the Move 1. Install the Plesk Automation Moving Tool We strongly recommend that you install the tool on the management node. However, if needed, you can run the tool on any server in your network that meets the following requirements: CentOS 5.x/6.x or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x/6.x is installed on the server. The server is able to connect to your hosting servers and the Plesk Automation management node. To install the tool on a server: 1 Log in to your server as root. 2 Download the installation script: wget 3 Make installer.sh executable: chmod +x installer.sh 4 Install the tool by running the script:./installer.sh After you complete this step, the tool will be ready for operation. The tool is automatically updated every time you run it. Tuning the Migration Performance By default, Plesk Automation restarts Apache service on Plesk Automation Apache service nodes after every change that requires a restart. There are several such changes during the transfer of a single subscription. If the Plesk Automation Apache service node carries many sites, each restart of the Apache service may take up to a minute. For example, if you transfer 10 subscriptions to a single Plesk Automation Apache service node, Apache restart takes 30 seconds, and this happens 3 times during the transfer of each subscription. In this case, migration takes additional 15 minutes just to restart the Apache service. To reduce the migration time, you can do the following: set Plesk Automation apache-restartinterval setting to a high value before transfer, run the transfer, restore the original Apache restart interval, and then restart Apache on all Apache service nodes. If you want the migration tool to do this automatically, specify a value for the apacherestart-interval setting in the migration tool's configuration file. You can learn more about configuration in the corresponding sections titled Configure the Tool.

10 Preparing for the Move 2. Install Mail Sync Software (Windows Servers) Important: This step is required if the source mail server on your Plesk for Windows supports IMAP. By default, the support for IMAP is turned on in all versions of Plesk for Windows starting with Plesk 9. If you use an earlier Plesk version or if you intentionally turned off the support for IMAP, skip this step. The Plesk Automation moving tool transfers mail services from Windows servers using a thirdparty utility called imapsync. Therefore, before transferring data from Windows servers, you should install imapsync on the same server where you installed the Plesk Automation moving tool. If you are planning to assimilate a single SmarterMail server, then you do not need to install imapsync. To install imapsync on CentOS 5, use the Plesk Automation moving tool: panel-migrator install-imapsync To install imapsync on RHEL 5, follow the instructions below: 1 Install EPEL repository by running the following command: On 32-bit OSes: rpm -ihv noarch.rpm On 64-bit OSes: rpm -ihv 2 Install imapsync from the EPEL repository: yum install imapsync To install imapsync on CentOS 6 or RHEL 6, follow the instructions below: 1 Install EPEL repository by running the following command: On 32-bit OSes: rpm -ihv noarch.rpm On 64-bit OSes: rpm -ihv 2 For RHEL 6, install the "perl-file-copy-recursive" package from the CentOS 6 repository: # rpm -ihv Recursive el6.noarch.rpm 3 Install imapsync from the EPEL repository:

11 Preparing for the Move yum install imapsync 3. Configuring Firewalls If a source or destination server is behind a firewall, you need to properly configure the firewall to allow the migration data exchange. The following ports must be opened on the source servers. Source platform Linux-based servers running Plesk Windows-based servers running Plesk Windows-based servers operating as Plesk Expand centralized mail servers Services and ports SSH connections TCP port 22 Plesk API TCP port 8443 Files and Printers sharing TCP ports: 135, 139, 445 UDP ports: 137, 138 Microsoft SQL server rsync TCP ports: 1433 (if using the default instance) UDP ports: 1434 TCP ports: all, or manually selected (if using a named instance) TCP ports: 873 Plesk API TCP ports: 8443 POP3 and IMAP TCP ports: 110, 143 Files and Printers sharing TCP ports: 135, 139, 445 UDP ports: 137, 138 Plesk API TCP ports: 8443 POP3 and IMAP TCP ports: 110, 143

