Atomicorp

I'll be building a new server soon, and would like to tap into the experience here to suggest how to do the most painless migration.

Currently running: RHEL ES 3 with Plesk 8.0.1, PHP 4.4.2, MySQL 4.1.21.

Would like the new server to run either RHEL ES 4 or CentOS4 or FC5 - it really does not matter to me -- I just want another 3 years of stability and the ability to do updates, paid or otherwise. If Scott suggests I buy ASL and use it instead, I'll do that. I really will.

Would like to be able to run PHP 5 after the migration, but I think MySQL should stay at 4.1

Would like to be able to keep all the good webstats, other statistics, logs, etc. and I assume just by copying the data directories and the PSA database over, everything should stay the same, however, I heard something about when installing a fresh Plesk, the path changes somehow? I would be installing a fresh OS obviously, and then copying the data, so I'd need some insight into that change.

Other than that, it should be a pretty straightforward deal, no? Should I just copy everything over, or should I use the "backup/restore" fucntion of PSA? I would think it wouldn't matter if I'm going from 8.01 to another 8.01?

I don't know.. that's why I ask

I'd use CentOS4, run that in parallel with your old box, then move the data over with the migration agent through the CP. That way you can test everything before you stand it up in production.

FC5 is not yet supported by Plesk. MySQL 5 isn't either, so MySQL 4.1 would be an excellent choice. And yes, definitely use Plesk's Migration Manager instead of copying over files and databases yourself.

One thing I forgot was .. how does the licencing work? Am I able to use my Plesk licence on both machines while I migrate, or is it going to freak out, phone home and get me in trouble?

And, the Migration Manager is an import thing, done on the new box, correct? (Seems to look like that..)

hi,
ask sw-soft, you can get a licence for 1 month...

greets
zeki

So, I got the new machine going tonight. I installed it with basically zero apps, and just let the Plesk installer fill in the blanks. It gave me php 4.3.9 and mysql 4.1.20, which is fine for now.

I got a 14 day key from SWS, which has all the features turned on.

I played with migration a bit, and it seems to work great for clients and domains, but what about things like server settings, templates, and more importantly, the entire contents of the help desk?? That's the only addon I use, I could care less about spam settings, etc. at this point.

Suggestions on that one? Or should I just copy the DB tables, I don't know if the client ID's will line up then...

Youd be best off using the backup utils for that. While you can just copy the DB's around (I do it frequently, when dealing with unbootable or owned servers) its very much an expert level type of operation. The key areas are:

Mysql (/var/lib/mysql)
qmail (/var/qmail/mailnames, /var/qmail/control, /var/qmail/alias, /var/qmail/users/)
dns (/var/named/run-root, and /etc/named.conf)
httpd (/var/www/vhosts or /home/httpd/vhosts, and the certificates)
/etc/group, /etc/shadow, /etc/passwd

I almost always end up spending another hour or two nailing down all the little problems, which are too many to list. It very much depends on the content you're moving over.

scott wrote:Mysql (/var/lib/mysql)
qmail (/var/qmail/mailnames, /var/qmail/control, /var/qmail/alias, /var/qmail/users/)
dns (/var/named/run-root, and /etc/named.conf)
httpd (/var/www/vhosts or /home/httpd/vhosts, and the certificates)
/etc/group, /etc/shadow, /etc/passwd

Well, let's put this in perspective. If the migration manager brings over the site content, client name, stats/log files, etc.

... and I deal with and close all help tickets and start them over at #1 ..

... and my databases are dealt with by me outside of Plesk, so they aren't linked in any way...

... and DNS will be recreated by the migration...

... I have no SSL certs other than plesk default ...

That pretty much leaves me with about zero to worry about then, doesn't it? The only other problem I see is people's sites breaking because of the /home -> /var path deal.

quick fix there, just symlink /var/www/html to /home/httpd/vhosts

/var/www/vhosts you mean.

yep, that'll do it

scott wrote:quick fix there, just symlink /var/www/html to /home/httpd/vhosts

I suppose .. but in the long run it's better for the few guys who are at that level of scripting to just use the right one.. then I don't have to chase their mistakes.

So, I've got it all covered then?

I believe pleskrestore also has a flag to use /home/httpd/vhosts instead of /var/www/vhosts when restoring, if you don't want to change that.

Or in /etc/psa/psa.conf

Right, that flag probably just sets HTTPD_VHOSTS_D in /etc/psa/psa.conf.