How to Migrate Your WordPress from cPanel or Plesk to Vultr

Updated on June 22, 2024

Introduction

WordPress migration is an important task that allows you to shift from one provider to another. Usually, when you experience site performance issues linked to underlying infrastructure performance, migrating your site to a new host can improve your general site reliability and ranking.

In a shared hosting environment, cPanel and Plesk are two of the most popular control panels that offer a graphical web interface that allows you to manage your server features and functions. Among the key advantages to consider when migrating from cPanel or Plesk to Vultr include the following:

Improved site reliability and uptime
Clear bandwidth usage statistics
Improved Security with optional Vultr Firewall functionalities
Full access to your backend server

This article explains how to migrate your WordPress site from cPanel or Plesk to Vultr using a Ubuntu production server. You are to apply the FTP or SFTP to handle file transfer, and mysqldump to restore your WordPress database on the server.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you:

Deploy a OneClick WordPress server on Vultr using the Vultr Marketplace application

Or, you can deploy a cPanel or Plesk server using a OneClick application from the Vultr Marketplace to keep your graphical management environment when switching providers.
Have access to the WordPress site domain DNS records
Use SSH to access the WordPress server
Create a standard user with sudo privileges. For example webadmin
Switch to the new user account
```
  # su webadmin
```

Set Up Your Vultr Server

WordPress requires a set of PHP extensions to run correctly on your server. By default, the Vultr OneClick WordPress image run all necessary extensions, a database server, and Nginx as the web server. In this section, create the WordPress MySQL database, and test your web server configuration as described in the following steps.

Verify the installed PHP version
```
 $ php -v
```
Output:
```
 PHP 8.1.21 (cli) (built: Jul 12 2023 23:03:54) (NTS)
 Copyright (c) The PHP Group
```
Make sure the PHP version is 7.4 and above as required by WordPress
To prepare the WordPress database. Log in to the MySQL database server as the root user
```
 $ sudo mysql
```
If the above command fails to run, log in with the root user password
```
 $ sudo mysql -u root -p
```
To view the default Vultr server database password, run the following command
```
 $ sudo cat /root/.db_password
```
Create a new database
```
 mysql> CREATE DATABASE wordpressdb;
```

Create a new database user with a strong password.

 mysql> CREATE USER 'adminuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YOUR STRONG PASSWORD';

Grant the user administrative privileges to the database

 mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpressdb.* TO adminuser@localhost

Refresh MySQL privileges
```
 mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES
```
Exit the MySQL console
```
 mysql> EXIT
```
To set up the web server, create a new web root directory to store WordPress files
```
 $ sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com
```
Switch to the main Nginx configuration files directory /etc/nginx
```
 $ cd /etc/nginx/
```
> The Vultr OneClick application uses the LEMP (Linux, Nginx, MySQL, PHP) stack. When using LAMP, switch to the Apache directory instead
Deactivate the default WordPress configuration files
```
 $ sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*
```
Create a new WordPress configuration file in the sites-available directory
```
 $ sudo touch /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com
```

Using a text editor such as nano, edit the file

 $ sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com

Add the following configurations to the file. Replace example.com with your actual WordPress domain name

 server {
     listen 80;
     server_name example.com www.example.com;

     # WordPress web root directory

     root /var/www/example.com; 
     index index.php index.html index.htm;

     location / {
         try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
     }

     # PHP Configuration

     location ~ \.php$ {
         include fastcgi_params;
         fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;  # Update the PHP-FPM socket path
         fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
         fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME $fastcgi_script_name;
     }

     # Set Expiry Headers

     location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ {
         expires max;
         log_not_found off;
     }

     # Disable XML-RPC
     location = /xmlrpc.php {
         deny all;
     }

     # Enable Gzip compression
     gzip on;
     gzip_comp_level 4;
     gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

 }

Save and close the file

Activate the configuration file

 $ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Test the Nginx configuration for errors
```
 $ sudo nginx -t
```
When the web server configuration is valid, your output should look like the one below:
```
 nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
 nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
```
In case the test returns any errors. Fix the indicated error to avoid breaking your web server configuration
Restart Nginx to apply your WordPress host configuration changes
```
 $ sudo systemctl restart nginx
```

Migrate WordPress from cPanel to Vultr

To migrate your WordPress site from cPanel to Vultr. Verify that your cPanel account supports FTP accounts, then back up your WordPress files and database to restore them on the target Vultr WordPress server as described in the steps below.