12 Preparing for the Move Windows-based servers operating as Plesk Expand centralized database servers Microsoft SQL Server MySQL TCP ports: 1433 (if using the default instance) UDP ports: 1434 TCP ports: all, or manually selected (if using a named instance) TCP ports: Prepare Source Servers The preparation of source servers for transfer consists of two main steps: checking that the source servers meet the transfer requirements and installing the rsync software (only for Windows servers). Preliminary Checking Before you start the transfer, perform the following checks on your source servers: 1 Make sure that your source servers are capable of working as slave DNS servers. To check this, you can: 1. Create a sample domain on your source server. 2. Select the source server's DNS server as the slave DNS server for the domain's zone. 3. Ensure that changes in the zone are successfully propagated from the master DNS server to your slave DNS server. 2 Make sure your source servers meet the following disk space requirements: At least 1 GB of free disk space. Additional free disk space for storing dumps of user databases. A dump may be several times larger in size than the original database. Installing the rsync Software (Windows Servers) To transfer data from Windows-based servers, you need to install the rsync software on them. When migrating from Expand, Helm 3, and Plesk for Windows, rsync is configured automatically. To install and configure the rsync software on the source servers: 1 Download the installation file cwrsyncserver_4.0.5_installer.zip from 2 Unpack the file and install rsync following the installation instructions. Important: You must specify a user account with administrator's privileges during installation.

13 Preparing for the Move 3 Update the rsync configuration file rsyncd.conf with the strings given below. The file is located in the rsync installation directory (C:\Program Files\ICW by default) uid = 0 gid = 0 hosts allow = <target_node1_ip_address>, <target_node2_ip_address>,... log file = rsyncd.log [vhosts] path = /cygdrive/c/inetpub/vhosts read only = true transfer logging = yes where <target_node1_ip_address>, <target_node2_ip_address>,... are the IP addresses of the Windows-based service nodes. Important: If virtual hosts in your Plesk installation are not located in the default directory, change the value of the path variable: 1. Obtain the right path from the Windows registry: HKLM\SOFTWARE\PLESK\PSA Config\Config\HTTPD_VHOSTS_D for 32-bit systems or HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\PLESK\PSA Config\Config\HTTPD_VHOSTS_D for 64-bit systems. 2. Update the value of the path variable with the path from the registry. Note that you should convert the path to the Cygwin format. For example, if your virtual hosts are located at D:\home\plesk_vhosts, the resulting path is /cygdrive/d/home/plesk_vhosts 4 Create the C:\migrator directory and update the rsync configuration file rsyncd.conf with the strings given below. [migrator] path = /cygdrive/c/migrator read only = true transfer logging = yes 5 Configure your firewall to allow inbound connections from target Windows nodes to the port Start the rsync service on behalf of the Windows administrator: net start RsyncServer After installing and configuring rsync, go to the service settings (Services > Log On tab), and make sure that administrator's username and password are specified, or Local system account is selected. Restart the service after changing the user. 5. Prepare Service Nodes Before starting the transfer, you should prepare your Plesk Automation service nodes for this. These service nodes must be a complete replacement for your source hosting servers: They must provide all the services provided by the source servers. Example 1 For example, you want to migrate from two Plesk servers: one for Windows and one for Linux. To correctly prepare for the transfer, you should:

14 Preparing for the Move 1 Prepare two clean servers: one with installed Linux and one with installed Windows operating system. 2 Register both servers in Plesk Automation: Windows server as the node with the IIS web server / MS SQL Server 2008 database server role. Linux server as the node with the Apache web server / Postfix mail server / MySQL database server role. 3 Install MySQL on the Windows service node. 4 Install SSI on the Windows service node. 5 Prepare two clean Linux servers (for the DNS service). 6 Register these servers as nodes with the DNS server role. Example 2 For example, you want to migrate from two Plesk for Windows servers. The migration should be performed on two separate Windows service nodes. To correctly prepare for the transfer, you should: 1 Prepare two clean Windows servers (replacement for your existing servers) and one clean Linux server (for the mail service). 2 Register Windows servers in Plesk Automation as nodes with the IIS web server / MS SQL Server 2008 database server role. 3 Register Linux server as the node with the Postfix mail server role. 4 Install MySQL on the Windows service nodes. 5 Install SSI on the Windows service nodes. 6 Prepare two clean Linux servers (for the DNS service). 7 Register these servers as nodes with the DNS server role. Example 3 For example, you want to migrate from Expand that controls two Plesk servers: one for Windows and one for Linux. To correctly prepare for the transfer, you should: 1 Prepare two clean servers: one with installed Linux and one with installed Windows operating systems. 2 Register both servers in Plesk Automation: Windows server as the node with the IIS web server / MS SQL Server 2008 database server role. Linux server as the node with the Apache web server / Postfix mail server / MySQL database server role. 3 Install MySQL on the Windows service node. 4 Install SSI on the Windows service node. 5 Prepare two clean Linux servers (for the DNS service). 6 Register these servers as nodes with the DNS server role.

