How to migrate an existing WordPress site to Hostvento Hosting

This article describes how to migrate an existing WordPress site to an Hostvento Hosting account.

This article explains how to move a WordPress website by hand. Furthermore, there are plugins that can help you migrate an existing WordPress website, such as WordPress Move and Duplicator. However, Hostvento Hosting does not provide support for these plugins, and they may not work with all settings.

Migrating an existing WordPress site to Hostvento Hosting

It is not necessary to install WordPress from scratch if you already have a website running on another hosting company and would like to transfer it to Hostvento Hosting. The WordPress website can be moved to your Hostvento Hosting account as an alternative. There are five primary steps to take in order to guarantee the transferred site functions properly:

• Migrate the WordPress files, including all application code files, plugins, themes, and configuration files.
• Migrate the WordPress MySQL database.
• Configure any custom settings that are in php.ini or .htaccess files.
• Configure domain settings.
• Test the new site.

The following sections guide you through each of these steps.

Step 1: Migrate the WordPress files

Moving all of the WordPress files from the current website to your Hostvento Hosting account is the first step. Compressing all of the files into a single.zip file containing the WordPress core application files, configuration files, plugins, and themes is the simplest way to accomplish this.

Using cPanel

If your hosting accounts include cPanel, you can use the File Manager to migrate the WordPress files. To do this, follow these steps:

1. To create a.zip file by compressing the WordPress files:
   • Log in to cPanel on the account that hosts the existing WordPress site.
   • In the Files section of the cPanel home screen, click File Manager.
   • In the Directory Selection dialog box, select Home Directory, confirm that the Show Hidden Files check box is selected, and then click Go.
   • In the File Manager’s main pane, right-click the public_html directory, and then click Compress.If WordPress is not installed in the public_html directory, go to the directory that contains the WordPress files instead.
   • In the Compress dialog box, select Zip Archive, and then click Compress File(s).
   • After the File Manager finishes compressing the directory into the public_html.zip file, click Close.
2. Upload the public_html.zip file to the home directory of your Hostvento Hosting account using the cPanel File Manager or FTP.
3. To extract the WordPress files from the public_html.zip file:
   • Log in to cPanel on your Hostvento Hosting account.
   • In the Files section of the cPanel home screen, click File Manager.
   • In the Directory Selection dialog box, select Home Directory, confirm that the Show Hidden Files check box is selected, and then click Go.
   • In the File Manager’s main pane, right-click the public_html.zip file, and then click Extract.
   • In the Extract dialog box, click Extract File(s).
   • After the File Manager finishes extracting the files, click Close.
4. You may now find the main WordPress files under the public_html directory. The WordPress database migration is the next stage. Refer to step 2 down below.

Using the command line

If your hosting accounts do not feature cPanel, you can transfer the WordPress files using the command line interface. To do this, take the following steps:

1. Use SSH to log in to the account that hosts the existing WordPress site, and then type the following commands:Copycd ~ zip -r public_html.zip public_htmlThese commands assume that WordPress is installed in the public_html directory. If WordPress is installed in a different directory, use that directory in the zip command instead.
2. Use FTP to upload the public_html.zip file to the home directory on your Hostvento Hosting account.
3. To extract the files from the public_html.zip file, log in to your Hostvento Hosting account using SSH, and then type the following commands:
   Copycd ~ unzip public_html.zipThese commands assume that WordPress will be configured in the public_html directory. If you used another directory in step 1 to create the .zip file, use that directory instead.
4. The core WordPress files are now in the public_html directory. The next step is to migrate the WordPress database. Please see step 2 below.

Step 2: Migrate the WordPress MySQL database

You can now move the WordPress MySQL database after moving the WordPress files.

