Migrating to same domain

You can always edit the hosts file of your operating system and set the domain name to resolve to the new IP. This implies that you have already copied the files and the database to the new provider.

I have edited my hosts file and patbell.co.uk/wp-admin now generates a 404 error. I have installed WP via the cpanel on my new host and I can see it in filezilla. I also apparently have a mysql databases with a user created in wp-users.

I presume you meant just xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx mydomain in hosts?

Hi,

I think I should have clarified it a little better. I meant the hosts file on your desktop, so that the web browser resolves your domain to the new IP so that you can check the web site on the new provider.

George

Yes I understood that; and its what I did. But I am just trying to setup a startup wp system and can’t

so, having set the ip address for my domain in hosts (on my local machine). What now? I have installed wp via the new hosts funtionality but what do I need to do to the wp configuration to access? I presume something needs to be done since I get a 404 message when trying to access wp-admin.

Hi @patbell101

I thought your goal was to transfer the wordpress installation to another provider. What I suggested above was to edit your desktop’s hosts file and point your domains to the IP of the new provider after you had transfered the files and the database, so you could do a simple test if everything was fine without changing your DNS zone.

It turns out that your use case scenario is a little bit more complicated than what I had initially thought and I’m afraid that it’s a little difficult for me to understand the details of your environment through this thread.

So, I will kindly retire from it as I think I cannot provide much help about this issue as I have probably misunderstood the goal you are after.

BTW, if you are trying to test your web site locally, I’d highly recommend starting a new topic in the ‘Localhost’ forum.

Kind Regards,
George

Also, I just pointed a live domain to 127.0.0.1 through my desktop’s hosts file, set up a virtual host in XAMPP’s apache server and installed wordpress.

My browser can access the locally installed version of the web site (currently empty) instead of the one that is live on the internet. Accessing the admin interface works as expected as well.

So I’d assume that there is something done wrong on your end or the use case scenario is more complicated than it is described through these posts.

In any case I’d suggest to also ask in the Localhost forum.

I’m sorry for not being able to help you more with this.

George

George, that is my scenario, ie trensferring my domain to a new server and I was trying to test the process at an earlier stage. I will extract my backups (files and database) and proceed as you expected me to.

Hi Pat,

Here is some more info about the procedure.

As a first thing I’d make sure that all the domains you are going to test as part of the network installation point to 127.0.0.1, including the ‘www’ versions, eg:

127.0.0.1    example.com
127.0.0.1    www.example.com
127.0.0.1    demo.example.com
127.0.0.1    www.demo.example.com
127.0.0.1    example.net
127.0.0.1    www.example.net

Secondly, I’d add a virtual host in XAMPP’s apache making sure that all the domains that are going to be served by it exist in ServerName *or* ServerAlias directives.

Then, I’d transfer the files in the DocumentRoot of that virtual host exactly as they are arranged on the live server.

Finally, I’d locally create a database (using the same name as the one on the live server) in phpMyAdmin and import the data to it.

After restarting apache, the web sites should be accessible locally without making any requests to the live server.

Now that it is clear what your goal is, please feel free to ask any questions (if any). ??

Forgot to mention that wp-config.php should be edited and you should make sure the database name is correct, the DB_USER is set to root (unless you have set up users differently in your local MySQL server) and DB_PASSWORD is empty ('').

Also, any security related rules in htaccess should be double checked so that they interfere.

George

Also, I think I’ve figured out a possible cause why you might be getting a Not Found error when accessing the admin interface. This issue must have to do with SSL.

If you are accessing your normal live web site over SSL or have configured it to access the admin area over SSL, you should either make sure your local virtual host is configured for access over HTTPS or edit the URLs in the database or finally remove any configuration options like the following from wp-config.php:

//define('FORCE_SSL_LOGIN', true);
//define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true);

Update for correction regarding a previous post:

Also, any security related rules in htaccess should be double checked so that they interfere.

Meant to be ‘so that they don’t interfere.’

George, I’ve got a bit confused with the localhost stuff here. So to clarify the current situation.I have copied all my public_html files to my new host, and restored the database, apparently successfully. I have disabled .htaccess and at the newly copied database has the same name and user as the old one.

I am trying to test my new hosting prior to changing my dns. I have changed my Hosts entry and now when I ping patbell.co.uk it returns 108.167.137.112 which fwiw is the IP address of my new host’s server. I have my root domain of patbell.co.uk and several subdomains of e.g. inframe.patbell.co.uk.

The codex just says “to test before you switch, you must temporarily change “siteurl” and “home” in the database table “wp_options”” but to what do I change them? With no changes accessing my root domain and subdomain sites just goes to my old host. I have tried swapping patbell.co.uk with the new hosts ip and also their server name (e20) but both fail to locate anything.

Hello,

George, I’ve got a bit confused with the localhost stuff here. So to clarify the current situation.I have copied all my public_html files to my new host, and restored the database, apparently successfully.

Then the job is almost done. The only thing left to do is change the relevant records in the DNS zone so as to point to the new IP.

In order to test without changing the DNS zone, you could trick the browser by adding the relevant entries in your desktop’s hosts file as described above, but from what I read you have also done that.

I have disabled .htaccess and at the newly copied database has the same name and user as the old one.

htaccess is necessary. The only thing needed is to make sure that any security plugins do not interfere with you local test installation. Otherwise, please leave the htaccess file in tact.

I am trying to test my new hosting prior to changing my dns. I have changed my Hosts entry and now when I ping … it returns NNN.NNNN.NNN.NNN which fwiw is the IP address of my new host’s server.

This means that you have set up the local hosts file correctly for the test.

All that is left is test the web site with your browser from the box on which you have modified the hosts file.

The codex just says “to test before you switch, you must temporarily change “siteurl” and “home” in the database table “wp_options”” but to what do I change them? With no changes accessing my root domain and subdomain sites just goes to my old host.

There is actually nothing that needs changing in the database since you are just switching hosting providers (just different IP). If your goal was to also change the domain name of your web site, then making the changes to the database would be necessary, but this is not the case.

I assume that the codex page refers to the case of changing the domain name of your web site. BTW, there are many ways to do things. The codex sometimes tries to cover all of them for the convenience of users, so I’d suggest posting the exact page you are referring to would be very useful in order to understand what it is about.

Apart from all the above, I outlined the required procedure above. If any other steps were required, I would have posted them.

For anything else about a localhost installation, please post a new question in the ‘Localhost’ forum.

Hope these help.

Kind Regards,
George

Also, I should note that I’ve done all these tests with Mozilla Firefox on Windows.

Any changes made to the operating system’s hosts file took effect immediately without even having to clear history or flush the DNS cache.

This is just a note just in case any other browser performs DNS resolution in a way that bypasses the operating system. However, I’m not aware of any such thing, but then again I haven’t done any research about it.