Server Upgrade

[keat63]

I'm seriously considering a server upgrade on the basis that mine is now at least 5 or 6 years old, our business has grown, so probably our traffic also.
The options I'm looking at, I have the choice of HDD or SSD.
Would opting for SSD make much difference on a web server ??

Also, regarding the migration from one server to the other, would absolutely everything get migrated.
All the accounts, databases, domains, email addresses etc etc etc
What about CSF and Maldet etc, or my cron jobs ?

Would the new server be an exact mirror of my old one except for the hardware changes.

 

[kadrin]

SSD has a huge difference in performance. 100% mirror most likely is not possible

 

[keat63]

I have SSD in 2 PC's at home and I agree on the performance gains.
Just wondered if there would be anything to be gained on a web server.

In all honesty, my main concern is the migration from one server to another, and what I might need to perform for it to be seamless.

 

[keat63]

Having had a number of correspondences with my data centre, reading between the lines, the migration to another server involves a new IP address and thus DNS changes.
This I could live with, its 30 minutes work to update my DNS records, and a few hours for DNS to propogate

But what about database sync. ??

Lets assume we migrate Cpanel from one server to the other, both servers are running simulteaniosly

Do I modify my DNS records instantly, and go with the migration, not knowing if everything is OK
Or do it in a few days when I'm happy that everything is OK.

But if I do this in a few days, then my OSCommerce sites databases will be misaligned.

 

[cPanelLauren]

But what about database sync. ??

Lets assume we migrate Cpanel from one server to the other, both servers are running simulteaniosly

Do I modify my DNS records instantly, and go with the migration, not knowing if everything is OK

That's the conundrum with migrations, if you have an active eCommerce site with a highly used database you will need to resync it though this task is actually pretty simple. The way this works best is:

• You migrate your data
• Modify your local hosts file to view the sites before you change NS
• Ensure everything is functioning as intended or resolve issues.
  • In the event that find you need to take more time to configure the new server (all prior to NS change) you could just make a database backup on the old server and restore it on the new server without having to worry about overwriting data because at that point, the old server would still be the most up to date data.
• Once everything is working the way that you'd like it to then you can point your DNS to the new server
  • When you do this though, for the entirety of the time that propagation is taking place it is possible that people can be reaching the new server or the old server depending on the nameservers they hit.
  • Modifying the site's A record on the old server may help direct traffic because the A record will propagate faster but it isn't a sure thing.
    
    
• Once you're sure that propagation is complete you can do a mysqldump but not overwrite data (using the -t flag)
  
  
• Alternatively, with the steps I've listed you could potentially disable the OSCommerce sites on the old server so you won't run into issues with data, the A record would propagate pretty quickly for most users (within a couple of hours) but this is assuming that everything is ok with the site.

 

[keat63]

Hi Lauren

What about things like CSF, Maldet, CSFMailscanner, CLAMAV, Owasp & Comodo, Apache configs, HAC config etc etc .....the list goes on.
Would I have to try and recreate these on the new server, or would this also be migrated. ?

 

[cPanelLauren]

Hi @keat63

The transfer tool does not include a way to move all of the configurations over to the new server, but there is a separate tool for this that may be useful for you. The cPConf tool script The cpconftool Script - Version 84 Documentation - cPanel Documentation

Neither of these will transfer 3rd party application configurations such as those from ConfigServer or Maldet though.

 

[ffeingol]

The cPanel account transfer function does a very good job of migrating a web site (or sites) from "old" server to "new" server. The transfer process just moves sites and packages. We have literally used this to migrate 10's of thousands of sites and it works very well. As @cPanelLauren said there is a new configuration migration tool, but I have no experience with that, so I can't comment on it.

One of the features of the account transfer system is the 'express' transfer. Assuming you are not using cPanel cluster DNS, it will update DNS on the old server to point the domain to the new server. Than then gives you time to have name servers either "moved" to the new server (by updating the IP the name servers are registered on) or changing to new name servers. The "key" to a quick migration is to lower the TTL's to something like "1200" (20 minutes) well before the migration so DNS propagates quickly.

There is no easy way to migrate all the 3rd party software you have installed ( CSF, MailScanner etc.).

Then it just really depends on how big the sites / databases are as to how long the migration takes.

 

[keat63]

Thanks folks.

I wasn't sure if I might have to build the new server from scratch.
By the looks of it, I will.

This is something I'll probably be looking at in the new year, I'll speak to my datacentre and see how much grace they will give me on having two servers running.