Using cPanel

If your hosting accounts include cPanel, you can use phpMyAdmin to migrate the MySQL database. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Verify that the WordPress database on the current WordPress website is named correctly. To achieve this, locate the line that begins with define(‘DB_NAME’) in the wp-config.php file by opening it in a text editor. WordPress uses a MySQL database, which is defined by this parameter.
2. To export the MySQL database:
   • Log in to cPanel on the account that hosts the existing WordPress site.
   • In the Databases section of the cPanel home screen, click phpMyAdmin.
   • In the left pane of phpMyAdmin, click the name of the database that you obtained from the wp-config.php file in step 1.
   • On the top menu bar, click Export.
   • Under Export Method select Quick, in the Format list box select SQL, and then click Go.
   • In the Save File dialog box, type wordpress.sql for the filename, and then save the file on your local computer.
3. Upload the wordpress.sql file to the Hostvento Hosting account’s home directory using the cPanel File Manager or FTP.
4. To create a new MySQL database for the migrated WordPress site:
   • Log in to cPanel on your Hostvento Hosting account.
   • In the Databases section of the cPanel home screen, click MySQL Databases.
   • Under Create New Database, type a name for the new database in the New Database text box, and then click Create Database.
   • Click Go Back.
   • Under Add User To Database, select a user in the User list box, and then in the Database list box, select the name of the database you created.
   • Click Add.
5. To import the MySQL data into the new database:
   • Log in to cPanel on your Hostvento Hosting account.
   • In the Databases section of the cPanel home screen, click phpMyAdmin.
   • In the left pane of phpMyAdmin, click the name of the database that you created in step 4.
   • On the top menu bar, click Import.
   • Under File to Import, click Browse.
   • Select the wordpress.sql file that you uploaded in step 3, and then click Open.
   • Click Go. phpMyAdmin imports the data into the database.
6. Using a text editor, open the public_html/wp-config.php file, and then make the following changes:
7. ‘DB_USER’, ‘database_user’; ‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘database_password’); define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘database_name’);Change database_name, database_user, and database_password to reflect the new database’s name, username, and password, respectively. WordPress may now utilize the database. Setting up custom settings is the next step. Refer to step 3 down below.

Using the command line

You can transfer the MySQL database using the command line interface if your hosting accounts do not come with cPanel. Take these actions to accomplish this:

1. On the existing WordPress site, make sure you have the correct name of the WordPress database. To do this, open the wp-config.php file in a text editor, and look for the line that starts with define(‘DB_NAME’. This setting defines the MySQL database that WordPress uses.
2. To export the MySQL database, use SSH to log in to the account that hosts the existing WordPress site, and then type the following command. Replace USERNAME with your account username, and replace DBNAME with the name of the WordPress database that you obtained from the wp-config.php file in step 1:Copymysqldump –routines -u USERNAME -p DBNAME > wordpress.sql
3. Use FTP to upload the wordpress.sql file to the home directory on your Hostvento Hosting account.
4. To create a new MySQL database for the new WordPress site, log in to your Hostvento Hosting account using SSH, and then type the following command. Replace USERNAME with the MySQL username, and replace NEW_DBNAME with the name of the new WordPress database that you want to create:
   Copymysql -u USERNAME -p -e “CREATE DATABASE NEW_DBNAME“
5. To import the MySQL data into the new database, type the following command. Replace USERNAME with the MySQL username, and replace NEW_DBNAME with the name of the MySQL database that you created in step 4:
   Copymysql -u USERNAME -p NEW_DBNAME < wordpress.sql
6. Open the public_html/wp-config.php file in a text editor, and then update the following settings:
   define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘database_name‘); define(‘DB_USER’, ‘database_user‘); define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘database_password‘);Replace database_name with the name of the new database you created in step 4, database_user with the database username, and database_password with the database user’s password.
7. The database is now ready for WordPress to use. The next step is to configure custom settings. Please see step 3 below.

Step 3: Configure custom settings

You may have custom settings for your WordPress site in one or both of the following files:

• php.ini
• .htaccess

Examine them if you have either of these files on the account that is hosting the current website to see if there are any settings that you should transfer to your Hostvento Hosting account. If so, you have the option to add settings selectively or copy the entire file or files.

