Move WordPress to an External Server - Tips & Tricks

With a market share of more than one-third of all available websites and almost two-thirds among Content Management Systems (CMS, as of 2019), WordPress is an integral part of today's internet. The CMS has earned an excellent reputation for its flexibility and high user-friendliness. However, when it comes to server migration, other conditions also play an important role. Without appropriate technical support and careful preparation, there is a risk that a website may temporarily become unreachable or respond to requests with unwanted and avoidable error messages.

WordPress as a flexible and universal CMS

WordPress has long surpassed its original role as an easy-to-use CMS focused on blogging and managing text and image posts, thanks to its versatility and broad base of supporters. With numerous free and commercial templates and a plugin for every desired function and extension, the software enables easy creation and administration of various content - from a company's online presence to appointment scheduling for services and an online shop with integrated inventory management. The high flexibility and user-friendliness on both the administration and client sides underpin the success of this extremely popular CMS. Since 2005, WordPress has provided an archive (repository) for official plugins verified by its own developers, where independent programmers can offer their extensions. Some of the most popular ones include:

• WooCommerce: A fully modular online shop
• Yoast SEO: Numerous tools for successful, clear SEO
• All-in-One WP Migration: A plugin for easy backup and smooth server migration of WordPress with support for cloud storage.
• WP Mail SMTP: Convenient and secure email sending via SMTP, even if necessary ports are blocked by the web host.
• Contact Form: A simple yet flexible contact form for the website.

A move means a technical challenge

However, WordPress users also frequently encounter technical issues - one of them is undoubtedly a successful server migration. When switching providers, users can only benefit to a limited extent from the convenient interface that WordPress offers. In many cases, automatic migration is not possible, so they must move manually and deal with external conditions and protocols such as the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), administrative access via Secure Shell (SSH), and Nameservers (DNS).

It is indeed possible to migrate to a new server manually within a short period of time and without any noticeable downtime for visitors. However, this requires proper planning and a certain amount of time if there are no prior knowledge. The first step is to create a suitable test environment, for example on a VPS hosting.

Productive and experimental environment during a server migration

During a WordPress server migration - whether it is a switch between different web hosts, from a VPS hosting to a Dedicated Server, or vice versa - it is important to first check the functionality in the new environment. Ideally, this should be done on the future productive system - the server where the website will be hosted after the provider switch - in this way, incompatibilities between the operating system, web server, a plugin, and the rest of the environment can be identified and resolved early on. Problems during a provider switch are mainly caused by the following situations:

• Different operating systems such as migrating from Microsoft Windows to Linux
• Switching web servers, for example from Apache 2 to NGINX
• Significant differences in the versions used for software like PHP, MySQL or MariaDB
• Use and individual configuration of a plugin for the web server
• Changing local passwords e.g. for accessing the database
• Configurations with individual IP addresses instead of a domain

Such difficulties and similar issues are difficult to eliminate in advance without knowing the entire system and its configuration in detail. For example, a single plugin may store an IP address instead of a domain as a reference in its variable, without providing any indication of this behaviour during installation. Therefore, problems that arise later can only be avoided by testing in a different environment.

Migration is done by changing the nameservers

During a server migration, it initially involves transferring the data from the original instance to the new web hosting. However, after the migration, only the administrator can access it - all external requests to the domain used still redirect the DNS to the old server. On the other hand, the copied version can be accessed using the IP address of a server or in a local test version using localhost or 127.0.0.1. On the internet, the DNS takes over the mediation between a request and communication with a client - they inform the corresponding computer of the unique IP or internet address during each visit and convert its text into a unique code.

Every request to any domain on the internet first goes through the DNS, which resolves it to a unique and distinct IPv4 or IPv6 address for the responsible server. This means that a server migration or a provider change is only completed when the parent nameservers point to the new instance. However, this presents a problem - whether addresses are manually moved or administration tools like Plesk, DirectAdmin (DA), or Webmin are used for data transfer.

Real-time transfer of the database is only possible externally

WordPress stores new content, including posts, user registrations, or password changes, in a central database. When switching providers, the domain resolution is redirected to the new web hosting provider, VPS hosting, or Dedicated Server, without checking or considering changes in the database. Therefore, it is advisable to disable relevant functions for a short critical period of about 60 minutes and either take the website offline during this time or set up an external server for databases beforehand. Since these are two completely separate systems, all information is inevitably lost between creating and restoring the last backup.

Automated or Manual WordPress Migration

With a plugin from the web hosting provider or the CMS, there is often the option to migrate WordPress automatically without manual intervention. As convenient as this option sounds, it also carries many risks. In such a process, there is no sufficient check for compatibility between the two environments. Even if they involve different web servers like NGINX and Apache 2 or operating systems like Linux and Microsoft Windows, these routines almost always focus solely on data transfer. An analysis of the environment is rarely conducted, making subsequent troubleshooting more challenging.

Conclusion: Server Migration and Provider Change with WordPress

Both server migration and provider change with WordPress are feasible without IT expertise but require thorough planning and preparation. Manual migration is straightforward, but if downtime must be avoided at all costs, the situation becomes more demanding. In such cases, in-depth knowledge or professional guidance is essential to successfully migrate the server quickly and without downtime. Find suitable WordPress web hosting directly in our WordPress comparison.

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