15 Preparing for the Move Example 4 For example, you want to migrate from Expand that controls two Plesk for Windows servers without the mail service. The migration must be performed on two separate Windows service nodes. To correctly prepare for the transfer, you should: 1 Prepare two clean Windows servers (replacement for your existing servers) and one clean Linux server (for the mail service). 2 Register Windows servers in Plesk Automation as nodes with the IIS web server / MS SQL Server 2008 database server role. 3 Register Linux server as the node with the Postfix mail server role. 4 Install MySQL on the Windows service nodes. 5 Install SSI on the Windows service nodes. 6 Prepare two clean Linux servers (for the DNS service). 7 Register these servers as nodes with the DNS server role. Next in this section: Register Service Nodes in Plesk Automation Check Disk Space on Service Nodes Install MySQL on IIS Web Server Nodes (Windows Servers) Install Server Side Includes (Windows Servers) Register Service Nodes in Plesk Automation The transfer scenario assumes that you already have a working Plesk Automation environment with service nodes that can be used as a replacement for your existing servers. Therefore, before performing the data transfer, you should register these service nodes. For instructions on how to register service nodes in Plesk Automation, refer to the Plesk Automation: Deployment Guide, section Adding Service Nodes. Check Disk Space on Service Nodes Make sure your Plesk Automation target service nodes have the same (or more) amount of disk space as source servers do. Install MySQL on IIS Web Server Nodes (Windows Servers) While Plesk for Windows provides support for MySQL databases, IIS-based web server nodes in Plesk Automation do not do that. This means that before transferring customer databases from Windows-based Plesk servers, you should first add support for MySQL to the target node.

16 Preparing for the Move To add support for MySQL on the target IIS web server node: 1 Obtain the MySQL 5.1 distribution package and install it following the installation instructions. 2 Add the MySQL installation directory to the PATH environment variable. 3 Restart the PEM service by running the following commands on behalf of the Windows administrator: net stop pem net start pem Install Server Side Includes (Windows Servers) By default, support for Server Side Includes (SSI) is not enabled on Windows servers. Therefore, if SSI was enabled on your source servers, you must turn on support for SSI on the Plesk Automation Windows service nodes as well. To turn on support for SSI on a Windows service node: 1 Connect to the node over RDP. 2 Log in to the node as Administrator. 3 Add the SSI role to the server in Server Manager > Roles > Web Server (IIS) > Add Role Services > Server Side Includes. 6. (Optional) Create Reverse DNS Zones A reverse DNS lookup process (when a client looks up a computer name based on its address) is essential to a large number of Internet services. The processing of reverse requests is based on reverse DNS zones that store the information about IP addresses and corresponding domain names. This information is represented by PTR records contained within a corresponding reverse DNS zone. By default, the reverse DNS lookups are disabled in Plesk Automation. To enable them, you must create one or more reverse DNS zones according to your network configuration. You can do this in Administration Panel > Services > DNS Zones > DNS tab > Reverse DNS Zones. Note that you do not need to create PTR records. Plesk Automation will automatically create them for all hosted domains, once you have created a suitable reverse DNS zone. 7. (Optional) Prepare for Assimilating SmarterMail Servers The information provided in this article is applicable only to those who migrate from Plesk 9.5 or later, or Expand 2.3, and who use Windows-based SmarterMail servers.

17 Preparing for the Move Starting from Plesk Automation 11.5, you have the option to keep existing SmarterMail mail servers in production and connect them to your Plesk Automation installation. In this case, mailboxes will remain on the SmarterMail servers and Plesk Automation will control the servers just like any other service nodes. The existing SmarterMail servers can be used for serving new domains and domains transferred from Plesk or Plesk Expand. Compared to the usual data transfer process, this assimilation offers the following advantages: There is no need to buy new hardware for a new SmarterMail server. There is no need to buy an additional SmarterMail license for a new SmarterMail server. Zero downtime for the mail services. No additional mail synchronization is required after moving. However, when migrating SmarterMail in transfer mode, the downtime can also be significantly reduced by setting low TTL values in DNS zones before migration. When using external DNS servers (not controlled by the source panel), you do not have to change mail DNS records. There are also several disadvantages in the assimilation: You should be very careful when using the source panel after domains are moved to Plesk Automation: Any changes to the mail settings of domains in the source panel might disrupt the operation of mail services. Assimilation cannot be reverted. Once a domain is in Plesk Automation, you cannot transfer it back to the old panel. For this reason, SmarterMail assimilation must not be used when performing test migrations. In general, we recommend performing a transfer instead of assimilation, if you can obtain new hardware and a SmarterMail license. Supported Software Versions SmarterMail Versions earlier than 8 are not supported. Plesk 9.5, 10.4, 11.0, Plesk Expand with centralized mail based on Plesk 9.5, 10.4, 11.0, Prerequisites 1 Connect the existing SmarterMail server to Plesk Automation as a regular service node. Refer to Administrator's Guide to learn how to do it. 2 Configure a service template for SmarterMail migration. You need to configure a service template that includes the Mail Service resource that is provisioned to a SmarterMail node. When creating service template with the Add Shared Hosting Template wizard, set Mail Hosting to SmarterMail-based. Refer to Plesk Automation Administrator's Guide to learn how to create a new service template. 3 Check whether SmarterMail and the newly created service template are properly configured: a Based on the service template, create in Plesk Automation a test subscription with a webspace and mail resource. b Make sure that there are no failed tasks related to the subscription in Plesk Automation's task manager (in Operations > Tasks).

