{"id":6915,"date":"2014-06-22T11:09:43","date_gmt":"2014-06-22T15:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/?p=6915"},"modified":"2015-02-02T15:28:24","modified_gmt":"2015-02-02T20:28:24","slug":"transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Simple Steps to Transfer Multiple WordPress Websites from Shared Hosting to Digital Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

DigitalOcean has become a prominent cloud hosting service recently. Many bloggers\/webmasters have moved their sites from shared hosting plans to DigitalOcean<\/a> because it is offering SSD cloud server for a very affordable price. The only obstacle is that this is an unmanaged VPS, meaning you will have to set up the server and deal with technical stuffs to keep it running.<\/p>\n

I don’t know much about VPS but I’ve learnt a lot from setting up my website on DigitalOcean. Here are all the steps I did to move my WordPress websites to DigitalOcean. If you are not sure how to work with the service, just follow these simple steps:<\/p>\n

1. Create a backup<\/h2>\n

The first step is to create a backup of your database and files. While you need a full backup of database, you don’t need to save all WordPress files. The Wp-content directory is the most important one because it includes your themes, plugins and images.<\/p>\n

It’s quite easy to create a backup in shared hostings as they use CPanel. Just go to File Manager to compress and download your files, then go to Create Backup in Backups Manager to save your database.<\/p>\n

\"Download
Download WordPress files<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Back
Back up database<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2. Create a droplet (cloud server)<\/h2>\n

Sign up for a DigitalOcean account<\/a> and start creating your first droplet. I chose the cheapest plan of $5\/month, the plan includes 512MB of RAM, 20GB SSD Disk and 1TB Transfer. I select\u00a0New York 2 as the region, choose Ubuntu 14.04 x64 under Select Image and tick on\u00a0Enable VirtIO and Enable Backups which costs more 20%. Then click on Create a droplet, you will have to wait around 30 seconds for the process to complete. Then you will receive an email including credentials like IP address, username and password.<\/p>\n

You might also want to create a SSH key for better security. Just follow the commands below.<\/p>\n

\"digital-ocean-7\"<\/p>\n

Copy the key to your server:<\/p>\n

cat ~\/.ssh\/id_rsa.pub | ssh tuando@your_server_IP_address\u00a0“mkdir -p ~\/.ssh && cat >> ~\/.ssh\/authorized_keys”<\/p>\n

The next time you login, you will be asked to enter passphrase you set above. After that, you won’t be required to enter any password when logging in from your machine.<\/p>\n

Now, type this command to get the full key.<\/p>\n

cat ~\/.ssh\/id_rsa.pub<\/p>\n

Then copy the key and paste it to SSH page on DigitalOcean:<\/p>\n

\"digital-ocean-6\"<\/p>\n

3. Set up your server<\/h2>\n

Connect to your server:<\/p>\n

ssh root@server_ip_address<\/p>\n

You will see a message saying that the authenticity of host can’t be established. This is alright as your computer can’t recognize the remote server in the first connection. Just type yes to continue.<\/p>\n

\"digital-ocean-5\"<\/p>\n

Create a new user to avoid accident destructive changes to your server:<\/p>\n

adduser tuando<\/p>\n

There will be some questions after that, but you can skip most of them. Next, you will need to assign some administrative privileges to the new user. Type the command below to open configuration file:<\/p>\n

visudo<\/p>\n

Add one more line under\u00a0the User privilege specification section, like below:<\/p>\n

\"digital-ocean-4\"
\nPress Control+X to exit, then type Y to save the file. Now you can log in with the new user’s credentials.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Install LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) on Ubuntu<\/h2>\n

Install Apache with these commands:<\/p>\n

sudo apt-get update
\nsudo apt-get install apache2<\/p>\n

Type in your server’s IP address in a web browser, you should see something like this:<\/p>\n

\"digital-ocean-11\"<\/p>\n

Install MySQL with the command below. You will be asked to set a password for the MySQL root user.<\/p>\n

sudo apt-get install mysql-server libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql<\/p>\n

Create a database directory structure to store information, and run a simple security script:<\/p>\n

sudo mysql_install_db
\nsudo mysql_secure_installation<\/p>\n

You will be asked to set a new password but you set it already, so you can choose no. For other questions, just press Enter to accept default values.<\/p>\n

