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Migrating an Account from Another Web Host

Overview

This article describes how to migrate data from another web hosting provider to your ViniHost account. When you migrate from another hosting provider, we recommend that you leave plenty of overlap time (no less than 7 days) between opening your ViniHost account and closing your previous account. Doing so helps ensure that your web site's downtime is minimal during migration.

Our migrations are processed in the order which they have been received. The majority of our migrations are completed within a few hours of the request being received. However, several factors, such as the current host's network speed, the number of sites being migrated, and migration complexity can all influence the migration speed. Our Migrations team will keep you informed of your migration's progress.

Table of Contents

cPanel Migration

If your current web hosting provider uses cPanel, we can migrate your existing site for you by doing an account transfer. Account transfers are available for the following types of accounts:

WordPress sites are included with migrations to Managed WordPress hosting accounts. Your WordPress sites appear automatically in cPanel's WordPress Toolkit for quick and easy site management.

We highly advise that you do not cancel your old hosting account until you have changed your DNS settings and thoroughly tested your new ViniHost account to make sure the migration has been completed to your satisfaction.

The vast majority of our migrations are free of charge. In some instances, specifically involving more complex and manual migrations, we may charge a fee. Any fees will be discussed with you and will require approval from you before any work is done.

To transfer your account, follow these steps:

  1. If you have not already done so, sign up for your ViniHost account.
  2. Log in to the Customer Portal.
  3. On the menu bar, click Support, and then click MIGRATIONS. The My Migrations Tickets page appears.
  4. Click Request a Migration.
  5. Read the preliminary information. Select the check boxes to agree to the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy, then click Continue to Step 2.
  6. In the Choose Service list box, select the service to which you want to migrate content, and then click Continue to Step 3.
  7. Complete the requested information in the form, and then click Submit Migration Request.
  8. We will notify you when the account transfer is complete.

Test your web site on the ViniHost server before you change the domain's name server settings. To do this, you can use the shared URL for your account provided in the ViniHost Customer Portal or use a custom hosts file.

Change your domain's name server settings to use ViniHost name servers and wait 24 hours for DNS propagation to complete. After verifying that your website on the ViniHost server is accessible and working correctly, you can cancel your account with the other hosting provider.

Manual Migration

If your current hosting provider does not support cPanel, you can migrate your data manually. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. If you have not already done so, sign up for your ViniHost account.
  2. Migrate your files, e-mail accounts, and databases to your ViniHost account:
    • Your website files should go in the public_html directory of your ViniHost account.
    • For information about how to use FTP to transfer files, please see this article.
    • For information about how to migrate e-mail accounts and data to your ViniHost account, please see this article.
    • For information about how to export and import MySQL databases, please see this article.
    • For information about how to export and import PostgreSQL databases, please see this article.
  3. Test your website on the ViniHost server before you change the domain's name server settings.
  4. Change your domain's name server settings to use ViniHost name servers and wait 24 hours for DNS propagation to complete.
  5. After verifying that your website on the ViniHost server is accessible and working correctly, you can cancel your account with the other hosting provider.

Free Site Transfers

For more information on migrating accounts, see the related articles below.