1. Backup WordPress Files

In the Files section, click to open File Manager
Find and view your WordPress web root directory. Usually /public_html or your-domain.com depending on your account setup
On the top bar, click Select All to start the WordPress backup process.
Click Compress to create a backup archive file.
In the Compress dialog, select your desired Compression Type. For the best results, select GZiped Tar Archive
Verify that all WordPress files are available on the Files to compress list
Enter a custom name to assign the backup file. For example, backup.tar.gz

Wait for the backup process to complete, and close the Compression Results dialog
Verify that a new archive file is available in your target directory

2. Backup the WordPress Database

Navigate to the main cPanel dashboard
Find the Databases section, and click phpMyAdmin
Within the phpMyAdmin interface, find and click your target WordPress database on the left navigation menu

In cases where you have multiple WordPress websites, view your target site's wp-config.php file and note the database name
Click Export on the main navigation bar
In the Export Method:, keep Quick-display only the minimal options selected
Keep SQL as the Format:, and click Export to download the WordPress database backup to your computer
When the download is complete, visit your downloads directory and verify that a new .sql file is available on your computer
To access the database in your cPanel files, navigate to the File Manager
Switch to the WordPress files directory and upload the database.sql file to the path
When the database upload is complete, prepare your account for transfer to the new WordPress server

3. Prepare the cPanel File Transfer Accounts

Navigate to your main cPanel account dashboard
Find the Files section, and click FTP Accounts
Within the Add FTP Account form, enter your desired username in the Log In field. For example wpbackup
Enter a strong password in the appropriate fields
In the Directory field, replace the placeholder values with your WordPress web root directory public_html/
Keep the Quota set to unlimited
Click Create FTP Account to add the FTP Account to your server
Verify that the account gets created, and it’s listed in the FTP Accounts section

4. Transfer WordPress Backup Files from cPanel to your Vultr Server

Using SSH, access your Vultr WordPress server
```
 $ ssh webadmin@SERVER-IP
```
Establish an FTP connection to your cPanel server. Replace example.com with your actual domain name
```
 $ ftp wpbackup@example.com
```
List files in the directory.
```
 > ls
```
Verify that the backup.tar.gz and your database.sql files are available. If the user is only permitted to access /public_html, only WordPress files should display in the directory.

Download the WordPress files archive file to your server

 > get backup.tar.gz

Output:

 local: backup.tar.gz remote: backup.tar.gz
 200 EPRT command successful
 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for backup.tar.gz (3236 bytes)
 100% |*********************************************************************************************************************************************|  3236        6.50 MiB/s    00:00 ETA
 226 Transfer complete
 3236 bytes received in 00:00 (16.41 KiB/s)

Download the database backup file
```
 > get database.sql
```
Monitor the FTP get progress, and close the FTP connection when complete
```
 > exit
```
List files and verify that all backup files are available in your working directory
```
 $ ls
```
Extract files from the WordPress tar.gz archive to your web root directory
```
 $ sudo tar -xzvf backup.tar.gz -C /var/www/example.com/
```
When the extraction is complete, grant the web server ownership privileges to the directory
```
 $ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/example.com
```
Restore the WordPress database to the MySQL database you created earlier
```
 $ mysql -u adminuser -p wordpressdb < database.sql
```
When the restoration completes without errors, Log in to the MySQL database server
```
 $ mysql -u adminuser -p
```
Switch to the WordPress database
```
 mysql> USE wordpressdb;
```

Show the database tables to verify that all WordPress tables are available

 mysql> SHOW TABLES:

Output:

 +----------------------------+
 | Tables_in_wordpressdb      |
 +----------------------------+
 | wp_actionscheduler_actions |
 | wp_actionscheduler_claims  |
 | wp_actionscheduler_groups  |
 | wp_actionscheduler_logs    |
 | wp_as3cf_items             |
 | wp_commentmeta             |
 | wp_comments                |

Exit the MySQL console
```
mysql> EXIT
```

You have migrated your WordPress site from cPanel to your Vultr WordPress server. Complete the migration process by setting up the correct DNS records and verify that you can access the WordPress site when DNS propagation is complete.

Migrate WordPress from Plesk to Vultr

To migrate your WordPress site from Plesk to your Vultr WordPress server. Log in to your Plesk account to access the control panel interface and carry out backup actions as described in the steps below.

1. Backup the WordPress Files

On the left navigation menu, click Files to open the File Manager
Within the File Manager interface, find and click httpdocs or your WordPress files directory such as example.com
Check the Select All box next to Name to choose all WordPress files in the directory
On the top menu bar, click the Archive dropdown and select Add to Archive from the list of options
Enter your desired WordPress backup filename. For example wpbackup
Click OK and wait for the archiving process to complete
When complete, verify that a new wpbackup.zip file is available in your httpdocs directory

2. Backup the Full WordPress Database

Navigate to Databases on the main navigation bar
Find your target database, and click Export Dump
In the Export Dump dialog, select the httpdocs directory, and enter your desired WordPress database backup filename. For example wpdb.zip
Click OK to back up your WordPress database
When complete, navigate to Files and verify that a new .sql.zip file is available in your target directory httpdocs

