How do I move my hosting services to Tierra Net from another provider

In this article:

Planning on moving your hosting from another provider? There are several things to consider when you are planning to move your hosting services from another provider. Here are the main points you need to consider:

• Who is my Registrar?
• Who is my Hosting Provider?
• What type of website do I have?
• Where are my Nameservers pointing to?
• What are my DNS records?
• Do I have an SSL?

We will be going over each one of theses topics, but if you are already familiar with the subject, feel free to skip to the steps to start your hosting migration.

• Who is my Registrar
  • Your Registrar is where your domain is registered, meaning you pay them to keep the domain under your name. If you have your domain registered with another provider, you might want to consider transferring your domain to us:

  • How do I transfer my domain name to TierraNet?

• Who is my Hosting Provider?
  • Your hosting provider is typically where you will find your services such as Website, email, SSL and DNS. Although, sometimes people may have each of these services with different providers, you will most commonly have all of these services with just one provider.
• What type of website do I have?
  • Weird as it may seem, there are several ways to build a website. Your site can be build as just HTML, you could have used a CMS(Content Management System) like Wordpress or you hosting provider would just have an in house Website builder. Depending on how your site is built, migrating your web files from your hosting provider to us might be difficult or not possible. We will expand on migration later in the article.
• Where are my Nameservers pointing to?
  • Your Nameservers should typically be pointing to either your Registrar or Hosting Provider, although there are other services you can point your Nameservers to. Whoever you are pointing your Nameservers to controls your DNS.
• What are my DNS Records?
  • Your DNS(Domain Name System) Records tell your services where to go. You can have your website built with one provider and your emails with another provider. It is important to have or download your DNS Records for your services to work properly.
• Do I have an SSL?
  • If you have an SSL Certificate securing your website, know that you might have to take some additional steps to install the SSL with us.

Once you have all your information, you are ready to start your Migration!! YAY!!

Manual migration is much more complex and you may have difficulty following the entire process if you are inexperienced. We’ll walk through each of the steps involved in migrating your website. Even though the process is more involved, you can easily migrate your site by closely following the steps below.

How Do You Back up Your Files and Databases Before You Migrate?

It’s critical to back up your entire website database and any files before running your migration. Once you have a backup on hand, you can start migrating without any risk of losing your files.

1. Back up your site

First, you’ll need to download your database to your computer, backing up your existing database and files. From there, you can create a database where you’ll upload the information you just downloaded.

2. Export your database

Migrating your site involves exporting your existing database and transferring it over to us. You download your database for local access on your computer when you export it. Different providers offer database access differently, but most providers, like us, use the phpMyAdmin interface.

You can also use Workbench or any other reliable platform. We use phpMyAdmin for this guide, but the process should be similar regardless of your service.

From phpMyAdmin, select the database you want to download from the left-hand menu. If you’re unsure which database you need, open your site’s wp-config.php file and look for “define (‘DB_NAME’).” The name on your config file should be visible in phpMyAdmin. After that, click on Export to start the export process based on your parameters.

3. Create a new database

Now that you have a database ready to plug into your new host, you can set up a database with your new provider. Once that’s ready, you can move your existing database over after making a few changes, which we’ll cover in the next step. We’ll be working with MySQL, but the specifics may vary depending on your platform.

To create a new database, navigate to MySQL databases and set up a database, user, and corresponding password. Make sure to take note of that information, along with the name of the MySQL server you’re using.

4. Edit the config.php file

While your site’s files can generally be transferred directly to the new host, you’ll need to make some changes before completing that operation. The config.php file is responsible for connecting your database to the files on your site, and it will still be set up for your old database when you export it to the device you’re using. Don’t forget to create a copy of the file before making any edits.

In config.php, you should find a section with “MySQL database username,” “MYSQL database password,” and “MySQL hostname,” along with the name of the database itself. Those values will then be defined in the following lines. You’ll need to change that information to match your new database before uploading the files to your new host.

5. Upload it to your new host

With your config.php file set up for the new host, it’s time to upload your files to the provider. Connect your FTP client to your new server’s IP address, which should be easily accessible in the account you set up with your new provider.

Uploading your site files can take some time, so feel free to move on to the next steps while you wait for the upload to finish. Now, all that’s left is to import your database, switch your DNS server, and cancel your old hosting account.

6. Import your database to the new host

Finally, it’s time to import your database into your new hosting provider. This process should be similar to exporting an existing database to your computer, especially if your new host uses the same administration tools as the old one.

If you’re using phpMyAdmin, click on the database you want to use, and then select the “Import” tab. Simply follow the steps provided on-screen to start the process — the tool should notify you automatically when the upload is complete.