In order to simplify the migration from our old I-MSCP products to our new Plesk web hosting packages, we'll give you a guide on how to do it manually with ease.
Preparing for the migration
To minimize downtime, we recommend that one day before the migration, you set the TTL (Time to Live) value of the domain that is going to be moved to 600 (10 minutes). If your domains are already with us, you can easily adjust them in the customer portal under the menu item Domains / DNS → RR:
If you are running a store, we recommend that you always pre-set a maintenance mode so that no new orders can be lost.
Export existing data
Once you have completed the preparation, you can start exporting the existing data. In our example, we need to migrate an existing WordPress installation. We'll start with the database in this case.
Export database
To export the existing database, first of all, log in to your I-MSCP web hosting plan. In our case this is https://web20.premium-webspace.net:4443. You then go to the menu item Databases and can directly view the existing databases of your created domains.
In our case, the database name is marked here at the top, 220_wordpress and the database user below, also 220_wordpress. To export the database, go to phpMyAdmin in the side menu on the left. Here you still need the password for the respective database user. If you don't have the password at hand anymore, you can also create a new SQL user as shown in the picture.
After you have logged into the phpMyAdmin interface, you can view your existing database. Here, click once on the database name and then go to Export:
Now you can easily export the existing database by clicking OK to confirm. The created .sql file will automatically be saved in your download directory:
The export of the database is now complete.
Exporting Files
To export the files stored on the web server, we use the FTP client FileZilla in our example. Here you first enter the FTP data you already have and connect to the server.
Then download the complete htdocs folder to your desktop. After all files have been successfully transferred, this also completes the export.
Plesk Preparation
Before you start the migration, you need to create your previous domains in the Plesk interface. You can easily do this under the Websites & Domains menu item. Here you go to Add Domain and select Empty Website. Now you can enter your previous domain under Registered domain name and click Add domain.
Import database into Plesk
To import the exported database into Plesk, go to the Databases menu item in your new Plesk interface and create a new database including users. To make the migration a little easier, we recommend that you copy the previous data exactly. That is, the database name, the database user and the database password. This saves you having to modify configuration files.
It is important that you select the database of the corresponding domain. Then click OK to create the database. Now you can log in to the phpMyAdmin interface as in the previous steps and select the database.
To import the database you exported earlier, now go to Import and select the .sql file that was saved when you exported it.
If you do not receive an error message here, the database has been imported successfully and the process is now complete.
Uploading files to the Plesk web server
Last but not least, you need to upload the entire contents of the htdocs folder that you transferred to your desktop in the previous step to the new Plesk web server. To do this, create an FTP user at the corresponding domain. You can easily create this user under the menu item Websites & Domains → FTP Access.
Enter any FTP account name and generate a password. Please save this data temporarily. Now you can connect to the server using the FTP client with the access data you have just created, specifying your new Plesk web server. You can find the IP address for the FTP connection under the FTP access you just created under Websites & Domains → FTP Access.
Now you can connect to the server using the FTP client, just as you did earlier when exporting the data, and upload the files from the htdocs folder to the httpdocs folder.
This completes the migration of your data and you can check if the website is displayed correctly. For this, Plesk provides a preview link under Websites & Domains.
If the website throws errors, you need to check your configuration files.
If the website is displayed correctly, you can replace the old A-Record entries with the new Plesk web server IP in the DNS settings of your domain and set the TTL back to 86400 (24 hours). This completes the migration of the website.
Migrate email accounts
To migrate the existing email accounts, you will need the passwords for each mailbox. If you no longer have these to hand, you can also reset them at any time. To do this, go once in the I-MSCP access to the menu item Email.
Now you can assign the passwords for the respective mailbox under Edit.
Now simply generate a new password, then display and cache it. Then click Update to apply the new password. Once you have noted down all passwords for all mailboxes, you can perform the migration via the Plesk interface under the menu item Email → Email Import. Important: Create all previous mailboxes under the menu item Email Accounts beforehand.
Here, it is important to make sure that you select the associated domain for the previous mailbox. Now go click on the Import e-mail messages button and enter the respective server data.
In our case this would be the following data:
It is important here that the mailbox to be migrated is the same as the destination email address. You should also show the advanced options and specify your previous web server as IMAP host - in our example this is web20.premium-webspace.net - and specify 993 as IMAP port. Now you can click OK and the migration of your mailbox will start. You have to perform this step for every single mailbox.