Lightsail instance configuration with WHM cpanel

Hello,

I understand that you have created a Lightsail with WHM and you need assistance with configuration the Lightsail and move over the site from external provider.

Setting up Lightsail WHM instance

If you are looking to move the website from external provider to your lightsail WHM, then before making any changes you need to follow the below instruction to setup the lightsail environment.

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1, Change the root user password

2, Attach a static IP address to your cPanel & WHM instance

3, Sign in to the Web Host Manager for the first time

4, Change the hostname and IP address of your cPanel & WHM instance

5, Map your domain name to your cPanel & WHM instance

6, Edit the firewall of your instance

7, Remove SMTP restrictions from your Lightsail instance

8, Read the cPanel & WHM documentation and get support

9, Purchase a license for cPanel & WHM

10, Create a snapshot of your cPanel & WHM instance

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[+] For detailed steps you can check the below documentation : https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/ls/docs/en_us/articles/amazon-lightsail-quick-start-guide-cpanel#amazon-lightsail-cpanel-map-your-domain-to-your-instance

Copy content from source to destination

Once you setup the lightsail environment, you can start moving the content from external service provider to lightsail WHM through any of the below methods.

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1. If the external provider is using WHM as well, then you can follow one of the below methods:

a) You can create cPanel backup using “/scripts/pkgacct username” and then move the backup to lightsail WHM and restore it using “/scripts/restorepkg username”(this will retain all the configuration details from old server).

[+] https://www.hivelocity.net/kb/how-to-backup-and-restore-cpanel-accounts-via-ssh/

b) If you only want to move over the contents, then you can create a full backup of account using backup wizard and then transfer to lightsail WHM and extract the backup.

[+] https://hoststud.com/resources/transferring-the-website-data-from-one-cpanel-to-another-remotely.458/

2. If you are using non WHM server at you external end, then you can follow below method:



a) You can create a tar file of the content and then copied over to lightsail WHM using scp or rsync command and then restore the content under “public_html” folder which created when adding the domain.


[+] https://azdigi.com/blog/en/linux-server-en/tools-en/how-to-use-scp-and-rsync-to-migrate-data-on-linux/

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Testing website with hosts entry

Once the websites are transferred completely to new host we need to test the working of the websites before updating the DNS inorder to avoid downtime. You can check the website functioning on new host without updating DNS using hosts method. You can use the one of the method provided in the below URL based on your local machine.

[+] https://world.siteground.com/kb/hosts-file/

Update DNS record to use new host

Once you confirmed the website working using hosts entry, then you can start to update the A record for transferred domain at your nameserver end to use Lightsail Instance IP address. Make sure to reduce the TTL value for the records to make the DNS propagation faster.

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a) In case if you are using remote nameserver, then you need to update DNS record at your nameserver end.

b) If you are using Lightsail name servers, then you need to update the DNS record from your lightsail panel.


[+] https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/ls/docs/en_us/articles/lightsail-how-to-create-dns-entry

c) If you are using custom cPanel name servers, then you need to update the DNS record from WHM cPanel.

[+] https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us/articles/360053593854-How-to-add-a-DNS-record-in-cPanel-and-WHM

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Note : In cPanel default configuration can’t be edited as when ever the cPanel service is restarted or instance is rebooted. The cPanel will automatically revert the changes made on the configuration files. Also you don’t need to make changes on the configuration as cPanel will automatically setup required configuration files upon creation of cPanel accounts. If you want to make any changes to default configuration, then you need to make changes on include directive.

[+] https://docs.cpanel.net/ea4/apache/modify-apache-virtual-hosts-with-include-files/#apply-to-an-individual-virtual-host

Hope this helps. Please do let me know if you have any further queries or concerns. Have a great day ahead!!