Moving Xenforo from one domain to another - and changing hosts too

hello have you moved xenforo to another server or not I also want to do this ?

kikirikimiki said:

Hello Xenforo users and masters (deep bow). I have come to you in hours of wondering in darkness - as the friggin database is not in plain text and moving this has turned into a nightmare and I dunno which is which anymore. (deep breath....)
I am moving the forum from a host that's been the target of too many ddos attacks o a more established on that can take a beating. And changing the domain in the process. This one has a better sounding to it. Anyhow - what is the procedure that one should follow? Export does not seem available in the standard install, the few procedure description I have found are like that drawing instruction of a bird -draw a point - another point - now two circles, that's good - now the rest of the friggin bird!
Is there a plugin to export it ? Is there one to import it ? can I dare hope to something similar to All-In-One WP Migration ? No ?
Thank you for pointing me towards the light.
Have a good one !

Click to expand...

Hi!

I am not a master. I am still learning. But I will try my best to explain the whole process of transferring a forum from one host to another.
Moving a PHP script with a database from one host to another is pretty easy and almost same for every such script. You have to follow some simple steps. Hope you know how to change the Nameserver, so I am not explaining that. If you don't know in case, feel free to ask. Not knowing is not a shame, but hiding it and making mistakes, is a shame. Now I am explaining below the whole process of taking backup and transferring:

1. Go to cPanel > Files > File manager (in your old host)
2. Your domain root folder 'public_html' will be on the right panel in your 'File Manager' page (assuming that 'public_html' is your root folder, otherwise it will be a folder with your domain name like abc.xyz if it is an add-on domain)
3. Select 'public_html' from the right pane, then click on 'Compress' (you can also right click on the folder and select 'Compress')
4. Type in the path to compress or it will be compressed inside 'public_html' and choose the 'Compression Type'. 'Zip Archive' will be safest. Then click 'Compress' button.
5. You can download the Zip file either by an FTP client like Filezilla or you can select the Zip file and click on 'Download' from the menu bar.
6. Close 'File Manager' tab (your work here is done for now) and go to Databases > phpMyAdmin (assuming you are using MySQL / MySQLi instead of PostgreSQL)
7. In the phpMyAdmin page select your database from the left pane.
8. On selecting (clicking) on your database name on the left pane, the right pane will show the tables in it.
9. Click on the 'Export' tab on the top of the right pane.
10. Select 'Custom' under Export Method.
11. Scroll down at the bottom and click on 'Go' button (DO NOT DO ANYTHING ELSE IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING).
12. Save the file where you want in your local HDD. A '.sql' file will be downloaded.
13. Your Backup process is complete.
14. Now go to the cPanel > Database > phpMyAdmin of your New Host (assuming you have created a database already. If not, feel free to ask me about the process).
15. Now select the new database from the left pane and click on 'Import' tab on the menu bar, the click on 'Browse' button and sect your downloaded database from your local HDD and click on 'open' button.
16. Scroll down at the bottom of the page and click on 'Go' button. It will take a while depending on the size of the database. Be patient and wait. DO NOT REFRESH THE PAGE STILL IT COMPLETE.
17. On successful upload of the database, a message will be shown like " xxxx number of tables created ..blah.. blah... blah..".
18. Now, in two ways you can upload the Zip file (your backup file) to the new server: 1) You can extract the Zip file in your local HDD and upload them to the new server's 'public_html' folder (assuming it is the root folder of your forum) Or go to cPanel > Files > File Manager. Select 'public_html' or your forums root folder from the left pane of the page and click on 'Upload'. The page which will open is pretty self-explanatory. After 100% completion, click on 'Go back' link.
19. Now, if you adopt way number 1), then go to the folder 'src' and open the 'config.php' with an editor like Notepad++.
20. Change the 'host', 'username', 'password' and 'dbname' with those of your new host and then upload all the files inside your extracted folder to the 'public_html' folder of the new host. This is the best process. If you opt 2), then you have to upload the Zip file through the cPanel > Files > File Manager and then the process pretty much same as download, except this time you choose 'Upload' from the menu bar. Then you have to extract, edit the file and etc. etc. It's a little bit lengthy process and with this process, your Zip file may get corrupt. So, using a FTP client like Filezilla is your best choice. Before starting to upload using Filezilla, go to Transfer > Transfer Type and select 'Binary'.
21. After completion of the transfer, open 'your-forum-name.xyz' in a new tab.
22. Your forum in your new host should open as it was before.
23. The process is complete.

Hope this will help.

kikirikimiki said:

Hi!
Thank you for your in-depth reply, your step by step guide makes it really easy to change hosts. But not domains.
My main challenge here was moving not only the content and the database to a new host but changing the domain name too.
To that extent I migrated the content as described above, used the back-up function in cPanel to export the current db, edited the SQL to modify the olddomainname.com to newdomainname.com - tarred it back and used the import function in the backup tool in cPanel to import the modified database at the new host. Exporting the db from mySQL does not work the same as using the export function in cPanel - so you won't be able to modify it unless you tweak your export I guess.
Once that done, I modified the config file to reflect the new db coordinates (name, user, pass) and it was done.

Between your step-by-step guide and my description I guess we have a working method for anyone out there who wants to do the same.

Peace!

Click to expand...

