This tutorial will show you how to migrate your website using FTP. The majority of websites are just files, and you can move these using a process called FTP (File Transfer Protocol). The first thing this guide will show you is how to move sites using FTP. Some more complex websites are database driven and have MySQL Databases. For advanced users, the second part of this guide will show you how to migrate a database and update a configuration file. Remember, if you get stuck, a Tsohost technician is happy to help. Just call or email us. On most of our packages we also include free migrations so can handle this process for you! Lets Get Started In this tutorial, I will be migrating a Drupal CMS using FTP. The steps should be relatively similar for any other website. Step 1 - Prepare You will find it much easier to move your website if you collect all the required information before proceeding. You will need: 1. A FTP program such as FileZilla 2. Your login details to your new and existing hosting 3. Ensure you have access to all the files 4. Personally I also find it helpful to write down a quick plan on what site you are moving where. You can check things off as you go. Step 2 - Downloading The Website Files 1. Open FileZilla
2. Connect to your hosting account using the FTP user you have 3. On the right hand side you will see some Folders / Files 4. If you are not already in the public_html folder, enter this now 5. You will now see all your website files. 6. Select everything in the right hand window 7. Drag the items to the left side of FileZilla (you will want to place them into a folder to keep it neat) 8. Download the files While this download is running, we will work on exporting the MYSQL database for your website. Step 3 - Exporting The MySQL Database If Required Please note, not all websites use MySQL or databases. If your site does not use SQL, please skip to 'Uploading The Website Files'. For this, you will need access to phpmyadmin to generate the export. You can normally find the connection information in the config files of the site.
1. Log into phpmyadmin 2. On the left side, click the database that your WordPress uses * 3. Click 'Export' at the top, and select all 4. Click 'go' on the export page and the SQL file will download
Now you have both the webfiles, and the database. The next step is uploading all of this to your hosting with us. Step 4 - Uploading The Website Files 1. Using FileZilla (or another FTP client) connect to the hosting account with us 2. Navigate into the public_html folder 3. Drag the website files from the left pane into the public_html directory on the right 4. Upload all the files While this is uploading we will import the SQL database if needed. Step 5 - Importing The MySQL Database 1. You will need to create a new database for the website site to use. To do this: 2. Log into the control panel 3. Click on 'MySQL Database Wizard' 4. Fill in all the information making sure to note down what you enter. 5. On the next page it will ask what permissions the user should have, Tick 'select all' 6. You have now created the database Now we will import the database into the one we have created. 1. In the control panel click phpmyadmin 2. Click on the database you created 3. At the top, click on the 'Import' button 4. Click the choose file button and locate the export you made from the previous host 5. Click 'Go'
Step 6- Updating Any config Files This is the final step. If your site has any configuration files, you will need to update these. This is normally only the case if your site uses SQL. 1. Using FileZilla (or another ftp client) navigate into the folder that contains WordPress 2. Find config file (if you are unsure where this file is, you can Google the script name and 'Config File' to find where it is typically located) 3. Right click on the file and select 'Edit' 4. Your default text editor will open the file (typically Notepad) 5. Look for the section with database settings You will need to edit each setting with the details for the database you created. (please note, they may not always be named as following) DB_NAME = The database name you chose DB_USER = The database user-name you chose (often the same as database name) DB_PASSWORD = Password DB_HOST = The database host. For cpanel this will be Localhost. If you are on the cluster, you would have been told the host when creating the database. Now that all the files are moved, and the database has been imported and updated, you can preview the site. You will need to edit a file called 'Hosts', this can be located: -Windows C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
-Mac/private/etc/hosts -Linux /etc/hosts. Just open it up in your favourite text editor (e.g. Notepad (if you are using vista/windows 7 right click on Notepad and click 'run as administrator') and add a line: IP www.yourdomain.com yourdomain.com Replace 'yourdomain.com' with your actual domain name and IP with the IP of the server. To find the IP of the server, ping the URL or check on the control panel for the 'shared IP'. Once you have made the change, save the file then restart your computer and browse to your website as normal. You will see it served from our systems and will be able to test the full functionality of your site. To view the site on your existing host, just remove the line from your hosts file. If your website loads correctly and you are happy there are no issues with it, you can update your nameservers to point to us if you have not already done so. This concludes the migration.