Install PHP:<\/p>\n

sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-mcrypt<\/p>\n

Open dir.conf file:<\/p>\n

sudo nano \/etc\/apache2\/mods-enabled\/dir.conf<\/p>\n

Move index.php to before index.html:<\/p>\n

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.cgi index.pl index.xhtml index.htm<\/p>\n

Restart Apache server:<\/p>\n

sudo service apache2 restart<\/p>\n

Install some PHP modules:<\/p>\n

sudo apt-get install php5-cgi php5-cli php5-common php5-curl php5-gd libssh2-php<\/p>\n

5. Install and set up WordPress sites<\/h2>\n

Create database and user for each WordPress site:<\/p>\n

mysql -u root -p<\/p>\n

In MySQL prompt, type in:<\/p>\n

CREATE DATABASE Database1;
\nCREATE DATABASE Database2;
\nCREATE USER User1@localhost;
\nCREATE USER User2@localhost;
\nSET PASSWORD FOR User1@localhost= PASSWORD(“Password1”);
\nSET PASSWORD FOR User2@localhost= PASSWORD(“Password2”);
\nGRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON Database1.* TO User1@localhost IDENTIFIED BY ‘Password1’;
\nGRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON Database2.* TO User2@localhost IDENTIFIED BY ‘Password2’;
\nFLUSH PRIVILEGES;
\nexit;<\/p>\n

Create directories for sites, make sure you have permissions to access those directories and WordPress can upgrade, upload files properly.<\/p>\n

cd \/var\/www
\nsudo mkdir Site1
\nsudo mkdir Site2
\nsudo chown www-data:your_user_name\u00a0* -R<\/p>\n

Open a new Terminal and type in the commands from your local computer:<\/p>\n

scp ~\/Downloads\/wordpressfilesSite1.zip tuando@server_ip_address:\/var\/www\/Site1
\nscp ~\/Downloads\/wordpressfilesSite2.zip tuando@server_ip_address:\/var\/www\/Site2<\/p>\n

Come back to the terminal on your server, extract your WordPress files:<\/p>\n

sudo unzip \/var\/www\/Site1\/wordpressfilesSite1.zip -d \/var\/www\/Site1
\nsudo unzip \/var\/www\/Site2\/wordpressfilesSite2.zip -d \/var\/www\/Site2<\/p>\n

Edit the wp-config.php with database name, database user and password you’ve just created above:<\/p>\n

sudo nano \/var\/www\/Site1\/wp-config.php
\nsudo nano \/var\/www\/Site2\/wp-config.php<\/p>\n

Install PHPMyAdmin:<\/p>\n

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin<\/p>\n

Choose apache2 and use dbconfig-common. Continue with these commands:<\/p>\n

sudo php5enmod mcrypt
\nsudo service apache2 restart<\/p>\n

Now you can go to http:\/\/domain_name_or_IP\/phpmyadmin to import your database. If you receive an error saying that the file size exceeded the maximum size permitted, you’ll need to modify the php.ini file:<\/p>\n

sudo nano \/etc\/php5\/apache2\/php.ini<\/p>\n

Find corresponding values and increase like below:<\/p>\n

upload_max_filesize = 64M
\npost_max_size = 64M
\nmax_execution_time = 300<\/p>\n

Then, restart your apache2 server:<\/p>\n

sudo service apache2 restart<\/p>\n

6. Add domain in Digital Ocean<\/h2>\n

Add domain in DigitalOcean:<\/p>\n

\"Add
Add your domains in DigitalOcean<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"digital-ocean-1\"
Set A and CNAME records<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

7. Configure Apache Virtual Host<\/h2>\n

cd \/etc\/apache2\/sites-available
\nsudo cp 000-default.conf Site1.conf
\nsudo cp 000-default.conf Site2.conf<\/p>\n

