How to migrate a website from a VPS to a Dedicated Server or a Public Cloud instance

Objective

As your website grows, the resources of a VPS can quickly become insufficient to meet your growing needs in terms of performance, traffic management, or processing complex tasks. By migrating to a dedicated server or Public Cloud instance, you benefit from a more powerful and customizable infrastructure, adapted to more demanding workloads. This guide focuses on the essential steps for carrying out this migration efficiently, while ensuring service continuity.

Find out how to migrate your website from a VPS to a dedicated server or a Public Cloud instance.

Requirements

• Administrative access to the source VPS (via SSH).
• A dedicated server or Public Cloud instance in your OVHcloud account.
• Administrator access to the destination server (via SSH).
• Knowledge of server management basics (Apache/Nginx, databases, etc.).

Instructions

Content overview

• Step 1 - Back up your website files and database
• Step 2 - Prepare the destination Dedicated Server or Public Cloud Instance
• Step 3 - Transfer the files and database to the destination server
• Step 4 - Configure the website on the destination server
• Step 5 - Update DNS records
• Step 6 - Check that your website is working properly
• Step 7 - Secure your dedicated server or Public Cloud instance

Step 1 - Back up your website files and database

The first step is to back up all of your website’s files.

Step 1.1 - Back up files

Log in to your VPS via SSH, and save your website files:

ssh <user>@<vps_ip>
cd /var/www/html
tar -czf site_backup.tar.gz *

Replace:

• <user>: by the user you use to connect to the VPS.
• <vps_ip>: by the IP address of your VPS.

Step 1.2 - Back up the database

If your website uses a database, save it using the command lines provided by your DataBase Management System (DBMS).

mysqldump -u `<db_user>` -p `<db_name>` > database_backup.sql

If you are using another DBMS, refer to its official documentation to find the commands for backing up the database.

Step 2 - Prepare the destination Dedicated Server or Public Cloud Instance

Before you migrate your website’s files and databases, prepare your destination server.

Step 2.1 - Create and configure the Public Cloud instance

If you are unfamiliar with Public Cloud, please refer to our guide on "Getting started with Public Cloud".

To create and configure a Public Cloud instance, follow the steps in our guide on "Creating and connecting to a Public Cloud instance".

Step 2.2 - Install and configure the dedicated server

To prepare your dedicated server, please read our guide on "Getting started with a dedicated server".

This guide will help you in:

• Installation of an operating system.
• Your server configuration to allow access via SSH.
• The initial connection to prepare the deployment of your website files.

Step 3 - Transfer the files and database to the destination server

After preparing your dedicated server or Public Cloud instance, transfer the backed-up files and database from your VPS.

Step 3.1 - Transfer files

Use the rsync tool to transfer archived files to the destination server. This method is fast, secure, and allows file permissions to be retained.

1. Log in from your VPS and launch the transfer via SSH:

rsync -avz /var/www/html/site_backup.tar.gz <user>@<destination_ip>:/var/www/html/

Replace:

• <user>: by the destination server's user.
• <destination_ip>: by the IP address of the dedicated server or Public Cloud instance.

For more details on using rsync, please refer to our guide "How to copy data from one server to another using rsync".

2. Once the files are transferred, connect to the destination server and extract the archive:

ssh `<user>`@`<destination_ip>`
cd /var/www/html
tar -xzf site_backup.tar.gz

Step 3.2 - Import the database

1. Create a new database

Connect via SSH to a dedicated server or a Public Cloud instance. Create a new database based on your DBMS:

2. Import the database

Use the command line below to import the database you backed up in step 1.2.

In the example below, we use MySQL. Use the official DBMS documentation that you installed in the previous step to use the appropriate command line to import the database to your server.

mysql -u user_name -p db_name < root/to/database_backup.sql

Replace:

• user_name: by your MySQL username.
• db_name: by the database name.
• root/to/database_backup.sql: by the path of the backed-up SQL file.

Step 4 - Configure the website on the destination server

After transferring the files and importing the database, configure your destination server to support your website.

Step 4.1 - Configure the web server

To associate your website with its domain or subdomain, configure a virtual host:

1. Apache

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/your_website.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName your_domain.com
   DocumentRoot /var/www/html
   <Directory /var/www/html>
       AllowOverride All
       Require all granted
   </Directory>
   ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
   CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

sudo a2ensite your_website.conf

sudo systemctl reload apache2

2. Nginx

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/your_website

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name your_domain.com;
  root /var/www/html;

  location / {
      index.html index.php;
      try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
  }

   error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
   access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
}

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/your_website /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 4.2 - Configure your website’s configuration files

Once you have configured your web server, it is important to update your website’s configuration files to ensure that it will work properly. The main variables to adjust are often the database connection information, as well as folder paths. Here are the specific configurations to update for the main CMSs.

If you use a Web Cloud Databases database, make sure that your server is authorized to connect to it. To do this, add the server's IP address to the list of authorized IP addresses. This configuration secures access to the database and prevents connection problems. Please refer to the "Authorize an IP address" section of our guide "Getting started with the Web Cloud Databases service".

Step 5 - Update DNS records

To point your website’s domain name to your dedicated server or Public Cloud instance, configure the domain name’s DNS records to direct traffic to your server’s public IP address. To guide you through this process, follow our guide on "Editing an OVHcloud DNS zone".

Step 6 - Check that your website is working properly

Once the migration is complete, test your website to make sure it works as expected. Check all essential features (forms, user connections, online payment, etc.) and ensure that all pages display correctly.

Step 7 - Secure your dedicated server or Public Cloud instance

Once you have migrated your website to a dedicated server or Public Cloud instance, it is vital to secure your server, to protect your data and ensure that your services work properly.

For a full list of security best practices, please refer to our guides "Securing a dedicated server" and "Best practices for securing and structuring OVHcloud Public Cloud projects".

Go further

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