Move a site to another server

On a fleet, a site can move to another of your servers. The panel copies its files and database, starts it there and switches the traffic over. The old server forwards visitors to the new one until DNS has caught up.

Before you start

A second, healthy server. Move server only appears on a fleet.
A site that is running or stopped, with no earlier move waiting to be finalized.
Free disk on the target, about 2.5 times the site’s size.
DNS access for customer domains outside the panel’s Cloudflare account, with their TTL lowered to 300 seconds.

Move a site

On the site’s Overview tab, choose Move server.
Pick the Target server.
For a live site, choose Freeze the site (maintenance page) — nothing gets lost or Keep serving — changes made during the copy are lost.
Note the A records the dialog lists, if any, then choose Move site.

What happens

The job checks the target: reachable, MariaDB running, enough disk. It removes what an earlier attempt left there.
FTP pauses for the whole move. A frozen site shows the maintenance page, which the job renews until the copy is done.
A snapshot of the site is streamed to the target and checked against its checksums. The copy stays there as a backup.
The site starts on the target, and the job checks that it answers there.
The site now belongs to the target. The panel re-points its dev address, and the customer domains whose zone the Cloudflare token reaches. The job log lists the records left to change by hand.
The old server keeps answering for every hostname and forwards each request to the new one.

A stopped site is started on the target for the check, then stopped again.

Finalize the move

The nightly housekeeping removes the old copy once the move is a day old and every hostname resolves only to the new server. To remove it sooner, choose Finalize now in the Move cleanup pending banner on the Overview tab. Wait until DNS points at the new server, because the old one stops forwarding then.

If a move fails

Before step 5, a failure removes everything from the target, and the site keeps running on the old server. Running the move again is the recovery. After step 5, the site lives on the target, and the job log names the step that failed.

Limits

A dev site keeps serving while it is copied, so changes made meanwhile are lost.
A site keeps its dev address. One created under another server’s dev domain keeps that domain, so it needs an A record of its own on the new server.
Outgoing mail now leaves from the new server’s address. With direct delivery, add that address to each domain’s SPF record.
A hostname with an AAAA record is never finalized automatically. Use Finalize now.
Older backups stay on the old server. Restoring one needs its offsite copy, fetched back first.
The old server cannot be removed while a cleanup is pending.