3. Prepare the Plesk File Transfer accounts

Navigate to Websites & Domains
Scroll and find your WordPress domain name
Within the domain section, click FTP to open the FTP Accounts page
Click Add an FTP Account, and enter your desired username in the FTP account name field. For example wpbackup
Click the Home directory and set it to /
Enter a strong password and confirm the password for your FTP account
Click OK to save changes
Verify that the new FTP account is available on the accounts page and ready to handle connections to your Vultr Server

4. Transfer WordPress files from Plesk to the Vultr WordPress server

Using SSH, access your Vultr WordPress server
```
 $ ssh webadmin@SERVER-IP
```
Establish an FTP connection to your Plesk server
```
 $ ftp wpbackup@example.com
```
Switch to the httpdocs directory
```
 > cd httpdocs
```
Download the WordPress files archive file you generated earlier
```
 > get wpbackup.zip
```
Download the WordPress database backup file
```
 > get wpdb.zip
```
Verify that the FTP download process completes without errors and exit the FTP console
```
 > exit
```
List files in your working directory
```
 $ ls
```
Verify that the WordPress files and database backup are available
Extract WordPress files from the backup archive to your web root directory
```
 $ sudo unzip wpbackup.zip -d /var/www/example.com/
```
When complete, grant the web server ownership permissions to the WordPress web root directory
```
 $ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/example.com
```
Extract the WordPress database from the backup archive
```
 $ unzip wpdb.zip
```
Restore your WordPress database to the new database on your server
```
 $ mysql -u adminuser -p wordpressdb < database.sql
```
When the restoration is complete, log in to the MySQL database server
```
 $ mysql -u adminuser -p
```
Switch to the WordPress database
```
 mysql> USE wordpressdb;
```

View all database tables to verify that the correct WordPress structure is available

 mysql> SHOW TABLES;

Output:

 +----------------------------+
 | Tables_in_wordpressdb      |
 +----------------------------+
 | wp_actionscheduler_actions |
 | wp_actionscheduler_claims  |
 | wp_actionscheduler_groups  |
 | wp_actionscheduler_logs    |
 | wp_as3cf_items             |
 | wp_commentmeta             |
 | wp_comments                |

Exit the MySQL database console
```
 mysql> EXIT
```

You have transferred your WordPress site files from Plesk to your Vultr Server, configure the necessary DNS records, and generate SSL certificates to redirect all user traffic and activate WordPress on the server

Configure DNS Records

Depending on your domain registrar, you do not need to change nameservers, unless hosted by the same cPanel or Plesk provider. Instead, you need to change the domain records to point to your Vultr Server which handles all client requests. In this section, configure your DNS records to point to the new WordPress server as described in the steps below.

Log in to your domain registrar such as eNom, Namecheap, Cloudflare, GoDaddy, among others

If your domain registrar doubles as your hosting provider, migrate your domain to another registrar such as Cloudflare and change your nameservers to:
```
 ns1.vultr.com
 ns2.vultr.com
```
To effectively use the above Vultr nameservers, log in to the Vultr customer portal, and add the domain name to link to your Vultr account.
Find and click your domain name to open the DNS records
On the DNS records page, find and edit the domain A record
Change the IPV4 Address to your Vultr WordPress server's public IP Address
Wait for the DNS propagation to complete, when using Vultr DNS, changes should reflect in less than 3 hours.

If you have email accounts linked to your WordPress site, set up a mail server and change the domain MX records to point to the new server.

Generate SSL Certificates

To enable HTTPS access and redirect HTTP requests on your WordPress site, generate SSL certificates for your WordPress site domain. In this section, use the free Certbot Let’s Encrypt Client tool to request a new SSL certificate for your domain as described below.

Verify that Certbot is available on the server
```
 $ sudo certbot --version
```

When unavailable, install Certbot using the Snap package manager

    $ sudo snap install certbot --classic

Generate an SSL certificate for your WordPress domain name. Replace example.com, admin@example.com with your actual domain and active email address respectively
```
 $ sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -m admin@example.com
```
Verify that Certbot auto-renews your SSL certificate upon expiry
```
 $ sudo certbot renew --dry-run
```
When the command is successful, Certbot auto-renews your SSL certificate every after 90 days.

