PanelDOCSv1.0.0

Move customers in

Bring your customers' hosting accounts over from old servers to HF Panel servers with Import accounts, in batches, with little downtime.

When you replace old servers with HF Panel servers, Import accounts brings each hosting account over from its full account backup: websites, databases, email with every message, forwarders, DNS records and cron jobs. Customers keep their usernames and passwords.

Where: Server Admin › Accounts › Import accounts

The screen itself is described in Import accounts. This page is the plan around it for a whole fleet.

Plan the move

  1. Pick a pilot. Move a handful of your own or friendly customers' accounts first, of different kinds: a WordPress site, a shop with a database, a mail-heavy account.
  2. Make packages first. Create the packages that match your old plans on the new servers, so each account lands on the right limits.
  3. Lower DNS TTLs. A day before, set the TTL of the moving domains to 5 minutes, so the switch is quick.
  4. Tell customers the date, the new panel address and what changes for them (nothing, for most).

Move an account

  1. On the old server, make a full account backup of the account. Nothing changes on the old server.
  2. Copy the file to /home/hostfog-import on the new server, for example with SFTP (backups over 1 GB cannot be uploaded through the browser), or give the screen a download link.
  3. On Import accounts, choose the file, leave Username empty to keep the old one, choose the Package and click Start import.
  4. Check the site on the new server before DNS points to it, then switch the domain's DNS or nameservers.
  5. Mail that arrived on the old server after the backup: make a second backup of the mailbox, or let customers' mail apps sync once both servers are reachable.

Many accounts

  • Import in batches of a few accounts at a time, out of office hours; each import runs in the background.
  • Copy every backup to /home/hostfog-import first, then work through the list on the screen.
  • Keep a sheet of each account: old server, new server, imported, checked, DNS switched.
  • Keep the old server running, unchanged, until every account has been checked on the new one.

Note: imports create normal accounts on the new server. Each new server needs a licence first: issue them in one call with the bulk API.