Knowledge Base

How to perform a general Plesk to Plesk server migration via Plesk Migrator commands?

Question

How to perform a general Plesk to Plesk server migration via Plesk Migrator commands?

Answer

To migrate subscriptions from another Plesk server by using the commands of the Plesk migrator, you should use the steps below:

Log in to Plesk
Install the Plesk Migrator extension by going to Extensions and using the search bar to find and install the extension
Connect to the server as root via SSH
Create the /usr/local/psa/var/modules/panel-migrator/conf directory by running this command:

# mkdir /usr/local/psa/var/modules/panel-migrator/conf
Enter the newly created directory:

# cd /usr/local/psa/var/modules/panel-migrator/conf/
Create a migration configuration file config.ini in the current directory by running this command:

# touch config.ini
Open the newly created config.ini file with your favorite command-line text editor and enter the following:

[GLOBAL]
source-type: plesk
sources: pfu

[plesk]
ip: TARGET_SERVER_IP_PLACEHOLDER
os: unix

[pfu]
ip: SOURCE_SERVER_IP_PLACEHOLDER
os: unix
ssh-password: SOURCE_SERVER_ROOT_PASSWORD_PLACEHOLDER
# Uncomment ssh-port string below if the SSH port is not 22
# ssh-port: SSH_PORT_PLACEHOLDER

Note: If any PostgreSQL databases from the source Plesk server should be migrated, make sure to specify the PostgreSQL administrator password in the config.ini file:

[optional]
postgres-password: POSTGRESQL_ADMIN_PASSWORD_PLACEHOLDER
Save the changes.
Generate the migration list file:

# /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/modules/panel-migrator/plesk-migrator generate-migration-list

Note: To remove domains that should not be migrated or assign domains to service plans, edit the newly generated /usr/local/psa/var/modules/panel-migrator/sessions/migration-session/migration-list with a text editor
Start the migration:

# /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/modules/panel-migrator/plesk-migrator transfer-accounts
Once the transfer is done, run the command below to resynchronize the content:

# /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/modules/panel-migrator/plesk-migrator copy-content

This will perform an rsync, which will ignore files which have already been copied and not modified.

Note: See How to sync content between source and destination servers after migration? for more details.
After the migration is finished, run the following command to check the status of the migrated objects on the target server:

# /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/modules/panel-migrator/plesk-migrator test-all

For additional information, see Migrating via the Command Line section of the Plesk Obsidian documentation.