Transfer Multisite to Another Server

  • We have recently switched web hosts and now need to move our multi-site to our new host. Simple enough…except the new installation of WP multisite is running on a different “main” domain name.

    What is the best way to move multisites (subdomain installed) from one installation to another.

    I’m very comfortable with PHPMyAdmin and MySQL so no problem diving into the database.

    Thanks!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    ?????? Advisor and Activist

    If you’re changing the main domain, you may be best served by exporting and importing the sites one at a time. Otherwise… Yeah, that gets pretty complicated, since you would be changing the site prefix, probably, as well as the blogs tables. I’m sure you COULD do it, mind.

    Is the new main already a part of the site today? And are you using domain mapping?

    If the new main IS already on the site AND you’re NOT using domain mapping, then just change the new main site to be … er … main now, and THEN move.

    Following

    I’d transfer all the files over, temporarily use the old domain on the new server, make sure it works, THEN change the domain.

    It’s almost the same as moving a single sites: back up db, back up files, move over. make sure you snag htaccess and make DARN SURE the new host supports wildcard subdomains if you are using them.

    If it’s a cpanel account and you’re moving to a new host with cpanel… they can move that for you in two clicks.

    Thread Starter donuthole

    (@donuthole)

    I got it all figured out. Thanks all!

    I dove into PHPMyAdmin for this. As it turns out, the only references to the “main” domain name are in a few original tables. In my case, I use domain mapping with the sites as subdomains (wildcard setup) so none of my sites actually operate at site.maindomain.com — they all redirect to https://www.site.com.

    In my case, I was transferring from “main” site https://www.mydomain.com to https://www.mydomainhosting.com and am using wp_ as the table prefix. I only had to update 1 to 3 entries in each of five tables:

    wp_blogs, wp_options, wp_site, wp_sitemeta and wp_usermeta

    I searched the database (not a single table, but the whole thing) for %mydomain% and found what changes needed to be made.

    Finally, I changed the IP address at dm_ipaddress in wp_sitemeta to the new IP address. I set up all of the parked domains and email addresses, uploaded the database, and FTP’ed the files. Then, I changed the nameservers on the domains and voila — back in business with a completely seamless transition and zero downtime.

    Hope this helps someone!

    @andrea_r, you mention…

    I’d transfer all the files over, temporarily use the old domain on the new server, make sure it works, THEN change the domain.

    When I try that I have issue verifying the new multisite, on the new server, and using the same domain as the old server. Since the DNS points to the old server, I can’t seem to see the files on the new server; the files from the old server come up instead.

    I can verify files on the supersite (main site) using the new server ip address but not sure how to verify files for the subsites.

    Any ideas?

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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