Knowledgebase

Overview:

This interface copies multiple accounts from a remote server to your cPanel & WHM server. To transfer accounts, you must obtain the following:

• root-level privileges with the su or sudo commands.

Important notes about account transfers from Plesk

The system will not transfer any email addresses from Plesk to cPanel & WHM that contain a plus sign (+) in the email username. The system will also not transfer any FTP accounts that contain an underscore (_) in the username.

To transfer accounts from Plesk, first change any forwarded domains to physical hosting accounts. To do this, run the following command as the root user:

/usr/local/psa/bin/domain --update example.com -hst_type phys -login "example" -hosting true -ip 127.0.0.1 -passwd "12345luggage"

• example.com represents the forwarding domain.

• example represents the new account’s username.

• 127.0.0.1 represents the new account’s IP address.

• 12345luggage represents the new account’s password.

If you need to convert several forwarding domains into hosting accounts, open a support ticket and our migration team will contact you.

IP address transfers

To transfer IP addresses from one server to another, use WHM’s IP Migration Wizard IP Migration Wizard interface (WHM >> Home >> IP Functions >> IP Migration Wizard).

If the IP address is the server’s main IP address, you must also update your cPanel license’s IP address. You can update your license’s IP address through Manage2, if you use it, or through the cPanel Store.

Transfer via Manage2

If you purchased your license via Manage2, perform the steps in our Transfer a License documentation.

Transfer via cPanel Store

If you purchased your license directly from cPanel, L.L.C., perform the following steps:

1. Log in to your cPanel Store account.

2. Click My Account. The My Account interface will appear.

3. Under Orders/Licenses, click View my licenses. The Manage Licenses interface will appear.

4. Select the checkbox for the license that you wish to transfer.

5. Click Edit IP. The Change IP Address dialog box will appear.

6. Enter the license’s new IP address in the New IP Address text box.

7. Click Save Changes.

If you experience any issues with the transfer, open a support ticket.

How to transfer and restore multiple accounts

Remote server information

This section of the Transfer Tool interface allows you to specify information about the remote server (the server from which to transfer accounts).

1. In the Remote Server Address text box, enter an IP address or a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).

   • IP address example — 127.0.0.1

   • FQDN example — host.example.com

     Note:

     In this case, the FQDN does not require the trailing dot.

      

2. In the Remote SSH port text box, specify the port to use.

   Note:

   The default value for SSH is port 22.

    

Authentication

In this section of the Transfer Tool interface, specify the authentication method with which to log in to the remote server.

To specify an authentication method, perform the following steps:

1. Select whether to log in as the root user or with a specific username.

   Note:

   If the PermitRootLogin value equals no in the sshd_config file on the remote server, you must log in as a user other than the root user and then escalate to the root user.

    

2. If you selected User for Login, perform the following actions:

   • Enter the remote account’s username in the Username text box.
   • Enter the remote account’s password in the Password text box.

3. Use the Authentication Method menu to specify whether to use a password or an SSH key pair to authenticate to the remote server.

   • If you select Password, enter the password for the account in the Password text box.

   • If you select SSH Public Key, select the key pair to use during authentication. Make certain that you installed the appropriate key pair in WHM’s Manage root’s SSH Keys interface (WHM >> Home >> Security Center >> Manage root’s SSH Keys).

     Note:

     • If you encrypted your account’s SSH key pair, enter the SSH Key Passphrase.
     • If you’re experiencing firewall issues, use the Password method instead.

      

4. Optionally:

   • If you select User under Login, select a root escalation method under the Root Escalation Method heading.

   • If you select su for the Root Escalation Method, enter the root password in the Root Password text box.

   • To bypass TLS verification, select the I understand the risks. Connect anyway. checkbox and then click Continue.

     Warning:

     We strongly recommend that you do not use this option. Only use this option if you can confirm the identity of the source server.

      

Security

In this section of the Transfer Tool interface, select whether to use the Restricted Restore feature or copy reseller privileges.

Advanced

This section of the Transfer Tool interface provides advanced settings for the transfer. Click Show to display the list of settings.

To select the advanced settings, perform the following steps:

1. From the Remote Server Type menu, select the web control panel that the remote server runs. Choose from the following settings:

   • Auto Detect

   • cPanel & WHM

   • DirectAdmin

   • Ensim (Parallels Pro)

   • Plesk

2. Select Unencrypted to use an unencrypted session to transfer the files.

3. Select Compressed Transfers to compress the files during the rsync process when the remote server transfers the files between the remote and destination servers.

   Note:

   This setting does not affect the package account function, which creates a gzip archive of the user’s account on the remote server.

    

4. Select Low Priority to use less CPU and input/output (I/O) on the remote server.

   Note:

   This setting reduces the impact on performance on the remote server, but increases the duration of the transfer session.

