Transferring your hosting to Krystal

If your current hosting account is one of the following then it’s likely that we can initiate an account transfer from our server to get your complete account from your server with your domain name, username and password.

This will bring in your complete account including all of your files, e-mail addresses and databases.

If we are unable to transfer the account directly from your server, then the next best option is for you to generate a backup of your account on your current server and provide us with that file. cPanel has a section where you can generate a full account backup into a single file.

If you are currently using a host who runs a custom system, or not one of the systems mentioned above, then you’ll need to move your account manually.

Firstly, you will need to decide what exactly you need to move over to Krystal. You’ll need to find out if your website is a static site (made up usually of HTML files and images) or a dynamic site that uses a MySQL database (Almost all pre built websites like content management systems and online shops are database driven – this includes Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, OS Commerce, Magento).

If your site is database driven, then there will be a configuration script that details database settings, if you are unsure where this is then it is best to check the documentation for the product you are using. When you move your site this file will need to be edited, as your database name will have changed.

1. Sign up for your chosen plan with Krystal

Within 5 minutes of signing up for your plan you will receive a welcome e-mail with the details of your new hosting account in. If you haven’t transferred your domain over yet, then you’ll need to use the I.P address to access the server, or you can use your computers hosts file to fake the location of your domain name.

2. Download all of your web files from your old host on to your machine.

Your host will have FTP or SFTP access to download all of these files. They will often be in a directory called www or public_html. It’s often worth checking inside the control panel at your current host to see if there is an option to compress all of these files into one file (we support the uploading and decompression of .tar.gz and .zip files) to download and upload quicker.

3. Export your databases

Your old host’s control panel should contain some way of managing your databases. What you are looking to do is export your database as an .sql file. If they are running PHPMyAdmin then you should be able to export the SQL file in .tar.gz format which is compressed and so quicker.

4. Re-create your e-mail accounts in our cPanel

Now you’ve exported your data from your old host, you need to create your e-mail addresses in our cPanel so that when you change your nameservers the e-mail will start flowing into your inbox.

Log into the cPanel with the details provided in your welcome e-mail, and look for the e-mail section. To create e-mail addresses simply click on “Email Accounts”. You’ll want to make sure that all of these are setup before you change your nameservers.

5. Create your MySQL database, and your MySQL users and upload your database (if applicable)

Before you can use your MySQL database on our hosting you’ll need to do 4 things:

1. Create a new MySQL database

2. Create a new MySQL user

3. Give the user permissions to the database

4. Upload your .sql file to the database using phpMyAdmin

You can accomplish steps 1-3 by clicking on the “MySQL Databases” link from inside your cPanel. Once this is done, click on “phpMyAdmin” from the cPanel home screen.

If you have a large database that you need us to import for you, then please upload the SQL file to your home directory and put in a support ticket.

6. Upload your files and update any configuration files

You need to login to the SFTP (or FTP) server – the details are provided in the welcome e-mail. Once logged in you’ll see a folder called public_html (there is also a link called www, this is a shortcut to public_html). This is the directory you’ll need to upload your website files into. Your index file will need to be called index.php, index.html or index.htm – please note the lower case.

Once you’ve uploaded all of your files, you may need to re-configure your scripts. You will have all of the details needed to connect to your MySQL database from Step 5. The database host is “localhost”.

The home directory of your account is /home/<USERNAME> and so the home directory of your website will be /home/<USERNAME>/public_html – please replace <USERNAME> with the username you use to login to cPanel and SFTP.