This a continuation of my server transfer post from a long over due shared hosting account to my new dedicated hosting server at softlayer. Read part one on my move to the new server here.

I have successfully finished the server migration for most of my vBulletin forums:

GamingVidz.com
HaloBoards.com
XboxLiveArcade.com
WorldofWarcraftBoard.com

I plan to transfer a few more of my sites (and this blog) later on this week. Overall the server migration was relatively smooth. The transfer was easy because my old recommended shared host Site5.com was using a modified version of cPanel (Pretty much just a different look) and my new dedicated server also uses cPanel, so the migration was easy. I simply had to email Site5 about generating a full backup for each site (They had that feature disabled so I had to request each backup to be genereated for me) and then I’d contact my new server management company Platinum Server Management with ftp information to my old shared hosting account. Platinum Server Management was then able to restore each site for me on my dedicated server one by one so that I didn’t have to bother with actually doing it. I then just changed the DNS information at my softlayer control panel and with my registrar GoDaddy. The DNS migration often happened immediately after changing my information and was much faster than I thought it might take. GoDaddy states that it may take 24 - 48 hours for the DNS migration to complete but it actually happened almost instantly for a few of the site transfers. The thing that made the server migration much easier was not only by having my server management company PSM do the actual migration, but the fact that both my old host and my new host were using the same admin control panel software - cPanel. I highly recommend that if you find yourself in the situation of outgrowing your old server and must change over to a new server that you use the same control panel software. It makes things much easier to transfer that way.

If you are nervous about doing the server transfer yourself for fear of losing data or don’t know how to administer a server, find a good server management company like Platinum Server Management and have them do it for you. I began my search for a server management company while I was in the process of picking out my new server. When I was speaking with the Soft Layer salesperson she had recommended that I check out PSM because many Soft Layer customers had great things to say about them. I checked out the company and found that PSM only manages servers with cPanel and that just so happens to be my control panel software I’ve worked with for a few years. Besides, if they only work with one conrol panel software (cPanel in this case) then they must know it really well AND PSM was only $29 a month! When I was looking around at some other server migration companies she had recommended I found many prices in the $60 to $100 a month range, so to find a service that I really needed for only $29 a month was a steal. All of these factors helped to make my decision but I must admit the price and the 30 day money back guarantee helped seal the deal. I highly recommend Platinum Server Management if you use cPanel and want help administering the server, keeping it secure, performing server migrations and more.

I’ll keep you posted on how they work out too since I know how hard it is to make a decision on moving to a new hosting company and select a server management company. I’m glad that the largest sites have been transferred without issue and have been very pleased with the new server’s response times. The server loads in vBulletin’s control panel have been really low for my forums and that helps to make for speedy load times. I’m glad it’s nearly done though