    

5. Select Use Incremental Backups speed-up to decrease the amount of time that the system uses to package the account on the remote server. If a daily incremental backup exists, WHM uses that backup as a starting point. The system then updates the package before transfer.

6. Select Use custom account packaging modules from /var/cpanel/lib/Whostmgr/Pkgacct to use packaging scripts in that directory.

   Important:

   The system does not create the /var/cpanel/lib/Whostmgr/Pkgacct directory by default. You must create the /var/cpanel/lib/Whostmgr/Pkgacct directory before you select this setting, if the directory does not already exist.

   Note:

   cPanel & WHM always prioritizes custom restore modules in the /var/cpanel/perl/Whostmgr/Transfers/Systems directory over the cPanel-provided modules in the /usr/local/cpanel/Whostmgr/Transfers/Systems directory.

   • The /var/cpanel/perl/Whostmgr/Transfers/Systems directory stores any custom modules that you create.

   • The /usr/local/cpanel/Whostmgr/Transfers/Systems directory stores the modules that ship with cPanel & WHM.

    

7. Specify the number of CPU processes (threads) for the transfer session in the Number of Transfer Threads text box.

   Note:

   This setting defaults to a number of processes (threads) based on the available amount of memory and number of CPUs. You can specify a maximum value of five, but the system may still automatically reduce that number based on available resources.

    

8. Specify the number of CPU processes (threads) for the restore session in the Number of Restore Threads text box.

   Note:

   This setting defaults to a number of processes (threads) based on the available amount of memory and number of CPUs. You can specify a maximum value of five, but the system may still automatically reduce that number based on available resources.

    

9. Enter the number of seconds that the transfer session remains open before it times out in the Transfer Session Timeout text box.

   Important:

   If you change the default in the Transfer Session Timeout text box, it will only apply to the current session. You must enter a new value each time that you run a transfer. You can permanently change the value in WHM’s Tweak Settings interface (WHM >> Home >> Server Configuration >> Tweak Settings).

    

10. After you make your selections, click Scan Remote Server. A new interface will appear.

The Account List interface

The top of the Account List interface displays information about the source server. If any of this information appears incorrect, click Rescan Source Server.

Below the source server information, the interface displays if any available IP addresses exist.

Accounts

This tab allows you to transfer cPanel accounts to this server.

How to copy accounts

To copy accounts, perform the following steps:

1. Select the checkbox for each cPanel account that you wish to transfer.

   • To copy all of the accounts that the interface currently displays, select the checkbox at the top of the column in the table header.

   • Use the Search text box to filter the list of accounts.

   • Click a column header to sort the accounts by that column.

2. By default, the system adopts the username from the source server. To specify a new username, enter the new username in the User text box.

   Note:

   The User text boxes display the following colors as warning indicators:

   • A red highlight indicates that the username or domain already exists on this server. The account will fail to transfer if you do not change the username, select Overwrite, or select Overwrite with delete. You cannot transfer an account that uses the same domain.

   • A green checkmark () indicates that the account does not already exist.

    

3. Select the accounts to which the system will assign dedicated IP addresses under the Dedicated IP Address heading. The interface will select the Dedicated IP checkbox for accounts that currently use a dedicated IP address.

   Warning:

   You can only assign available dedicated IP addresses from your server. If your server doesn’t have the required number of available IP addresses, the transfer will fail.

    

4. Click Default to show the What to Transfer section. The following settings will appear:

   • Home Directory — Transfer the account’s home directory.

     Note:

     When you transfer the home directory, the system checks whether it can run the rsync command. If the system does not find an error, it will rsync the home directory when the system completes the transfer.

      

   • Reseller Privileges — Retain the account’s reseller privileges.

   • Databases — Transfer the account’s databases.

   • Bandwidth Data — Transfer the account’s bandwidth data.

5. Click Default to show the Live Transfer section.

   Note:

   • For more information, read the Live transfer section below.

   • If your source server uses cPanel & WHM version 88 or earlier, you will see the Express Transfer setting instead.

    

6. If your server uses a linked node, click Default to show the Linked Node Options section. The following settings will appear:

   • Use only this server. Transfer or restore locally. — Transfer the account to the local server.

   • Use the cPanel account’s package configuration. — Attempt to use the source account’s currently linked node. If that fails, or if the account does not use a linked node, the system will restore the account to the local server.

   • The alias and hostname of an existing cPanel & WHM server node. For example, mailserver (mailnode.example.com). — Transfer the account’s mail services to the selected linked node.

7. Click Apply to save the What to Transfer and Linked Node Options settings for this account. You can click Apply to other selected accounts to apply these settings to all currently selected accounts. To apply the default settings for this account, click