Plesk Migrator enables you to migrate hosting configuration and data from Plesk Expand. The following settings, objects, and data are migrated:

  • Reseller and customer accounts, as well as their subscriptions, are created on the destination server, along with all the domains, addon domains, subdomains, and domain aliases. All the corresponding settings are migrated as well.
  • Hosted content, such as databases, mail, and websites’ content is also migrated.

Note: Migrating from Expand can only be done via the command line.

When migrating from Expand to Plesk, objects in Expand are converted into corresponding Plesk objects according to the following rules:

  • Expand resellers are converted to Plesk resellers.
  • Expand clients are converted to Plesk customers.
  • Plesk resellers from Plesk servers managed by Expand are not migrated.
  • Plesk clients from Plesk servers managed by Expand are converted to Plesk customers.
  • Plesk clients owned by Expand clients are converted to Plesk customers.
  • Plesk domains from Plesk servers managed by Expand are converted to Plesk subscriptions.

When migrating from Expand to Plesk, keep in mind the following limitations:

  • Auxiliary users and auxiliary roles from centralized mail servers are not migrated.
  • Expand service templates are not migrated.
  • Unix to Windows migration does not work for centralized services.

Also note that you can only migrate from Plesk for Linux servers registered in Expand to another Plesk for Linux server. The same applies to Plesk for Windows servers. Thus, if you have both Plesk for Linux and Plesk for Windows servers registered in your Plesk Expand installation, you will need to run two migrations: one for Linux, and one for Windows.

If you are migrating from Expand to Plesk for Linux

  1. Log in to the destination Plesk server via SSH.

  2. Make sure that Plesk Migrator is installed. If it is not, install it following the instructions here.

  3. Copy the expand-unix.ini sample configuration file from the /usr/local/psa/admin/plib/modules/panel-migrator/backend/conf/samples/ directory to the /usr/local/psa/var/modules/panel-migrator/conf/ directory.

    For your convenience, the contents of the configuration file sample can be found here. After copying the file, rename it to config.ini.

  4. Edit the config.ini file to specify the following:

    1. The IP address of the destination Plesk server.
    2. The IP address and root user SSH password of the source Expand server.
    3. IP addresses and root user SSH passwords of every Plesk for Linux server from which you want to migrate.
    4. (Optional) The IP address and root user SSH password of the PostgreSQL server, if you are using one.
    5. (Optional) The IP address and root user SSH password of the centralized DNS server, if you are using one.
    6. (Optional) The IP address and root user SSH password of the centralized mail server, if you are using one.

    You can also specify additional settings - see the Editing the Plesk Migrator Configuration File topic for more information.

  5. Generate the migration list by running the following command:

    /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/modules/panel-migrator/plesk-migrator generate-migration-list

    The resulting file will be named migration-list and will be placed in the /usr/local/psa/var/modules/panel-migrator/sessions/migration-session/ directory. The migration list is a list of objects (customer and reseller accounts, service plans, domains, and so on) to be migrated.

  6. Edit the migration list. You can remove the domains you do not want to migrate, assign domains you want to migrate to service plans, or re-assign them between customer accounts.

  7. Specify the new IP addresses that should be used by websites, if you want to assign the addresses manually. By default, IP mapping is carried out automatically. You can read about IP mapping in more detail here.

  8. (Recommended) Perform the pre-migration check by running the following command:

    /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/modules/panel-migrator/plesk-migrator check

    Running the command will produce a list of potential issues you may encounter during the migration (if any).

  9. Run the following command to begin the migration:

    /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/modules/panel-migrator/plesk-migrator transfer-accounts

  10. (Recommended) After the migration is finished, run the following command to check the operability of the migrated objects on the destination server:

    /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/modules/panel-migrator/plesk-migrator test-all

If you are migrating from Expand to Plesk for Windows

  1. Log in to the destination Plesk server via RDP and open the command prompt.

  2. Make sure that Plesk Migrator is installed. If it is not, install it following the instructions here.

  3. Copy the expand-windows.ini sample configuration file from the %plesk_dir%admin\plib\modules\panel-migrator\backend\conf\samples\ directory to the <PLESK_DATA_DIRECTORY>\var\modules\panel-migrator\conf\ directory. To find the location of <PLESK_DATA_DIRECTORY> on your server, run the following command:

    reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Plesk\PSA Config\Config" /v PRODUCT_DATA_D /reg:32

    For your convenience, the contents of the configuration file sample can be found here. After copying the file, rename it to config.ini.

  4. Edit the config.ini file to specify the following:

    1. The IP address of the destination Plesk server.
    2. The IP address and root user SSH password of the source Expand server.
    3. IP addresses and administrator user RDP passwords of every Plesk for Windows server from which you want to migrate.
    4. (Optional) The IP address and administrator user RDP password of the server running a Microsoft SQL Server instance, if you are using one.
    5. (Optional) The IP address and root user SSH password of the centralized DNS server, if you are using one.
    6. (Optional) The IP address and administrator user RDP password of the centralized mail server, if you are using one.

    You can also specify additional settings - see the Editing the Plesk Migrator Configuration File topic for more information.

  5. Generate the migration list by running the following command:

    %plesk_dir%admin/plib/modules/panel-migrator/backend/plesk-migrator.bat generate-migration-list

    The resulting file will be named migration-list and will be placed in the <PLESK_DATA_DIRECTORY>\var\modules\panel-migrator\sessions\migration-session\ directory. The migration list is a list of objects (customer and reseller accounts, service plans, domains, and so on) to be migrated.

  6. Edit the migration list. You can remove the domains you do not want to migrate, assign domains you want to migrate to service plans, or re-assign them between customer accounts.

  7. Specify the new IP addresses that should be used by websites, if you want to assign the addresses manually. By default, IP mapping is carried out automatically. You can read about IP mapping in more detail here.

  8. (Recommended) Perform the pre-migration check by running the following command:

    %plesk_dir%admin/plib/modules/panel-migrator/backend/plesk-migrator.bat check

    Running the command will produce a list of potential issues you may encounter during the migration (if any).

  9. Run the following command to begin the migration:

    %plesk_dir%admin/plib/modules/panel-migrator/backend/plesk-migrator.bat transfer-accounts

  10. (Recommended) After the migration is finished, run the following command to check the operability of the migrated objects on the destination server:

    %plesk_dir%admin/plib/modules/panel-migrator/backend/plesk-migrator.bat test-all