18 Preparing for the Move c Log in to the hosting panel (Operations > Subscriptions > subscription name > Managed By > Login as Customer), and try creating a mailbox (Mail tab > Create Address). d Log in to the SmarterMail web interface using the SmarterMail administrator's credentials and make sure that the mailbox was created in SmarterMail. e (Optional) Make sure that this mailbox can receive new messages and that you can send new messages from that address. Running the Transfer Run the data transfer as described in the following chapters. During the transfer, you will not need to use any special settings or additional configuration steps to ensure that the mailboxes will not be transferred. 8. (Optional) Prepare for Assimilating Database Servers You have the option to keep existing database servers in production and connect them to your Plesk Automation installation. In this case, databases and database users will remain on the existing database servers and Plesk Automation will control the servers like any other external database servers. The existing database servers can be used for serving new domains and domains transferred from other hosting platforms. Compared to the usual data transfer process, this assimilation offers the following advantages: There is no need to buy new hardware. There is no need to reconfigure existing customers' applications that use databases. In case of Microsoft SQL Server (or other commercial solutions) there is no need to buy additional licenses. There are also several disadvantages in the assimilation: You should be very careful when using the source panel after domains are moved to Plesk Automation: for example, when you remove a domain from the source panel, databases will be removed too. Two instances of the same web application (on the source and on the target server) use the same databases, which may lead to conflicts. You should consider that and be careful when testing migrated web applications. In general, we recommend performing a transfer instead of assimilation, if you can obtain new hardware, licenses, and reconfigure web applications after migration.

19 Preparing for the Move Prerequisites 1. Connect existing database servers to Plesk Automation as external database servers. To do this, use the Add Database Server wizard in Administration Panel > Infrastructure > Database Servers. Important: To be able to register Microsoft SQL Server-based database servers, you should have at least one IIS web server node registered in Plesk Automation. When specifying database server administrator's credentials, do not use "root" as the username. 2. Create resource types for these servers. To do this, go to Products > Resources > Add New Resource Type > Database Service, type a name, for example "assimilated MySQL server", select a database server type, and specify the IP address and port of the external database server. 3. Configure service templates that use these resources. Refer to Plesk Automation Administrator's Guide to learn how to create a new service template. You can specify the resources when creating a service template with the wizard, or you can manually add the resources to any service template. 4. Check whether the service templates and external database servers are properly configured: a Based on a service template, create in Plesk Automation a test subscription with a webspace and a database. b Make sure that there are no failed tasks related to the subscription in Plesk Automation task manager (in Operations > Tasks). c Log in to the hosting panel (Operations > Subscriptions > subscription name > Managed By > Login as Customer), and try creating a database and a database user. d (Optional) Make sure that you can log in to the external database server with new database user's credentials, and that the database is present on the server. Running the Transfer Run the data transfer as described in the following chapters. During the transfer, you will not need to use any special settings or additional configuration steps to ensure that the databases will not be transferred.