Test Your WordPress Site

Using a web browser such as Firefox, visit your WordPress site
```
 https://example.com
```
Verify that your site loads correctly without any errors
Log in to the WordPress administrator dashboard
```
 https://example.com/wp-admin
```
Navigate to Tools and select Site Health from the drop-down list.
Click Info, and expand the Server drop down to view information about your WordPress server. Verify that the values change compared to your previous WordPress server details.
Click to expand File Permissions and verify that all directories are writable
Expand Database to view your MySQL database details. Verify that the new database and user you created earlier appear on the list
Your WordPress site is ready to use. You can safely add new posts, pages, or WooCommerce elements that load directly from your new WordPress server

Troubleshooting

The WordPress migration process should return no errors, nor should the site users detect any changes while using the site. But if in any way your WordPress site returns any error, fix it as defined in the steps below

503 Service Unavailable

View the web server logs to find the exact source of the error
```
 $ sudo cat /var/log/nginx/error.log
```
Verify that PHP-FPM is running correctly without any errors.
```
 $ sudo systemctl status php-fpm
```

Verify that the Nginx configuration returns no configuration errors

 $ sudo nginx -t

Output:

 nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
 nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Verify that the Nginx web server is running correctly without any error

 $ sudo systemctl status nginx

Output:

   ● nginx.service - A high-performance web server and a reverse proxy server
      Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
      Active: active (running) since Thu 2023-07-27 13:46:34 UTC; 1 month 1 day ago
        Docs: man:nginx(8)
    Main PID: 101326 (nginx)

Error Establishing a Database Connection

Navigate to your WordPress webroot directory.
```
 $ sudo cd /var/www/example.com
```
View the contents of the wp-config.php file and verify that they match your WordPress user and the database you created earlier
```
 $ cat wp-config.php
```
Log in to the MySQL database using the WordPress user in your wp-config.php file
```
 $ mysql -u adminuser -p
```
Verify that the user has access to the WordPress database
```
 mysql> SHOW DATABASES:
```
The WordPress database should display in your output:
Exit the MySQL console
```
 mysql> EXIT
```
View the list of installed PHP extensions on your server, and verify that the mysqli extension is available on the list
```
 $ php -m
```
Output:
```
 [PHP Modules]
 mbstring
 memcached
 msgpack
 mysqli
 mysqlnd
 openssl
 pcntl
```

Insecure Connection

Using Certbot, generate a new Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate. Replace example.com with your actual domain name.
```
 $ sudo certbot -d example.com -m adminuser@example.com --agree-tos
```
Verify that the SSL certificate installs correctly to the server. If it fails, verify the DNS propagation is complete, and the ports 80, 443 are open on the server firewall.
View the UFW firewall table
```
 $ sudo ufw status
```
Allow the HTTP and HTTPS ports if they’re missing
```
 $ sudo ufw allow 80,443/tcp
```
Restart the firewall to save changes
```
 $ sudo ufw reload
```
Test auto-renewal to verify that the certificate renews upon expiry
```
 $ sudo certbot renew --dry-run
```

404 Not Found

This error occurs when the web server does not have read privileges on your WordPress web root directory. Or, reset WordPress permalinks in the administrator dashboard to correct your post and page URLs. To grant the Nginx web server correct privileges to WordPress files, follow the steps below.

Switch to the Nginx sites-available directory.
```
 $ cd /etc/nginx/sites-available/
```
View the WordPress virtual host configuration
```
 $ cat example.com
```
Verify that your WordPress host configuration file points to the correct webroot directory, and index.php is available on the index list
```
 root /var/www/example.com;
 index index.php index.html;
```
View the web root directory permissions
```
 $ ls -l /var/www/example.com
```
Grant the web server ownership permissions to the directory
```
 $ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/example.com
```
Restart Nginx to apply changes
```
 $ sudo systemctl restart nginx
```
Visit your WordPress site and verify that it loads correctly without the error
```
 https://example.com
```
If the error persists, view the Nginx error.log to find the exact source of the error
```
 $ sudo cat /var/log/nginx/error.log
```

Conclusion

In this article, you migrated your WordPress site from cPanel or Plesk to a Vultr server. Depending on your source hosting environment, your website users may not notice the change while migrating your WordPress site. This means, your WordPress site must not experience any downtime. However, notable differences in the WordPress site speed, ranking, and reliability reflect when you make the change.

Next Steps

To improve your WordPress site performance and implement more solutions on the server, visit the following resources:

How to Migrate Your WordPress from cPanel or Plesk to Vultr

Introduction

Prerequisites

Set Up Your Vultr Server

Migrate WordPress from cPanel to Vultr

1. Backup WordPress Files

2. Backup the WordPress Database

3. Prepare the cPanel File Transfer Accounts

4. Transfer WordPress Backup Files from cPanel to your Vultr Server

Migrate WordPress from Plesk to Vultr

1. Backup the WordPress Files

2. Backup the Full WordPress Database

3. Prepare the Plesk File Transfer accounts

4. Transfer WordPress files from Plesk to the Vultr WordPress server

Configure DNS Records

Generate SSL Certificates

Test Your WordPress Site

Troubleshooting

503 Service Unavailable

Error Establishing a Database Connection

Insecure Connection

404 Not Found

Conclusion

Next Steps

Products

Features

Marketplace

Resources

Company