Transferring domain from multi-site cpanel to another server

[ebizindia]

Hi

We have a domain hosted with Hostgator. The master account of this domain is example.com and we have another domain example1.com as an addon domain.

The total space taken is 70 GB and example1.com takes about 20 GB.

Now we want to transfer example1.com to another server.

However a full backup fails because of some 10 GB limit on backup file size.

I have the root access and password for the target server. Can I use the transfer tool or a full backup and restore cycle to move the domain? I do not have the root password for the present server which is apparently required for the Transfer tool in WHM.

Please advise a way out.

 

[Infopro]

You might consider using the cpbackup-exclude.conf to prevent some directories from being backed up:
How to Exclude Files From Backups - cPanel Documentation

Say for instance you had a large directory of .pdf files, you could exclude that one directory from the "Full Website Backup", restore the backup you created on the new server and then move the .pdf directory some other way, rsync for example.

A really large account is best if backed up locally, moved, and then restored on the new server in my experience. Breaking it up into a couple of pieces even better if you can.

 

[ebizindia]

Thanks so much. I have some limitations:

1. The space is taken up by emails saved by the client for a long time. So excluding files is not an option.

2. I do not have shell access. I can only operate through Cpanel.

3. The sites are hosted on Hostgator server who seem to be expecting a fee for helping in migration to another server.

4. The backup will be slightly smaller if I can backup only the addon domain. How to do that? Looks like the cpanel backup utility is trying to backup the entire domain (main domain + all addons).

5. I do have another dedicated server with full root access but this is only able to ask the original server to use pkgacct utility which is failing die to size restriction.

I am wondering if I can use rsync (or any similar tool) to pull in data.

 

[Infopro]

1. I've had a couple of these over the years, tough call. I was successful in making my cases, talking them into pruning the old mail. You can indeed exclude the email directory if needed though.

2. You can still exclude directories, compress and move them without shell access, certainly a bit more time consuming though.

3. Whats your time worth? This is a big account after all.

4. You can't. What you can do is back it up in parts though. Compress the /addon/ directory via File Manager Compress tool. Download and then upload to the new server and unpack via File manager. Or FXP from FTP to FTP if possible, probably not an option though. Backup any databases for it, and move them the same way. Depending on size you may need your Hosting providers assistance to restore those to MySQL for you. If it has any email accounts, you can move those manually as well. See this post by cPanelTristan for an example of how:
How to move website to another user - cPanel Forums

There are many other threads on these forums about this sort of thing, even this whole process you're trying to accomplish.

5. You could do a Full Website Backup, move it to public_html/ and wget the backup even, I suppose.

Very large accounts like this take some extra work, no doubt, you're not out of luck though. Depending on your experience and time to spare on this, you might give #3 some more thought. Or, think about explaining to the user that 20GB of mail is just plain crazy, you know?


GL!