20 Transfer Scenario for Plesk 8.6 and Later C H A P T E R 4 Transfer Scenario for Plesk 8.6 and Later The transfer of hosting data requires you to have a working Plesk Automation environment with service nodes that can be used as a replacement for your existing servers: All hosting data are transferred to particular Plesk Automation nodes. Thus, all business objects such as plans, customer and reseller accounts are transferred to the Plesk Automation management node. Subscriptions from your existing servers are transferred to certain service nodes. Performing the Data Transfer The process of transferring hosting data consists of the following steps: 1 Configure the transfer tool. The tool is configured with the help of a configuration file. It defines various communication parameters such as server IP addresses, the administrator's credentials, and so on. 2 Import resellers to Plesk Automation (on page 25). The transfer tool does not fully automate the transfer of resellers to Plesk Automation: It automatically transfers reseller accounts while you need to manually configure these accounts and reseller plans before transferring resellers' customers and domains. 3 Import plans (templates) to Plesk Automation (on page 26). Service plans are not automatically registered in Plesk Automation during transfer. Therefore, you should either create your plans in Plesk Automation manually or use the transfer tool for this purpose. 4 Create a transfer list (on page 26). A transfer list is a file that specifies what objects (plans, reseller accounts, and subscriptions) should be transferred to Plesk Automation from source servers. 5 Associate subscriptions and plans (on page 28). Associate subscriptions with certain imported plans. 6 Check for possible conflicts and limitations (on page 29). Before moving to Plesk Automation, we strongly recommend that you perform a preliminary check for possible transfer conflicts. For example, two different service plans on different Panels may have the same name. Based on the check results, the tool generates a report with all found conflicts. 7 Install MySQL on target Windows-based IIS service nodes. 8 Run the transfer process (on page 31). Once all preparation steps are completed, you can run the transfer. In this step, the tool transfers all subscriptions from your existing servers to registered Plesk Automation service nodes. 9 Redirect DNS to the new servers (on page 32).

21 Transfer Scenario for Plesk 8.6 and Later After DNS services are relocated to Plesk Automation, you need to update all your NS records on the registrar's DNS servers with the IP address of your Plesk Automation DNS server. 10 Verify that the data were transferred correctly (on page 32). The operability of web, mail, DNS, and FTP services for each transferred domain is checked. 11 Finalize the synchronization of content (on page 32). Ensure that any changes to the content made by your customers during the transfer process are transferred as well. 12 (Optional) Create reverse DNS zones (on page 16). As Plesk Automation does not automatically create reverse DNS zones for used IP network addresses, this should be done manually. In this chapter: Multiple Webspaces in a Single Subscription Configure the Tool Import Resellers to Plesk Automation Import Plans to Plesk Automation Generate a Transfer List Associate Subscriptions with Plans Check for Possible Conflicts Install MySQL on Target IIS Nodes Run Transfer Redirect DNS to the New Servers Verify the Transferred Data Finalize the Synchronization of Content...32 Multiple Webspaces in a Single Subscription In Plesk Automation, several sites can be hosted either in one subscription, or in individual subscriptions. By default, when transferring sites from Plesk 8 or 9, every domain of a user is transferred to a separate subscription. This results in domain owners having multiple subscriptions to manage, which is not very convenient. To avoid this inconvenience, the migration tool provides the option to transfer all domains of a user into multiple webspaces under one subscription. To use this option, you need to do the following: 1. Before starting a transfer, create in Plesk Automation a service template that will provide enough web hosting and mail hosting resources. In service template properties (in Products > Service Templates > template name > Resources tab), set the following types of resources to unlimited or equal to the number of migrated sites: Apache Webspace, IIS Webspace, Postfix Mail, SmarterMail, and Subscription.

22 Transfer Scenario for Plesk 8.6 and Later 2. In the tool configuration, set the migration mode, as shown in the section 1. Configure the Tool (on page 22), Example Configure the Tool Since the transfer tool communicates with a number of servers, you should provide it with server IP addresses, administrators' credentials, and other information. The tool is configured with the help of a config.ini file, which is not created by default. For your convenience, the directory /opt/panel-migrator/conf/samples/ contains the plesk-to-ppa.ini file which you can use as a basis for creating your own config.ini. To configure the tool: 1 Create the config.ini file based on the template. For example: cp /opt/panel-migrator/conf/samples/plesk-to-ppa.ini config.ini 2 Edit the config.ini file to configure the tool. The description of file sections is provided below. The Structure of the Configuration File The config.ini file consists of several sections of two types: Predefined. These sections contain information about your Plesk Automation management node and various aspects of data transfer. The names of the sections [GLOBAL] and [ppa] are predefined by the tool and you should not change them. Custom. These sections contain information about your existing servers. You can use arbitrary names for such sections. For example, [plesk1], [plesk2], and so on. Also, each section has a number of settings of two types: Mandatory. You must define these settings. Optional. You do not have to define these settings. The value that will be assumed when you do not define a setting is specified in the configuration template file inside that setting's description. That description also has a commented line with the setting and its default value: if you want to change the value, uncomment that line and change the value in it. The meaning of each setting is described in the configuration template file. Examples of the Configuration File Let us take a look at the examples of the config.ini file. In all these examples, Plesk Automation is deployed with webmail on a separate service node with IP address Example 1.

