Migrate a Website to Cloud Hosting

Migrate a website to cloud hosting only when it needs its own CPU and RAM, a custom runtime or room for traffic spikes; a brochure site or small blog stays cheaper on shared cPanel hosting from ₹300 a month before GST. Decide the target shape before copying a single file.

The difference between these products is laid out in shared vs cloud hosting and cloud vs VPS.

Copy the files with rsync over SSH, dump the database with mysqldump using a consistent snapshot, and restore both on the cloud instance while the old site stays live. This first pass moves the bulk; a second pass later carries recent changes.

# 1. Files, preserving permissions, links and ownership
rsync -aHAX --numeric-ids --info=progress2 -e "ssh -p 22" \
  /home/USER/public_html/ root@NEW-IP:/var/www/example.com/

# 2. Database dump on the old server (InnoDB-consistent, no table locks)
mysqldump --single-transaction --quick --routines --triggers \
  -u DBUSER -p DBNAME | gzip > db.sql.gz

# 3. Import on the new server
gunzip -c db.sql.gz | mysql -u DBUSER -p DBNAME

# 4. Ownership and permissions (Debian/Ubuntu web user)
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/example.com
find /var/www/example.com -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find /var/www/example.com -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Edit the application config with the new database host, user and password. More rsync options are in rsync files to a server.

Use a DNS-01 challenge or copy the existing certificate, because a Let's Encrypt HTTP-01 check reaches the old server while DNS still points there. A store cannot afford even a few minutes of browser warnings.

• DNS-01: certbot certonly --manual --preferred-challenges dns -d example.com -d www.example.com, then add the _acme-challenge TXT record it shows.
• Paid certificate: copy the certificate, chain and private key from the old server; the hostname is unchanged, so they stay valid.

openssl s_client -connect NEW-IP:443 -servername example.com </dev/null \
  | openssl x509 -noout -subject -enddate

The output must show your domain, not a self-signed default. Manual DNS-01 certificates do not renew themselves; set up renewal as in Let's Encrypt auto-renew.

WebJi® cloud servers cost ₹5,900, ₹7,900 or ₹11,900 a month before 18% GST, from 2 vCPU with 8 GB RAM up to 8 vCPU with 32 GB. Size up when CPU or RAM stays high at normal traffic, not because a migration is happening.

Details are on the cloud hosting page. If you would rather not run these commands, the website migration service moves one domain's files and up to five MySQL databases (up to 5 GB) for ₹700 one-time; free migration is subject to terms and approval.