Cloning Within One cPanel

Installing a piece of software like WordPress in your Reclaim Hosting account is a very simple process (hey look, we even have a document on that!) but what’s not always as clear is how you might move an installation to a different URL. A lot of folks get tricked into thinking they can just move the files to a new folder and it will work, but, in fact, WordPress stores URLs in a database that will break your site if you just move the files around. A much easier way to move a site to a new location is using the Clone Tool in Installatron. You’ll find it by clicking on your install in cPanel and clicking on the Clone icon to the right of your installation's title.

Installatron will read the existing install and prompt you to choose a location for the new copy. If you’ve set up a subdomain ahead of time you can choose it from the dropdown menu for the domain, alternatively you could put it in a subfolder by filling out the "Directory (Optional)" field.

Installatron handles all the nitty gritty work of migrating databases and files so all you have to do to get started is hit the Clone button and you’re off to the races. In just a few short seconds, depending on the size of the install, you’ll have a complete copy of the site at a shiny new URL.

Once you’ve verified that everything migrated properly, you can delete the former install by just clicking the X next to it.

Alternatively, I think the Clone Tool is an excellent way of setting up quick development spaces to test new plugins and themes, so feel free to use it to quickly fire up a copy of your site to a development space and play around. With just a few clicks you can have a carbon copy of your site ready to go. If you choose to use the Clone Tool to create a dev environment, be sure to check the Create a Staging site option for seamless syncing when you're ready to go live with changes.

You can read more about site staging in our documentation: Staging Sites using Clone Tool.

Cloning Between Two Reclaim Accounts

If you would like to move content between two Reclaim accounts (or two different cPanels), you will use the “import” tool through the specific application you would like to clone.

Importing applications is not limited to applications that are already on our server. Assuming you have FTP information for a previous host you can actually import those installs too!

Start by logging into cPanel and clicking on the application you’d like to import into Installatron:

Note : While you may find the application you want to import on the homepage of cPanel if it’s featured there, you can also click “View More” or “All Applications” to see the full list, and there are indeed a lot.

Once you’ve found the application you want to import, instead of clicking the “install this application” button you’re going to click the dropdown beside it and choose import existing install .

Choose the second option From a different account.

For this to work you’ll have to give Installatron FTP (File Transfer Protocol) credentials to your old hosting account so it can migrate the information. By providing login information as well as the path to the files, Installatron can assume the privileges of your previous application and grab everything it needs to migrate. Here is a screenshot of a guide for the settings that you will use:

Protocol: FTP
Server: either your shared hosting IP address (found in right-hand sidebar of cPanel dashboard) or the server URL
Port: 21
Username: cPanelusername@servername.reclaimhosting.com
Password: cPanel password
NOTE: the username/password are different from your Client Area login (here is how to find/change these credentials)
Path: location of the installation in the original account’s File Manager.

The application from the original account will then be copied to the new account!