Pre-migration Checks
Various issues may occur during the transfer of domains, and some of them can be detected before a migration is started. Using the migration tool, you can check the following areas that might be a source of most common issues:
- Services on the target Plesk server - check that the services used during domain transfer are started and available.
- Plesk control panel - check that the target Plesk installation is available via API: the control panel service sw-cp-server is started and is listening on port 8443, and that Plesk has a valid license key.
- Business model consistency - check that the objects (domains, resellers, customers, and service plans) listed in the migration list do not conflict with the corresponding objects that are present on the target Plesk installation.
- Infrastructure - check if it is possible to copy files between source and target servers, if there is free disk space at the target server, and if the target database servers are available.
To run these checks, issue the corresponding command.
- To check the services, Plesk availability, and business model consistency: panel-transfer check config.ini
- To run infrastructure checks: panel-transfer check-infrastructure config.ini
The following explains in detail all checks performed by the migration tool.
Target Plesk Services
For each service, the following is checked: the process is running on the system, it is listening on certain ports, and it is possible to connect to the target server (specified in the configuration file) on these ports (except for database services, as availability check is not performed for them). The following services are checked: Web, FTP, mail, DNS, and databases. Database services are checked only if the corresponding database server exists in Plesk, it is local, and credentials are specified for access to it. For example, if there are no PostgreSQL database servers registered in target Plesk, the corresponding service will not be checked.
Note that if any of these services are bound to a non-default port, the corresponding check will report an error. You can ignore it if you are sure that the service in question is functioning and is available.
The migration tool also does not check external services, only local ones. For example, if you have an external MS SQL database server, registered in target Plesk, it will not be checked. At the same time, if you have an external DNS server in Plesk and the local DNS service is turned off, the corresponding check will report an error. You can ignore it if you are sure that the service is functioning and is available.
Specific checks are different on Unix and Windows and are listed below.
Unix service checks
On Unix, the “ps ax” command is used to retrieve a list of running system processes and “netstat -tpln” to retrieve the binding between processes and ports. The following is checked for each service:
- Web — httpd or apache2 is running and listening on ports 80 and 443
- FTP — xinetd is running and listening on port 21
- mail — couriertcpd or dovecot is running and listening on ports 110 and 143; master or qmail-send is running and listening on port 25
- DNS — named is running and listening on port 53
- MySQL — mysqld is running and listening on port 3306
- PostgreSQL — postmaster or postgres is running and listening on port 5432
Windows service checks
On Windows, the “tasklist” command is used to retrieve a list of running system processes and “netstat -an” to retrieve the binding between processes and ports. The following is checked for each service:
- Web — w3wp or System is running and listening on port 80
- FTP — svchost is running
- mail — MEPOPS, MEPIMAPS, or MailService is running and listening on ports 110 and 143; MESMTPC or MailService is running and listening on port 25
- DNS — dns or named is running and listening on port 53
- MySQL — mysqld is running and listening on port 3306
- MS SQL — sqlserver is running
Plesk Control Panel
The process of checking Plesk is similar to service checks, the only difference is the checking whether Plesk is available via XML-API. The following items are checked:
- The sw-cp-server process is running and listening on port 8443 port on Unix.
- The w3wp or System process is running and listening on port 8443 on Windows.
- It is possible to connect to the target Plesk server by port 8443.
- Plesk can process XML-API requests.
There is no checking whether the Plesk license allows creating the necessary number of domains, so no errors will be shown even if a trial license key is installed in Plesk.
Business Model Consistency
In addition to domains, the migration tool also transfers all business objects associated with them, such as domain owners (resellers), customers, and service plans. Such objects will be created on the target server if they do not exist, but if an object with the same name already exists in target Plesk, it will not be changed and a transferred domain will be associated with it. To avoid this, you can perform various checks for each business object.
Reseller checks
- Username on the target server — if a reseller with a username specified in the migration list exists in target Plesk and has the same email address and full name, a warning will be issued. This reseller will become the owner of all corresponding domains in the migration list, so it should be checked that it is the desired behavior.
- Email on the target server — if there is a reseller with the same username but with a different email address in target Plesk, it will be reported as error because it may mean that domains will be transferred to the wrong owner.
- Full name on the target server — if there is a reseller with the same username but with a different first or last name in target Plesk, it will be reported as error similar to the previous check.
- Username on the source server — if a reseller with a username specified in the migration list does not exist in the source panel, it will be reported as error.
Customer checks
- E-mail on the target server — if there is a customer with the same username but with a different email address in target Plesk, it will be reported as error because it may mean that domains will be associated with the wrong customer.
- Full name on the target server — if there is a customer with the same username but with a different first or last name in target Plesk, it will be reported as error similar to the previous check.
- Username on the source server — if a customer with a username specified in the migration list does not exist in the source panel, it will be reported as error.
Service plan check
- Name — if a service plan with a name specified in the migration list does not exist in target Plesk, it will be reported as error; however this error may be ignored if you are sure that a service plan with such a name exists in the source panel: it will be copied into target Plesk automatically during domains transfer.
- Subscription check
- Domain name — if a subscription with a name specified in the migration list exists in target Plesk, a warning will be issued: all settings and all related content will be overridden during transfer.
- Mailbox password — if any mailbox on a subscription has an empty password, a warning will be issued: the migration tool is unable to transfer the contents of such mailboxes.
- IP mapping — if an IP address assigned to a subscription via migration list or IP mapping (see the corresponding sections of this guide for details), was already assigned to another reseller or customer in target Plesk, a warning will be issued. Also, a warning will be issued when an IP address specified for a subscription does not exist in target Plesk; in these both cases, the default shared IP address will be used for that subscription.
Infrastructure
One of the main purposes of the migration tool is to initiate and track the process of copying domains with web content between source and target servers. To ensure that all content can be transferred successfully, the following checks should be performed:
- There is enough free disk space on the target server.
- Files can be transferred between each source and target via rsync.
- Database servers required for the restoring of migrated databases are attached to the target Plesk and are configured.
- MySQL database server allows processing database dumps that were generated on source servers.
These binaries (installable software) and packages are in development.
They may not be fully stable and should be used with caution. We make no claims about them.
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