00:00: Migrating a website from cPanel hosting to our Scout platform is made easy thanks to our in-built migration tool.
00:08: Lets take a look how to use that now. We first start by opening up our Scout control panel at cloudabove.
00:16: Then we click on the button in the top right to add a new site.
00:20: We fill out the form to create a new hosting area for the site, if you've not setup a site before then please see our other video titled: "Adding a new site in Scout".
00:30: Then we are presented with the usual information after setting up a site, which we can save or reset later if we need it.
00:37: Click "Got it, lets go!"
00:40: We are shown the Site overview page, this is the page we often see when managing sites in Scout
00:46: From here we click on the Tools menu in the top right.
00:50: Select the option to import a site.
00:53: Scout has the capability to import sites from a variety of different platforms
00:59: Today we are exploring the cPanel option.
01:02: We are guided through a wizard which explains the steps required. This migration tool will use SSH or Secure Shell to transfer the website, SSH will need to be enabled on the cPanel account that we are going to copy from. Some cPanel hosts do not have SSH access enabled by default, but often they will be happy to enable it upon request.
01:23: This transfer process uses SSH Keys, don't worry if you've not worked with these keys before as we will show you how. Simply click on the "Copy Key" button.
01:33: Then we will head on over to the cPanel control panel on the old hosting which holds the website we will be transferring.
01:40: Under the Security section, we look for a button labelled "SSH Access" and then click on that. If you do not see the SSH access button listed then please reach-out to the current host and ask them to enable SSH for that site.
01:54: Next, click on "Manage SSH Keys"
01:58: Then click on "Import Key"
02:01: In the first box we need to enter in a name or label, this bit isn't important to be honest it can be anything really, just keep it short and sweet, I will just label mine as "scout"
02:11: The next two boxes should be left empty.
02:14: Look for the large box towards the bottom that mentions "public key" just above it, click in that box, then right-click and select "Paste".
02:23: You should now see the public key in the box like this.
02:27: Then we click on the "Import" button at the bottom.
02:30: Click Go back to the Manage SSH Keys menu.
02:34: The SSH Key has been added but there's one more step we need to do to authorise the key for use. Click on the Manage link on the right.
02:42: Then click Authorise.
02:45: Now lets click on the cPanel logo in the top left
02:49: This will jump us back to the cPanel home screen which will have some more information we will need soon.
02:55: Jumping back to the Scout window now, we can click on the button that says "I've added the key".
03:01: The next page asks us for more information about the cPanel hosting where the Site is coming from, starting with the username and IP address, this can be found on the right-hand side of the cPanel control panel, lets take a look
03:14: Note down or copy and paste the Current User and Shared IP address and enter those into the form on Scout.
03:21: You can see I've entered in the username and IP address here.
03:25: Next up is the SSH Port, Scout will try to use the default which is port 22, however some hosts may use a different port. Unfortunately cPanel doesn't display this information for you, so if the default doesn't work you may need to ask your cPanel host what SSH Port they use. The one I'm copying from today uses a custom port so I'm entering that in here.
03:48: Most of the time the "Site path" box can be left empty. By default it will look for your website inside of the public_html folder on the cPanel host. Assuming it is the Primary Domain of the cPanel account that you are transferring then that will be correct. However if you are using this tool to transfer a Addon or Subdomain within that cPanel account then you have the option to specify a custom path here.
04:13: There is a "Maintenance Mode" toggle if you wish to use it, it is off by default which means the site will remain online during the move. However, with some website's that change often like, eCommerce websites, you would not want them to change mid-transfer as it could result in orders or changes being lost. So with eCommerce websites or sites that change often it would be advisable to enable this maintenance mode, this temporarily prevents access to the site on the old host for visitors. It displays a nice message saying that the site is down for maintenance but will be back online soon.
04:45: This last tickbox is just to acknowledge that you're happy to proceed, doing this transfer will overwrite everything that is in this Site area on Scout, in our case we created a new empty area, which is recommended. But if you were using this Import tool on an account in Scout that already had data in it, that data would be erased as part of this procedure and a fresh copy of the website would be taken from the source to here.
05:07: With that ticked we click "Start Migration"
05:10: The amount of time the transfer will take can vary depending on the size of your website and the speed of the connection coming out of your previous web host. Some sites transfer in minutes whilst others could take a good while longer. When we see this screen it means the site transfer has been successful.
05:27: Next I click on Manage Site.
05:30: And here we see the site overview page. You can use the Preview button which looks like an eye in the top right corner to perform some testing of your newly transferred website.
05:40: Scout handles the heavy lifting for you, moving website files and databases. If you require any assistance with site migrations then just get in touch and our support team will be happy to help. The Scout platform was made with love by our team in Cornwall. Thank you for choosing cloudabove.