Configure first site:<\/p>\n

sudo nano Site1.conf<\/p>\n

Change the content to something like this:<\/p>\n

<VirtualHost *:80>\r\n\tServerAdmin email@techwalls.com\r\n\tServerName Site1.com\r\n\tServerAlias www.Site1.com\r\n\t\r\n\tDocumentRoot \/var\/www\/Site1\r\n\t<Directory \/>\r\n\t\tOptions FollowSymLinks\r\n\t\tAllowOverride None\r\n\t<\/Directory>\r\n\t<Directory \/var\/www\/Site1>\r\n\t\tOptions Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews\r\n\t\tAllowOverride All\r\n\t\tOrder allow,deny\r\n\t\tallow from all\r\n\t<\/Directory><\/pre>\n
Configure similarly to the second site. Then enable the 2 virtual host files:<\/p>\n
sudo a2ensite Site1.conf
\nsudo a2ensite Site2.conf
\nsudo a2enmod rewrite
\nsudo service apache2 reload<\/p>\n
8.\u00a0Change Domain Name Servers<\/h2>\n
Change name servers in control panel of your domain registrar, point them to:<\/p>\n
ns1.digitalocean.com
\nns2.digitalocean.com
\nns3.digitalocean.com<\/p>\n
You are all set now. You will just need to wait a couple of hours for the DNS\u00a0propagation to complete.<\/p>\n
Let me know if you have any problem setting up WordPress on DigitalOcean. Also leave a comment if you have any suggestion, I’d love to learn more from you guys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DigitalOcean has become a prominent cloud hosting service recently. Many bloggers\/webmasters have moved their sites from shared hosting plans to DigitalOcean because it is offering SSD cloud server for a very affordable price. The only obstacle is that this is an unmanaged VPS, meaning you will have to set up the server and deal with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":6921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1445,1146],"tags":[1147,23,1382,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-6915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-guide","9":"tag-guide-2","10":"tag-internet","11":"tag-web","12":"tag-webmaster","13":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n8 Simple Steps to Transfer Multiple Wordpress Websites from Shared Hosting to Digital Ocean<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here are all the steps I did to move my Wordpress websites to DigitalOcean. If you are not sure how to work with the service, just follow these simple steps.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tuan Do\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/\",\"name\":\"8 Simple Steps to Transfer Multiple Wordpress Websites from Shared Hosting to Digital Ocean\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/digital-ocean-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-22T15:09:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-02T20:28:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8e0374331f6dab83e97eb683907dca90\"},\"description\":\"Here are all the steps I did to move my Wordpress websites to DigitalOcean. If you are not sure how to work with the service, just follow these simple steps.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/digital-ocean-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/digital-ocean-1.jpg\",\"width\":700,\"height\":380},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Featured\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/featured\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"8 Simple Steps to Transfer Multiple WordPress Websites from Shared Hosting to Digital Ocean\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/\",\"name\":\"TechWalls\",\"description\":\"Technology News | Gadget Reviews | Tutorials\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8e0374331f6dab83e97eb683907dca90\",\"name\":\"Tuan Do\",\"description\":\"I am the founder and editor of TechWalls technology blog. I have been blogging for 8 years and here you can find latest technology news, gadgets, tutorials and product reviews.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/author\/rickyadmin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"8 Simple Steps to Transfer Multiple Wordpress Websites from Shared Hosting to Digital Ocean","description":"Here are all the steps I did to move my Wordpress websites to DigitalOcean. If you are not sure how to work with the service, just follow these simple steps.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tuan Do","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/","url":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/","name":"8 Simple Steps to Transfer Multiple Wordpress Websites from Shared Hosting to Digital Ocean","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/digital-ocean-1.jpg","datePublished":"2014-06-22T15:09:43+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-02T20:28:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8e0374331f6dab83e97eb683907dca90"},"description":"Here are all the steps I did to move my Wordpress websites to DigitalOcean. If you are not sure how to work with the service, just follow these simple steps.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/digital-ocean-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/digital-ocean-1.jpg","width":700,"height":380},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/transfer-multiple-wordpress-websites-shared-hosting-digital-ocean\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Featured","item":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/featured\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"8 Simple Steps to Transfer Multiple WordPress Websites from Shared Hosting to Digital Ocean"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/","name":"TechWalls","description":"Technology News | Gadget Reviews | Tutorials","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8e0374331f6dab83e97eb683907dca90","name":"Tuan Do","description":"I am the founder and editor of TechWalls technology blog. I have been blogging for 8 years and here you can find latest technology news, gadgets, tutorials and product reviews.","url":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/author\/rickyadmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techwalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}