23 Transfer Scenario for Plesk 8.6 and Later In this example, we are going to transfer data from three Plesk servers (two on Linux and one on Windows). [GLOBAL] source-type: plesk source-servers: plesk1, plesk2, plesk3 target-type: ppa [ppa] ip: panel-username: admin panel-password: setup ssh-username: root ssh-auth-type: password ssh-password: 123qwe webmail-ip: [plesk1] ip: os: unix panel-username: admin panel-password: setup1 ssh-username: root ssh-auth-type: password ssh-password: 123qwe [plesk2] ip: os: unix panel-username: admin panel-password: setup2 ssh-username: root ssh-auth-type: password ssh-password: 234wer [plesk3] ip: os: windows panel-username: admin panel-password: setup3e windows-username: Administrator windows-password: 345ertYU Example 2 In this example, we are going to transfer data from a Plesk server on Linux, and for config.ini file. Instead of using the password, we will set up the key-based authentication. [GLOBAL] source-type: plesk source-servers: plesk1 target-type: ppa [ppa] ip: panel-username: admin panel-password: setup ssh-username: root ssh-auth-type: password ssh-password: 123qwe

24 Transfer Scenario for Plesk 8.6 and Later webmail-ip: [plesk1] ip: os: unix panel-username: admin panel-password: setup1 ssh-username: root ssh-auth-type: key ssh-key: /root/.ssh/id_rsa Example 3 In this example, we are going to transfer data from a Plesk server on Linux, which uses an external PostgreSQL server to host user databases. That PostgreSQL server is registered in Plesk using its IP v4 address ( ). [GLOBAL] source-type: plesk source-servers: plesk1 external-postgresql-servers: pg1 target-type: ppa [ppa] ip: panel-username: admin panel-password: setup ssh-username: root ssh-auth-type: password ssh-password: 123qwe webmail-ip: [plesk1] ip: os: unix panel-username: admin panel-password: setup1 ssh-username: root ssh-auth-type: password ssh-password: 123qwe [pg1] host: ip: ssh-username: root ssh-auth-type: password ssh-password: 123qwe Example 4 In this example, we are going to transfer domains from a Plesk 8 server on Linux to Plesk Automation subscriptions with multiple webspaces. [GLOBAL] source-type: plesk source-servers: plesk1 target-type: ppa transfer-domains-to-subscription: same [ppa] ip: panel-username: admin

25 Transfer Scenario for Plesk 8.6 and Later panel-password: setup ssh-username: root ssh-auth-type: password ssh-password: 123qwe webmail-ip: [plesk1] ip: os: unix panel-username: admin panel-password: setup1 ssh-username: root ssh-auth-type: password ssh-password: 123qwe Example 5 In this example, we are going to transfer domains from a Plesk 11 server on Windows to Plesk Automation, and assimilate an existing SmarterMail server. [GLOBAL] source-type: plesk source-servers: plesk1 target-type: ppa [ppa] ip: panel-username: admin panel-password: setup ssh-username: root ssh-auth-type: password ssh-password: 123qwe webmail-ip: [plesk1] ip: os: windows panel-username: admin panel-password: setup4e windows-username: Administrator windows-password: 128erfJR copy-mail-content: none 2. Import Resellers to Plesk Automation The transfer tool has the following limitation: It allows you to transfer reseller accounts to Plesk Automation but it does not automatically transfer reseller plans. Therefore, to seamlessly import existing reseller accounts from your servers, you should first manually create reseller plans in Plesk Automation that correspond to the ones on your servers, and subscribe the resellers to these plans after the transfer. See the detailed instructions below. To import resellers to Plesk Automation: 1 Create reseller plans (templates) in Plesk Automation that correspond to reseller plans (templates) in your hosting solution. Learn how to do this in the Plesk Automation: Operations Guide, section Creating Reseller Service Templates.

