cPanel Server Migration

[skullguy]

Hello All,

I run a dedicated server, and am learning......

Our current server has been phuched by a few "expert" server admins, who charged us for securing the server. Now server performance is 25% of what it was initially. No there wasn't any additions to the server in the way of more accounts, or sw installed. They did a server hardening.

To "fix" the problem, my server farm is willing to give us a newer server in a new subnet with a clean OS install.

Question: has anyone run the site/server migration utility in cPanel. Our server runs DNS as well. Does the account migration utility work ok? Are there any bugs, or things we have to watch for, OR would you suggest cleanly setting up all the accounts (75 sites) and emails by hand, indivually?

OR

Have any other suggestions on migrating accounts from one server to another within the same server farm?

Thanks in advance...

skullguy

[corodyne]

Skullguy,

I just migrated 35 sites under 5 different Cpanel users (primary and addon domains) last night with no problems at all. I just changed the nameserver pointers when I was done and that was it.

Here are the details on the distro I'm running:

WHM 11.15.0 cPanel 11.17.0-R19434
CENTOS Enterprise 5 i686 on xen - WHM X v3.1.0

I used the 'copy account from another server with password' option.

I hope that helps,

Chris
Corodyne Web Services

[nyjimbo]

Hello All,
..... Now server performance is 25% of what it was initially. No there wasn't any additions to the server in the way of more accounts, or sw installed. They did a server hardening.

To "fix" the problem, my server farm is willing to give us a newer server in a new subnet with a clean OS install.

This is bizarre. Didn't they at least try to figure out what they did?. If something is slowing the machine down it's likely to either be something new running on the system OR they "tweaked" something else and it's eating up cpu or i/o. It should be pretty easy to spot especially with the kind of impact you are seeing now. Hardening the system shouldnt slow anything down unless they added something or implemented features that are wasting cpu or i/o and probably are a minor fix rather that moving an entire server.

[SuperBaby]

I just migrated 35 websites from my old server (RH9/cPanel) to the new server (RHEL5/cPanel) last week.

Here are some tips:

1) To use "Copy an account from another server" with root + password, you must enable direct SSH login. Most servers would have direct root login disabled.

2) I find "Copy an account from another server with account password" very reliable although many said otherwise. According to WHM, it should not be used to transfer sites larger than 250Mb. Last week I have used it to transfer sites up to 550Mb. No problem at all. I think as long as both your servers are in the same data center, it should be OK for up to 500Mb.

3) For large account, use http://forums.theplanet.com/index.php?showtopic=62173

So far I have only found a Perl script not functioning well after the migration. If you ask me, I would say it is highly (but not absolutely) reliable.

[mauinet]

I'm also trying to move a cpanel server to new hardware. This server is only for name service for all the other cPanel machines. Has anyone done this and if so, how do I go about this move?

Thanks in advance,

TR

[HH-Mike]

This is bizarre. Didn't they at least try to figure out what they did?. If something is slowing the machine down it's likely to either be something new running on the system OR they "tweaked" something else and it's eating up cpu or i/o. It should be pretty easy to spot especially with the kind of impact you are seeing now. Hardening the system shouldnt slow anything down unless they added something or implemented features that are wasting cpu or i/o and probably are a minor fix rather that moving an entire server.

If I had to guess I would say they might have enabled mod_security.
I have read that can cause a noticeable increase of load on a server, depending on the ruleset used.

[nickp666]

If I had to guess I would say they might have enabled mod_security.
I have read that can cause a noticeable increase of load on a server, depending on the ruleset used.

I second HH-Mike's view, a lot of the rulesets that are commonly recommended here and on other forums are riddled with conflicting/slow rules, most of which serve no purpose on 95% of servers, when I first installed mod_security a few years back I used a recommended ruleset, and my server load trippled, try disabling the SecFilterScanPost option and see if your load drops, if it does, then its your ruleset

[skullguy]

Thanks to everyone who answered here.

I was able to migrate the accounts.

Thanks for all the great info.

skullguy