Website migration: how to order

In this tutorial we look at how site migration to SupportHost is managed. If you decide to change hosting you can entrust the whole procedure to us for free.

The move will happen without down, which means your site will continue to be accessible throughout the process.

Let’s see what are the steps to migrate the site to SupportHost.

Site migration: the steps to follow

First, let’s see what are the steps that must be followed for site migration with domain transfer to the new hosting:

1. Request the auth code from the previous provider.
2. Order the new hosting plan.
3. Choose whether to transfer emails as well.
4. Communicate data for migration.
5. Wait for confirmation that the migration was successful.

If you want to move a site from one provider to another without downtime, the best solution is to entrust the migration to a team of professionals. This way you won’t have to worry about a thing and you will be updated as your site is moved to the new server.

Let’s see specifically how website migration works.

Request the auth code

To transfer the domain that you have registered with another provider, the first thing to do is retrieve the auth code. It is an identification code associated with the domain which serves precisely to prevent the transfer from taking place without authorization.

As the domain owner, you can request the auth code from your current provider. You will need this code to be able to transfer the domain to SupportHost.

You can check the step-by-step procedure in our tutorials to apply for auth code at SiteGround.

Unlocking the domain

In some cases, in addition to requesting the auth code from your previous provider, you will also need to unlock the domain. Many providers, as in our case, take additional security measures to avoid initiating the domain transfer accidentally.

Just follow the steps domain unlock which varies according to your provider. In the tutorials linked above you can see exactly how to do it.

Not all extensions have the block option. Generally, only generic extensions (com, net, org, info…) have this option. It and eu domains cannot be blocked, so you don’t need to unblock them in order to transfer them.

Order the plan from SupportHost

The second step is to order a plan from SupportHost.

If you’re not sure which plan is right for you, you can read our guide on how choose a hosting or contact us.

If you’re transferring your domain, select the Transfer your domain from another registrar option. Enter your domain name and choose the extension from the drop-down menu, then click “Transfer”.

The warning you will see reminds you to unlock the domain before proceeding. Then click on “Continue”.

Plan configuration

On the next page you will see the summary of your order and you can choose the options you prefer and establish the billing period.

Choose your billing cycle

Depending on the plan, you will see different billing options. Please note that if you have chosen a billing period in the pricing table, this choice is remembered.

For example, you can order VPS Cloud hosting plans for a minimum period of one month by choosing the monthly billing cycle.

CMS hosting plans such as WordPress hosting have a minimum term of one year. You can also choose the two-year and three-year options which have attractive prices.

From here you can check the cost based on the chosen period and the installation cost (available only on cloud VPS and dedicated servers).

Additional options

Additional options vary by plan. Next to the option you will see the plans they are available for.

Location (all plans)

From here you can choose the server location. Choose the location based on the visitors to your site: if your users are mostly in Italy, you should choose “Europe”.

You can choose between Europe or USA.

For cloud VPS plans you can choose the specific datacenter.

When you choose a dedicated server you will see the location indicated in the server information, in a box like this:

Available addons (shared, semi-dedicated and CMS hosting)

For shared, semi-dedicated and CMS hosting plans you can select these additional options:

• CloudFlare activation
• Email transfer
• Dedicated IP.

For reseller hosting plans you can select email transfer only.

Note that you can purchase an additional package even after purchasing the hosting plan.

Let’s see what they are for.

CloudFlare activation

CloudFlare is a CDN that allows you to get faster site loading times.

This is especially useful if your site visitors come from very different geographical areas, for example if you receive many visits from multiple countries around the world.

If, on the other hand, the visitors come almost entirely from Europe, it is not very useful to adopt a CDN and in some cases it can be counterproductive.

Email transfer

You can add email transfer to your order with one of two options:

• up to 5 email accounts;
• up to 10.

This service is only needed if you want to transfer old emails to our service. Alternatively, you can run the email transfer yourself, or save important emails to your computer and start with a blank email account.

Please note that if you do not order this service, you will have to log in to cPanel and create the email accounts you need.

Dedicated IP

By selecting this option you can add a dedicated IP to your plan.

Additional options for cloud VPS plans and dedicated servers

These options are only available if you are ordering a VPS cloud hosting plan or one of our dedicated servers.

Control panel (cloud VPS and dedicated servers)

If you are ordering a cloud VPS plan or a dedicated server you can choose which control panel to use.

With cloud managed VPS plans, ONLY cPanel license is included (for one account). You can also choose whether to order other cPanel or Plesk licenses at advantageous prices.

In the case of dedicated servers, a control panel is required if you decide to use a managed service.

Auto Installer / Softaculous (Cloud VPS & Dedicated Servers)

With cloud VPS plans and dedicated servers you can add Softaculous, an auto-installer that allows you to install hundreds of scripts with a single click and create a staging site in a simple way.

LiteSpeed ​​(Cloud VPS & Dedicated Servers)

On cloud VPS and dedicated servers you can choose to add LiteSpeed at advantageous prices. You have the option to add a “site owner” or “web host lite” license.

Secondary MX (cloud VPS and dedicated servers)

You can add a Secondary MX to cloud VPS plans and dedicated servers.

Disaster Recovery (Cloud VPS & Dedicated Servers)

You can combine dedicated solutions, VPS and dedicated servers, with options disaster recovery additional to those already included in the plan. We have several options with R1soft starting at 100GB.