Changing the domain nameserver is also very easy to do. Assuming your domain is hosted to a seperate host from your server host, go to the dashboard of your domain host. Select your domain and then 'Manage' or 'Manage Name server' or 'Manage DNS', whatever option is there. There change the new nameservers like ns1.abc.xyz, ns2.abc.xyz etc. Change all the nameservers and click on apply. It will take 24 to 72 hours to propagate. Once it will propagate, all will run smoothly.

Note: If you can post some screenshots of the domain service page of your domain host, it will be more easy to explain.

kikirikimiki said:

Yeah but actually no. Participating in this discussions means that you read / hear the other participants - not just react after their first words.
Lemme lay on the scenario that you seemingly did not grasp :
What we have : Xenforo installed on server A using domain name A.com
What we want to achieve : Same Xenforo forum with all its contents on server B using domain name B.com
Dns management, NS config and all that domain jaszz does not come into play at all given that we are dealing with two separate domain names - A.com and B.com. For simplicity sake let's suppose each cPanel is configured to host it's own domain.
The undocumented part was the changing the name of the domain that holds your xenforo. I'll give you an example - let's say Tomz was forced to move from babiato.tech to babiatofamily.tk because reasons. And move the server to a offshore host. That is the gist of it.
Editing NSs and domain names is somehow not directly related to the issue of changing the DOMAIN NAME on which Xenforo functions.

Peace!

Click to expand...

My apology that I can't understand what your main problem is. I may be a dumb, but what I understood that you want to buy a new domain and transfer the current Xenforo forum with its all settings, posts, media... everything under the new domain name, which I also have done before after lost my forums original domain name due to a DDoS attack. I had to change both the domain name and the server host at the same time. So, what I did, I bought a new domain and bought a new server space, both from different host. Changed the nameserver according to the new host and upload the old backed up files and database to the new server, edited the config, waited for almost 72 hours and the forum was up. If this seems that I have again failed to understand your problem, then after spending almost 9 years in this line of work, I may be not qualified enough to answer your question. If you think that to achieve your goal, "Same Xenforo forum with all its contents on server B using domain name B.com", "Dns management, NS config and all that domain jaszz does not come into play at all", then I do not know any other way and you are much more knowledgeable. Better you hire some 'Specialist' who can do this without go through those "domain jazz" or you can ask @Tomz or @CyberDeviL about their opinion. I have tagged them in this conversation in hope that they can help you and I may learn some 'other way' to achieve this.

“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?”
― Albert Einstein

Use a service like Cloudflare for anti-ddos, to hide the main IP and handle dns entries then just restore the back up to a new box. If your forum is for something breaks terms of services then go for a Russian anti-ddos provider who maybe less concerned about content.

My apology if I sounded rude which was not my intention. You have rightly said that I didn't read your second post. If I would seen that, I would not write that lengthy, time consuming step-by-step process. Now, I would like to share some information which I have learnt through the time. The concept of Internet is based on our real life. If I build a home, then I have to register it with municipality or city authority, who allots a number to my home so that people can reach using that address and they put it in a book which is called a 'register' where all the addresses are listed. In case of Internet, this 'register' is called as DNS (Domain Name System), the 'Nameserver' is the address of the Physical Web Server i.e. the plot on which your home is built and the web address e.g. 'A.com' is the postal address of your 'home' i.e. your forum's address. So just like in our real life, without a Nameserver, it would have been almost impossible to access a website, even if they exist.

Every valid Name Server is associated with the IP address of that server. So, this is how it all works:

1. The user enters a website address (example: google.com) in the browser.
2. The request is sent to the respective domain’s Nameserver by the browser.
3. The browser receives back an IP address from the Nameserver.
4. Another request is sent by the browser to the IP address supplied by the Name Server
5. The server associated with that IP address receives the request
6. If the files and other details are configured correctly the browser will display the website content on the browser.
7. If the files are not found or there are any other misconfigurations it will return an error to the browser.

The above process takes just a few seconds and in some cases not even a second to complete.

So, again what is the difference between a Nameserver and a DNS?

A DNS is the Directory of the Internet, where it searches for the IP address associated with the specific domain name to deliver various web-based services. Whereas a Nameserver provides the specific IP address of particular services associated with that domain name. Simply speaking, the DNS is used to identify the specific Nameserver, which in turn provides the IP address of web hosting server.

Now, whenever you purchase a hosting package, the provider will provide you with a set of Nameservers, a Primary Nameserver and a Secondary Nameserver. First you have to delete the nameservers from your old domain host's domain management system. Then you have to wait for few hours for the change takes place. Then you have to copy the Nameservers of your server and enter it into the domain management interface which you will find on the dashboard of your 'B.com' domain host. Once you have changed, it might take a few hours to completely propagate the updated nameservers. And after that the address of your existing forum will change from 'A.com' to 'B.com'.

I don't know any other way to change a domain address of a website from 'A.com' to 'B.com'. Sorry.

And I forgot to mention, Cloudflare is a totally different concept.

I have asked someone with more advanced knowledge on Xenforo to look after your problem. Let's see.

Change the urls in the database to the new one. That should solve the problem. Use something like phpmyadmin etc.

@kikirikimiki Peace!

dezigna said:

Change the urls in the database to the new one. That should solve the problem. Use something like phpmyadmin etc.

Click to expand...

Learning never stops. Thanks.