26 Transfer Scenario for Plesk 8.6 and Later 2 Generate a transfer list file called migration-list, by issuing the following command: # panel-migrator generate-migration-list config.ini 3 Edit the transfer list file migration-list (located in your session directory) to exclude reseller accounts that you do not want to transfer to Plesk Automation. To exclude a certain account from transfer, comment out or delete the corresponding line from the list. The lines look like Reseller: <reseller's username>. 4 Perform the transfer of reseller accounts to the Plesk Automation management node by running the command: # panel-migrator import-resellers config.ini All resellers that exist in your hosting solution will be transferred to Plesk Automation. 5 Subscribe the transferred resellers to the newly created reseller plans. Learn how to do this in the Plesk Automation: Operations Guide, section Subscribing Resellers to Templates. 6 Configure hosting service templates on behalf of the reseller. Learn how to do this in the Plesk Automation: Operations Guide, section Creating Shared Hosting Templates. 3. Import Plans to Plesk Automation The transfer tool does not perform the transfer of service plans to Plesk Automation. Therefore, you should do this manually. To import plans to Plesk Automation: 1 Create service plans (templates) in Plesk Automation that correspond to hosting plans on your Plesk servers. Learn how to do this in the Plesk Automation: Operations Guide, section Creating Shared Hosting Templates. 2 Configure subscription provisioning by assigning proper provisioning attributes to the templates. The provisioning attribute is a tag that links a plan and nodes on which the services included into the plan should be set up. Learn more about attributes in the Plesk Automation: Operations Guide, chapter Customers and Resellers. 4. Generate a Transfer List A transfer list defines the list of objects (plans, reseller accounts, user accounts, and subscriptions) that should be transferred from source servers to Plesk Automation. The transfer list file can be automatically generated by the transfer tool. By default, after the generation, it contains all objects that are present on source servers (see the example below).

27 Transfer Scenario for Plesk 8.6 and Later To generate the transfer list, if you have not done this in step 2, run the following command: # panel-migrator generate-migration-list config.ini After you run the command, the tool will create the migration-list file in the session directory defined in your config.ini. You will need this file during further transfer steps. Transfer List Structure After generation, the list contains all subscriptions that exist on source servers. In addition, the file contains plans, reseller and customer accounts to which the subscriptions are related. The list comprises a number of sections - one section per each reseller. The sections are marked with a line Reseller: Reseller's name. Each section consists of a number of subsections - one subsection per each service plan of the reseller. These subsections are marked with a line Plan: Plan name. Note that plan names cannot contain the # symbol. Each plan subsection contains a list of customer accounts subscribed to that plan, and the domain names of the customers' subscriptions. Customer account names are marked with a line Customer: customer's name. By default, customer accounts are listed below the corresponding reseller accounts. You can move the customer account to other resellers, including the administrator, using the transfer list. Each subscription must be assigned to a customer. By default, administrator's subscriptions are assigned to a special customer called ppa-admin. Reseller's subscriptions are assigned to a special customer called ppa-<reseller_username>. If such customer accounts already exist in Plesk Automation, the migration tool will transfer subscriptions without checking whether the subscriptions belong to those accounts. You can reassign all subscriptions (including the administrator's and resellers' subscriptions) to any customers using the transfer list. Note: You can assign subscriptions to nonexistent customers. In such a case, the migration tool will create the corresponding customer accounts in Plesk Automation (without any personal information prefilled) and will transfer subscriptions to them. Note that your hosting plans are not grouped under a certain section: They go at the beginning of the file before the reseller sections. Depending on the type of the source hosting platform, the initial content of the file may differ: If a source platform is Plesk 10.x and later, the tool automatically determines association between plans and subscriptions. Thus, each plan section contains the list of associated subscriptions. The only exceptions are custom subscriptions - subscriptions that are not associated with a certain plan. Custom subscriptions are placed outside of plan sections. Typically, all you need is to move custom subscriptions to a certain plan section.