Operating System (unmanaged cloud VPS and unmanaged dedicated servers)

If you order an unmanaged plan (VPS cloud or a dedicated server) you can choose the operating system you want to install from those available when ordering.

Floating IPs / IP addresses (unmanaged cloud VPS and dedicated servers)

Set the number of IP addresses you want to add to the plan.

Volume (Extra Space) (unmanaged cloud VPS)

You can add additional space to your plan by selecting it from the drop-down menu.

Fully Managed (dedicated servers)

If you have chosen an unmanaged dedicated server, you can activate the fully managed option when ordering to choose a managed service (managed server). In order to activate this option you need a control panel.

JetBackup (dedicated servers)

When ordering a dedicated server, you can select as an additional option to add JetBackup to manage backups of your machine.

Imunify 360 (dedicated servers)

By ordering a dedicated server you can add the security suite Imunify 360.

CloudLinux (dedicated servers)

On dedicated servers you can request the activation of CloudLinux as an additional service.

KernelCare (dedicated servers)

When ordering a dedicated server, you can add KernelCare to ensure you have updates and patches for the kernel you are using.

Additional information

When you order a shared, semi-dedicated or CMS hosting plan, you can choose to install a script directly.

In this case, data is required to be entered in the “Additional information” section of the summary page of your order.

These data will be used to configure the installation of the CMS you have chosen.

• Software: choose the CMS you want to be pre-installed from the list, for example “WordPress”.
• Administrator username: enter the username you will need to access the CMS.
• Administrator password:enter your password.
• Language: choose the language of the CMS.

Domain configuration

Once you’ve chosen your plan options, you can enter the information you need to transfer your domain. In this way we will be able to migrate the site to SupportHost.

Enter the auth code

In this section you are asked to enter the auth code of your domain. However, there are cases in which you do not have to enter it in this phase, but communicate it later via ticket.

Do you have a .it or .eu domain?

In this case if you want the site migration to be done by our support team, we advise you to enter an incorrect auth code, as we show you here:

The .it and .eu domains have very short transfer times. If you enter the correct auth code when ordering, the domain transfer will start immediately and there may not be time to move the site files.

What you need to do to prevent the site from going offline is to complete the migration of the website to the new server first.

And for the other domains?

If your domain has an extension other than .it and .eu, you can enter the auth code in the corresponding field and proceed with the order.

From this section you can activate Whois Protection, just tick the “ID Protection” box, as I show you here:

Domain information (for .it domains)

In this section you will need to enter the data for domain registration.

Holder type: you can choose whether to register the domain as private or in the name of your company.

Nationality: choose the country from the drop-down menu.

Tax ID: enter the tax code for individuals or the VAT number for companies.

Hide data in public WHOIS: Activate this option if you do not want your personal data to be shown in WHOIS. Keep in mind that you can activate the WhoisProtection later.

At this point you just have to tick the box to accept the terms and conditions and click Continue to finalize the payment on the next page.

Transfer emails

When you transfer the site from one provider to another you can decide to transfer the emails as well. This procedure allows you to keep the previous emails without losing them during the site migration.

Email transfer just lets you create a copy of emails from the old server to the new one.

If, on the other hand, you don’t want to transfer the emails, you can simply use cPanel to create the new email accounts associated with the domain, for example [email protected]. The new accounts created, in this case, will be empty, since you have not transferred the old emails from the previous provider.

You can proceed with the manual transfer, following our guide to email transfer. Or you can request the transfer by ordering one of the additional packages:

Request site migration

If you have ordered the transfer of the domain you will receive a notification via ticket as soon as we have received the payment.

Note that if you have chosen the option “I will use my existing domain and update the nameservers“, you will need to open a support ticket if you want us to take care of migration to your site.

If you have chosen to change hosting, but want to manage the migration yourself, just let us know via ticket.

If you want us to take care of the migration, here’s what you need to do.

Communicate the data to proceed with the site migration

Via ticket we will ask you for the access data to the previous provider.

Note that if you are moving the site from SiteGround, you will receive detailed email on how to proceed.

Specifically, you will need to tell us:

• the auth code: if you entered the wrong auth code when ordering, you will need to inform us of the correct one in order to proceed with the transfer of your domain;
• access data to the previous provider: you can send us this data securely via ticket;
• email account login details: if you ordered the transfer of emails, you will need to provide us with your login information in order to proceed with the move.

How migration works

After receiving the necessary data, our team will take care of transferring the site by copying files, databases (and emails if required) from the old server to the new one.

You will be updated via ticket as the migration progresses. We will take care of the entire site moving process so that there are no downtimes.

During the process, it is important not to make any changes to the site. To move the site to the new server we need to create a copy of the files and database, so any changes would be lost.

After the transfer of the site, in all cases where it is possible, we will change the pointing of the domain to the new server. This allows us to reduce times to a minimum.

There DNS propagation it takes a few hours depending on the domain extension. Generally it takes place within an hour for .com domains, while it takes a few more hours for .it ones. After these few hours the domain will point to the new server.

After changing the pointer, we start the domain transfer. Also in this case the necessary times depend on the extension:

• within 24 hours for .it domains
• 5 days for .com domains
• snapshot for .eu

Conclusion

With SupportHost, website migration has never been easier. You can trust the whole procedure to our staff and in less than no time you will be able to take advantage of a fast and secure hosting service.

Still not convinced? Try ours first free hosting, no obligation!