How to transfer WHMCS installation to another hosting with minimum downtime?

Hello,

i asked this question, on how to transfer WHMCS installation to new hosting server with minimum downtime.

Here might be an answers

Quote:

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You simply need to make sure you remove the crons from the current server from the cron job manager.

Then set them up on the new server once you have all the files moved over into the correct place.

Same goes for the email forwarder if you are using piping or the pop.php cron if poping mail into the ticket system.

Make sure that you have your nameservers updated to the new server.

To reissue your license, you can do that by visiting http://www.whmcs.com/members

Once logged in, click the Licenses & Services link under the Services tab.

You will then be displayed a list of all the licenses you have then on the far right select the view details link.

Here you will see a button that says Reissue License. Click this button.

Now the next time you visit your WHMCS installation the domain and IP address you access it on will be recorded and these will be the new valid license details held by our licensing system.

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Do you have experience with WHMCS move?

my current idea on whmcs website transfer is:
- lower TTL value on the hosting in DNS Zone for the domain. (so returning customers are quickly propagated/redirected to new hosting IP) - more about TTL.
- wait number of hours the old TTL value was set, so new value is propagated
- open domain registar control panel to be prepared for IP or nameserver change for the domain
- open old and new hosting control panel (example cpanel) for backup and restore purpose. Maybe get in touch with new hosting provider and ask him if he can be ready to restore your account full backup file which you will create (matter of 15 minutes restore)
- open WHMCS admin area and in Setup / Automation settings cut and paste cron urls to safe place and save. Login your hosting control panel and disable/remove cronjobs from there too. Reason: no suspension/invoice generation. You will restore these crons at new hosting later.
- in General settings turn On Maintenance mode
- Do full backup of your account (example: cpanel/backup/Generate...full...backup/..)
- restore backup from WHM or other hosting control panel or provide download link of a backup file to the new hosting provider and ask restore.
- when done change your whmcs license number by logging into admin area of whmcs or in config.php file, if license is directly from whmcs, go to client area and reissue license there. Everything appears to be working on new hosting? change your domain nameservers or nameserver IP in your domain registar control panel
- after registar shows that change was successfully made & few minutes passed, you check propagation at https://www.whatsmydns.net/ . When change propagated, try accessing site via proxy like www.anonymouse.org to see if new site working.
- edit site on old hosting so it is visible that it is old site and no one should use it (save any data to old mysql database)
- restore cronjobs you cut in step 5.
- if you use ENOM domain registar for domain reselling, then send them your new hosting IP so they whitelist it and domain registration from your site will work
- now it should be done

OK i did the transfer and this is revision of the first tutorial:

1. go to your current hosting and in DNS Zone section lower TTL values so they are like 600 (seconds)
2. order new hosting and get in touch with new hosting staff and ask them if they can transfer your website backup file and restore it on your hosting
3. if you use ENOM WHMCS module as a domain registar, contact enom and send them your new hosting IP so they whitelist it for orders.
4. if your new hosting provider includes whmcs license, then get your new license number and save it for future use.
5. go to your old hosting WHMCS and in Setup / General settings , tick Maintenance mode option and save. This way clients should not be able to use client area
6. go to your old hosting control panel and disable cronjobs
5. backup your whmcs files and database manually at old hosting, then backup it via tool in hosting control panel and send backup to new hosting provider for restore. also keep backup on your computer just in case
6. now one can post an message on the login page or client area to update members and let them know that site is being transfered so they migt not be able to pay invoices etc, so they contact you
7. once new hosting provider restore your WHMCS and its working, go to domain registar where your hosting domain is registered and change its nameservers to nameservers of your new hosting provider. Or you can change IP in nameservers you registered for your hosting domain on your domain registar control panel. along with this change you need to go to your new hosting control panel, DNS section (Edit DNS zone or similar) and change old hosting IPs to new hosting IPs. If you registered new nameservers, you may need to add an entries for these to your DNS zone file too. IF you need paid help with this, you can try to contact me.
8. Verify changes that you made by checking your hosting domain on www.intodns.com when you see new IPs and no fatal errors, you can try to access your hosting site via proxy like anonymouse.org, hidemyass.com or other to see if website load properly at new hosting. Within around 48 hours you will be able to see your WHMCS website served from new hosting (this delay is an issue of your internet provider who caches old IP and still point you to old hosting.
9. if you got new license key from your new provider and you dont have your own license fromWHMCS, edit config.php file on new hosting in WHMCS root directory and replace old WHMCS license by new one. Keep old one for future reference.
10. once everything appears to work, disable Maintenance mode from WHMCS admin area which you enabled before transfer and also enable cronjobs you disabled, do that on new hosting, not old.
11. if you are VPS hosting provider, WHMCS is usually connecting to your reseler server API so make sure server where WHMCS is running has necessary port open (example HyperVM VPS panel requires port 8888 to be open on server where WHMCS is installed).
12. if you use ENOM domain registar for domain reselling, then send them your new hosting IP so they whitelist it in their API and domain registration from your site will work

How to transfer WHMCS installation to another hosting with minimum downtime? I am not confirm about it. let get it started and increase knowledge after reading all what you guys shared with me. I don't have such writemypapers.org because now i decide to take it from you ever.