28 Transfer Scenario for Plesk 8.6 and Later If a source platform is Plesk 9.x or earlier, the file will contain an unsorted list of all subscriptions and service plans (templates). You should associate subscriptions with the plans by moving them to corresponding plan sections. An Example of the List # The list of subscriptions # These subscriptions must be moved to a section of a certain service plan. Otherwise, the tool will not start transfer. Customer: ppa-admin admins-subscription1.tld Customer: bobs customer1-subscription1.tld customer1-subscription2.tld # Administrator's service plans and subscriptions Plan: Gold hosting Customer: ppa-admin admins-subscription2.tld Customer: jacks customer2-subscription1.tld customer2-subscription2.tld Plan: Bronze hosting Plan: Silver hosting # Resellers Reseller: johns_123 # The subscriptions that are not assigned to a certain service plan. They must be moved to a section of a certain service plan of this reseller. Customer: ppa-johns_123 notassigned1.tld # Reseller's service plans Plan: Unlimited Customer: ppa-johns_123 # The subscriptions of this reseller reseller-subscription1.tld reseller-subscription2.tld # The customers of this reseller subscribed to this plan Customer: johndoe # The subscriptions of this customer reseller1-customer1-subscription1.tld Reseller: toms # Reseller's service plans Plan: Reseller Plan 2 # The customers of this reseller subscribed to this plan Customer: katie_23 # The subscriptions of this customer reseller2-customer1-subscription1.tld 5. Associate Subscriptions with Plans In this step you should associate subscriptions that exist on your servers with certain service plans you have imported to Plesk Automation in the previous step. This is done by adjusting the transfer list file. As all subscriptions in Plesk Automation should be associated with certain plans (templates), this step is obligatory for all hosting platforms:

29 Transfer Scenario for Plesk 8.6 and Later Plesk 9.x and earlier do not support association between plans (templates) and subscription. Therefore, you should associate them before performing the data transfer. In Plesk 10.x and later all subscriptions are associated with certain plans (these associations are automatically reflected in the file). The only exceptions are custom subscriptions - subscriptions that are not the instances of certain service plans. As Plesk Automation does not support custom subscriptions, you need to associate them with certain plans using the transfer list. To associate subscriptions with certain service plans, edit the transfer file. The association is performed by placing the corresponding subscription line under a certain plan section, or placing a line describing a plan (Plan: <plan name>) above the lines describing subscriptions. Note that the tool will not start the transfer until there are subscriptions which are not associated with plans. If you do not want to associate certain subscriptions with plans, comment out the corresponding lines or delete them. Note: All plans from the list must exist in Plesk Automation. Otherwise, the tool will be unable to complete the transfer. For example, to associate the custom subscription admins-subscription.tld with the Gold hosting plan move the corresponding line under the plan section. Before # Custom subscriptions Customer: ppa-admin admins-subscription.tld Plan: Gold hosting Customer: bob customer1-subscription1.tld Plan: Silver hosting After Plan: Gold hosting Customer: ppa-admin admins-subscription.tld Customer: bob customer1-subscription1.tld Plan: Silver hosting 6. Check for Possible Conflicts Before performing a transfer, we strongly recommend that you perform a preliminary check for possible conflicts that can cause issues during the data transfer process or even make switching to Plesk Automation impossible. Such a check is performed by the transfer tool and includes a number of checks concerning various aspects of hosting panels' functionality. Below we describe the most important checks that may require your attention:

30 Transfer Scenario for Plesk 8.6 and Later Check for customer / reseller accounts with the same s and contact names. There are three account parameters that the tools use to identify an account: username, , and contact name. Let us look closer at the system behavior when these parameters match for different accounts: Usernames, s, and contact names are the same. The system considers such accounts to represent the same person or company: Only one of them will be transferred to Plesk Automation. The priority is given to the account from the panel that is listed first in the sources string of config.ini. Accounts from other panels are ignored: Their subscriptions are also registered in Plesk Automation, but these subscriptions become associated with the customer / reseller account which had the priority during the transfer. If you want each of such accounts to be transferred to Plesk Automation, specify another and username for conflicting accounts. Usernames and contact names are the same, s are different. The move to Plesk Automation will be impossible until you specify another username for conflicting accounts. Usernames and s are the same, contact names are different. The move to Plesk Automation will be impossible until you specify the same contact names (if these are the same persons) for conflicting accounts. s are the same, usernames and contact names are different. The move to Plesk Automation will be impossible until you specify other s for conflicting accounts. To perform the preliminary check: $ panel-migrator check config.ini Based on the check results, the tool generates a report. The report contains messages of two types: WARNING. These messages warn you about the potential issues that may affect your further work in Plesk Automation but are not critical for the transfer process. ERROR. These messages appear when a certain issue blocks the transfer. You must resolve all issues marked as ERROR before performing the transfer. 7. Install MySQL on Target IIS Nodes While Plesk for Windows provides support for MySQL databases, IIS-based web server nodes in Plesk Automation do not do that. This means that before transferring customer databases from Windows-based Plesk servers, you should first add support for MySQL to the target node.