The Community Forums

Interact with an entire community of cPanel & WHM users!
  1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

cPanel transfer tool wipes custom A records?

Discussion in 'Bind / DNS / Nameserver Issues' started by stormy, Dec 22, 2016.

Tags:
  1. stormy

    stormy Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2003
    Messages:
    122
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    168
    Location:
    Spain
    cPanel Access Level:
    Root Administrator
    We have just done a big server migration using the cPanel transfer tool, and we find that all custom A records for any accounts have been wiped and pointed to the new server's IP address. That includes custom entries for "www" as well as totally custom A records pointing to other hostnames.

    Is this normal? Or was there a mistake somewhere?
     
    #1 stormy, Dec 22, 2016
  2. Eminds

    Eminds Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 10, 2016
    Messages:
    174
    Likes Received:
    10
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    India
    cPanel Access Level:
    Root Administrator
    You must have selected the option of assign new IP addresses while initiating the migration from cpanel and that has changed the IP addresses for all the website accounts. Regarding the custom A records you can always edit them as per your requirements from Edit DNS option in WHM.
     
    #2 Eminds, Dec 22, 2016
  3. stormy

    stormy Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2003
    Messages:
    122
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    168
    Location:
    Spain
    cPanel Access Level:
    Root Administrator
    Let me get this straight: I'm using the transfer tool, and checking "Express Transfer". Does this wipe any custom A records, and point everything to the IP of the new server, regardless whether the entries match the old IP or not?
     
    #3 stormy, Dec 22, 2016
  4. cPanelMichael

    cPanelMichael Forums Analyst
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2011
    Messages:
    36,995
    Likes Received:
    1,275
    Trophy Points:
    363
    cPanel Access Level:
    Root Administrator
    Hello @stormy,

    The Transfer Tool updates DNS records that reference the old IP address to use the account's new IP address. Thus, if the account is assigned an IP address of "1.2.3.4" on the source server, then the DNS zone created on the destination server during the transfer process will automatically replace DNS entries referencing "1.2.3.4" with the IP address assigned to the account on the destination server. If there's an "A" record in the zone on the source server that points to another IP address, say "5.6.7.8", then that IP address is preserved in the DNS zone created on the destination server.

    I believe the behavior you are reporting is related to an existing bug (CPANEL-5579), where the "Express Transfer" option changes all IP Addresses in the source server's zone file to match the destination server IP address, even if it's not an IP address that's used on the source server. There's no time frame to report on a resolution, however I'll update this thread with more information on the status of this case as it becomes available.

    Thank you.
     
    #4 cPanelMichael, Dec 22, 2016
  5. stormy

    stormy Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2003
    Messages:
    122
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    168
    Location:
    Spain
    cPanel Access Level:
    Root Administrator
    This bug has bit me hard, yes. I lost custom A records for tens of accounts. And I still have to migrate more than a thousand accounts.

    Is there a workaround? I hope there is one!
     
    #5 stormy, Dec 22, 2016
  6. cPanelMichael

    cPanelMichael Forums Analyst
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2011
    Messages:
    36,995
    Likes Received:
    1,275
    Trophy Points:
    363
    cPanel Access Level:
    Root Administrator
    Hello @stormy,

    It's advised to avoid using the "Express Transfer" option to avoid this issue on additional accounts until a resolution is published.
    Do you have backups enabled on the accounts? If so, you can extract the DNS zones with commands such as:

    Code:
    cd /path/to/backups
tar -zxvf username.tar.gz username/dnszones/*
    Thank you.
     
    #6 cPanelMichael, Dec 22, 2016
  7. stormy

    stormy Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2003
    Messages:
    122
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    168
    Location:
    Spain
    cPanel Access Level:
    Root Administrator
    Thanks @cPanelMichael. However, if I don't use the express transfer, the transfer is a lot more complicated, with mail and sites still running in the old server.

    If I don't use express transfer, do the regular A records still get changed? All my servers run in a DNS cluster, by the way.
     
    #7 stormy, Dec 22, 2016
  8. cPanelMichael

    cPanelMichael Forums Analyst
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2011
    Messages:
    36,995
    Likes Received:
    1,275
    Trophy Points:
    363
    cPanel Access Level:
    Root Administrator
    Hello,

    With Express Transfer disabled, the behavior referenced earlier is correctly followed:

    Thank you.
     
    #8 cPanelMichael, Dec 22, 2016
  9. stormy

    stormy Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2003
    Messages:
    122
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    168
    Location:
    Spain
    cPanel Access Level:
    Root Administrator
    Thanks! So we only lose the automatic account suspensions and the mail forwarding to the new server. Is there a manual way of attaining this? Suspending is easy :), the mail part is the one I'm most interested in.
     
    #9 stormy, Dec 22, 2016
  10. cPanelMichael

    cPanelMichael Forums Analyst
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2011
    Messages:
    36,995
    Likes Received:
    1,275
    Trophy Points:
    363
    cPanel Access Level:
    Root Administrator
    You can update the MX entries in the DNS zone to a hostname that resolves to the IP address of the destination server, and choose "Remote Mail Exchanger" under "Email Routing" in the "WHM >> Edit DNS Zone" interface. In addition, you'd want to change the "A" records for "mail" and "webmail" to the destination server's IP address.

    Thank you.
     
    #10 cPanelMichael, Dec 23, 2016
  11. stormy

    stormy Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2003
    Messages:
    122
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    168
    Location:
    Spain
    cPanel Access Level:
    Root Administrator
    Thanks @cPanelMichael . I'm looking for a solution that I can apply to 500+ accounts, so I don't think I can do that.

    I know you don't give any dates for bug fixes, but can you give me a hint? Are we talking days, weeks or months?
     
    #11 stormy, Dec 23, 2016
  12. cPanelMichael

    cPanelMichael Forums Analyst
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2011
    Messages:
    36,995
    Likes Received:
    1,275
    Trophy Points:
    363
    cPanel Access Level:
    Root Administrator
    I don't have a time frame to report at this time, but I have linked this thread to the internal case. I'll update this thread as soon as new information is available.

    Thank you.
     
    #12 cPanelMichael, Jan 20, 2017
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)
Loading...
Similar Threads - cPanel transfer tool
  1. BizzHost

    cPanel Transfer Tool rsync: symlink Issues

    BizzHost, Nov 23, 2016, in forum: CloudLinux
    Replies:
    1
    Views:
    884
    cPanelMichael
    Nov 29, 2016
  2. tweaker

    Transfer Tool cPanel Login Failed

    tweaker, Mar 2, 2016, in forum: Data Protection
    Replies:
    1
    Views:
    1,188
    cPanelMichael
    Mar 7, 2016
  3. Drumrocker365

    cPanel Transfer Tool Stuck..

    Drumrocker365, Feb 20, 2016, in forum: General Discussion
    Replies:
    2
    Views:
    718
    cPanelMichael
    Feb 22, 2016
  4. Tufan

    From Plesk to Cpanel using Transfer Tool

    Tufan, Jan 21, 2016, in forum: Migrate to cPanel
    Replies:
    1
    Views:
    1,189
    cPanelMichael
    Jan 21, 2016
  5. harilip

    Transfering cPanel account question

    harilip, Jun 15, 2017, in forum: Data Protection
    Replies:
    3
    Views:
    171
    cPanelMichael
    Jun 16, 2017

Share This Page