Step 4: Configure domain settings

The next step is to configure your domain settings. The steps required depend on your migration scenario:

• You must set up the domain’s name server settings to point to the Hostvento Hosting server that hosts your account if you are moving from another hosting provider to Hostvento Hosting and would like to keep your current domain name. No domain settings in WordPress need to be changed.For details on how to direct the name servers of a domain to Hostvento Hosting.
• If you are migrating from another hosting provider to Hostvento Hosting and want to use a different domain name, you must configure the domain’s name server settings to point to the Hostvento Hosting server that hosts your account.For information about how to set a domain’s name servers to point to Hostvento Hosting, please see this article.Additionally, you must manually update the WordPress database to use the new domain name. To do this, follow these steps if your hosting account includes cPanel:
  1. Log in to cPanel on your Hostvento Hosting account.In the Databases section of the cPanel home screen, click phpMyAdmin.In the left-hand pane of phpMyAdmin, click the name of the WordPress database. A list of tables in the database appears.Under the Table heading, click the wp_options table. A list of data rows appears.Under the option_name heading, locate siteurl, and then click Edit.In the option_value text box, replace the current URL with the new domain name that you want to use.
     • Make sure you type the correct URL for the domain name, or your WordPress site will be inaccessible.Make sure the URL begins with http://.Make sure the URL does not end with a forward slash (/).
     Click Go. phpMyAdmin saves the changes in the table.Under the option_name heading, locate home, and then click Edit.
     You may have to scroll through more than one page of data in the wp_options table to locate the home row. To do this, click the > icon, or you can click Show all to view all of the table’s rows at once.In the option_value text box, replace the current URL with the new domain name that you want to use.
     • As above, make sure you type the correct URL, or your WordPress site will be inaccessible.Make sure the URL begins with http://.Make sure the URL does not end with a forward slash (/).
     Click Go. phpMyAdmin saves the changes in the table. The migrated WordPress site should now function correctly using the new domain name.
  Alternatively, if your hosting account does not include cPanel, use the command line interface to update the WordPress database with the correct domain name. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Log in to your Hostvento Hosting account using SSH, and then type the following commands. Replace USERNAME with the MySQL username, replace NEW_DBNAME with the name of the MySQL database, and replace example.com with the new domain name that you want to use:Copymysql -u USERNAME -p NEW_DBNAME -e “UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = ‘http://www.example.com‘ WHERE option_name = ‘siteurl’;” mysql -u USERNAME -p NEW_DBNAME -e “UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = ‘http://www.example.com‘ WHERE option_name = ‘home’;” If you migrated WordPress to a subdirectory, include it in the URL as well. For example, if you migrated WordPress to the public_html/wordpress directory, the URL would be http://www.example.com/wordpress, where example.com represents your domain name.
  2. To verify that the new domain settings are in the WordPress database, type the following commands. Replace USERNAME with the MySQL username, and replace NEW_DBNAME with the name of the MySQL database:
     Copymysql -u USERNAME -p NEW_DBNAME -e “SELECT * FROM wp_options WHERE option_name = ‘siteurl’;” mysql -u USERNAME -p NEW_DBNAME -e “SELECT * FROM wp_options WHERE option_name = ‘home’;”

Step 5: Test the new site

Finally, to make sure the just moved WordPress website functions properly, try it on your Hostvento Hosting account. In particular, you ought to test the following, at the very least:

• Make sure the site appears at http://www.example.com, where example.com represents your domain name.
• Make sure posts and other pages appear correctly.
• Make sure you can log in as the administrator. If you need to reset the WordPress administrator password.

After you complete the migration, you may want to consider adding the following features to your WordPress site to help improve performance and security:

• CAPTCHA protection can help protect your site from spamming by bots and other malicious actors. For information about how to set up CAPTCHA protection for your WordPress site.
• Caching can dramatically improve your WordPress site’s performance.
• The Hostvento Optimized for WordPress plugin combines custom Hostvento Hosting settings and functionality from third-party plugins to help accelerate and secure your WordPress site. For information about how to install the Hostvento Optimized for WordPress plugin.

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