Files can be downloaded from your current hosting provider and then uploaded to your PANTHUR web hosting service using an FTP service. You can also use FileManager tool within your PANTHUR cPanel account in order to upload files if the size of files are within 300MB. FTP would be the most recommended method to upload files lots of files simultaneously.

Database can be migrated by exporting a backup of the databases at your current host and then importing it using the database management tool (phpMyAdmin) within PANTHUR cPanel account.

We are going to discuss these methods in detail here.

Step 1: Setting up your PANTHUR web hosting account

Before you move your website to PANTHUR please make sure that your PANTHUR hosting account is all setup and active. If you have not yet registered your hosting account, please visit https://www.panthur.com.au/ and sign up for the most suitable web hosting plan that meets your hosting requirements. If you have any questions, please get in touch with our friendly sales team by phone, e-mail or live chat https://www.panthur.com.au/contact

Step 2: Download file backup of your website from the current hosting provider

You can download file backups of your website by going to your current hosting provider's control panel. Normally, these backups are downloadable in the form of zip, tar, tar.gz, or tgz files. If your current hosting provider does not provide one, you can request their support to make the file downloadable in compressed format (zip, tar, tar.gz, or tgz) so you can download it to your local machine. Alternatively, alternatively you can download your website files using FTP. Some hosting providers store your website files inside /public_html directory or /htdocs or the root (/) directory itself.

Step 3: Download database backup

In order to obtain the database backup from your current hosting provider, you can log into your control panel with your current provider and then locate the database management tool which is normally phpMyAdmin and click on export tab once you are inside phpMyAdmin. Please make sure to select the database name on the left side pane. Once you have clicked on export tab, make sure to select the relevant options to download the database in SQL format.

If you have multiple databases, please perform the same action for each database.

If your databases are large in size (say more than 300-400MB) we recommend you to obtain the database backup by contacting your current hosting provider's support and requesting them to make it available for download.

Step 4: Transferring files to your PANTHUR account

Now that you have your entire website files and database downloaded to your local machine, it is time to upload them to your PANTHUR account. You can use FTP in order to upload the compressed backup of your website files that was downloaded in step 2 above. If you have them downloaded as individual files, you can still compress them using WinZip or WinRAR program on your local machine and then upload the zip file to your PANTHUR account using FTP.

Please make sure to upload the file to your public_html directory. Once the file is uploaded, it can be uncompressed by selecting the file in the 'File Manager' tool within cPanel, then select the 'Extract' button that is seen just above the file listing on the top-right side of the page.

Due to the way the files were organized at your previous hosting provider, sometimes the file may get extracted into another directory called public_html or htdocs or some other name. Now, you need to make sure that your entire website related files are directly available under main /public_html. Accordingly move files/directories inside main /public_html folder.

Step 5: Restoring databases to your PANTHUR account

Before you restore your databases to your PANTHUR account, please make sure you recreate all those databases that you had at your previous hosting service. Once you have created the databases, select 'PhpMyAdmin' in cPanel listed under the 'Databases' tab. Click on the 'Import' tab on the right side >> click on 'Choose File' button and navigate to the location of the backup for the respective database on your local machine and then click on 'Go' button.

If the process results in an error, please review the query that caused the error. Normally, the backup file would contain CREATE DATABASE line at the beginning of the file which may result in an error as the database that you are about to restore is already present and this method will restore a predefined (already created) database. Simply open the file and remove the 'CREATE DATABASE' line, then re-attempt to import the SQL file via PhpMyAdmin. There is also a possibility that the restore process may not go well due to a large sized backup file restoring which normally may timeout causing the restore process to fail. In such situation, it is recommended to restore the file using the SSH interface. In order to restore the database using SSH, you will be required to contact our support team by opening a ticket here: https://www.panthur.com.au/contact

You will be required to supply the following information:

• database_name is the name of the database that you are about to restore
• database_username is the username that has access to the database database_name
• database_password is the password that was assigned to the database_user when being created in cPanel
• database_backup_file.sqlis the name of the database backup file which was obtained from your previous hosting in Step 3 above. Before you may start the process of database restoration using this method, please make sure to upload the database backup file to your account using FTP to the root (/) directory of your account. Provide the location of this file within the support ticket

If you have multiple databases to move, please perform the same steps to restore other databases also.

Step 6: Fixing your website applications to suit to your accounts environment

If you have applications such as Wordress, Joomla, Moodle, Drupal, Magento, etc. installed on your machine, you may need to make the necessary changes to the configuration file with the correct database name, database username/password, server path, etc.

Please locate the configuration files for the applications that are installed on your website and make the necessary changes to the configuration file since we had created the database using a new username/password in Step 5 above just before restoring the databases.

Step 7: Testing your website

Once your website files and databases are successfully restored to your PANTHUR account and are fixed for the configuration changes, it is time to test your website, scripts, applications. Only after you have confirmed their functionality on your new PANTHUR Web Hosting account, you can switch your website to point to PANTHUR's domain name servers.

In order to test your website and its applications on PANTHUR, you can either use the temporary URL (http://Server_IP_Address/~username) or you can point your website to PANTHUR server IP just on your local machine and continue with the testing phase.

You can contact PANTHUR support to obtain the exact temporary URL for your account. Downside of using temporary URL for testing your website is that, some applications rely on the domain name and they need domain name in the URL to test them fully. However, since you have not yet pointed the website to PANTHUR, it may not be possible to perform the test unless there is another method to do.

Luckily, there is another method to test using your website domain name even before changing the DNS record for your domain to point to PANTHUR.

Due to the way DNS works, it is possible to make your domain point to to you PANTHUR JUST from your local computer.

We are going to edit the file C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts (on Windows machine) OR /etc/hosts file (on Linux or Ubuntu machines) and add the following lines to it so when your computer tries to access your website, say http://yourwebsite.com or http://www.yourwebsite.com, the traffic gets served by PANTHUR's servers.

ww.xx.yy.zz www.yourwebsite.com
ww.xx.yy.zz yourwebsite.com

Here, ww.xx.yy.zz is the exact IP address for your PANTHUR account which can be obtained by contacting our support team. Save the hosts file and you can continue to testing your website on your PANTHUR account.

Once you have verified the functionality of your website applications/scripts, it is time to update nameservers or an A record for your websites which is also called a final DNS switch. You can do this switch either by contacting your website domain registrar or using their domain management interface to update nameservers or DNS A records.