There may be times when hosting a WordPress site on Reclaim Cloud is more practical than having it on a cPanel account. The ability to have dynamic resource allocation that can update automatically as the need arises is a perfect usage case for high volume sites.
This guide will cover migrating a site from an account on cPanel over to Reclaim Cloud. We'll be using the WordPress plugin UpdraftPlus which greatly simplifies the process.
1. Getting a Backup of a WP Site using UpDraftPlus
Our existing guide is pretty extensive and covers how to install and use UpdraftPlus for migrating a site so please refer to this for the necessary steps needed for installing the plugin and generating a backup which will be used during the migration. Additional reading:
2. Installing WP on Reclaim Cloud
Once we have the site backup, the next step is to install WordPress on Reclaim Cloud.
If you don't already have a Reclaim Cloud account, you'll need to sign up for one. It's free to sign up and we offer a 2 week trial.
Note that when installing WordPress, Reclaim Cloud will install it by default on a temporary Environment URL like env-2895571.us.reclaim.cloud. You're welcome to change this to something more user-friendly, but know that you'll have the option later in this guide to point a top level domain.
After installing WordPress, be sure to install the UpdraftPlus plugin.
3. Restoring UpdraftPlus Backup
We'll then be able to restore the backup in Reclaim Cloud that we took earlier. Since we're using the temporary Environment URL UpdraftPlus will complain that this is a migration and says it requires the paid version. No need to worry, just proceed with the backup restoration and ignore the error message.
4. Checking Migration using SkipDNS
It's good practice to check that the site migration was successful before making DNS changes. You will need the sites IP address which can be obtained in the location below. Click the > symbol in front of each environment which will expand them to reveal the IP address. Please note, your installation will have a different IP than the one shown here.
Now that we have the IP we can create a temporary link which will allow us to test the migration before pointing DNS. SkipDNS is a handy service to use for this. Enter the IP address assigned to your environment in the IP address field. LIVE URL will contain the current domain of your site.
If the site loads and is working correctly the next step is to map your custom domain to the environment and install an SSL Certificate.
5. Mapping your Domain
To map your Top Level domain to the new WordPress site in Reclaim Cloud, you'll start first by updating/adding an A record, which can be done through the DNS Zone Editor in your cPanel account.
The Name field will contain your domain name and the Address will be the IP address from your Reclaim Cloud environment. For further steps on this, check out the following guides:
- Pointing a Reclaim Hosting URL to Reclaim Cloud
- Adding a Custom Domain to a Reclaim Cloud Environment
6. Installing SSL Certificate
After pointing DNS, you'll want to issue an SSL Certificate so the site will load securely over HTTPS.
Click Add-Ons next to the AppServer.
Click the Configure button under Let's Encrypt Free SSL which will allow us to enter the domain name.
You can delete anything in the External Domain(s) box and then enter the domain name you would like to issue the SSL Certificate for.
Click the Apply button finalize the certificate installation. For more information, read through the following guide:
You've now finished the migration of your WordPress site from cPanel to Reclaim Cloud.
If there are any additional questions or you need further assistance, please feel free to reach out to support and we'll be happy to help.