1. Transfer files
1.1. Download website files
First of all, you need to download website files from the old server. In general website, files are hosted in “public_html” (for DirectAdmin and cPanel). You could download files via FTP, e.g. with FileZilla software.
1.2. Upload website files
The second one is to upload your website files to Hostens. For uploading files, you could use FileZilla or our web client (up to 256 MB). Website’s files should be uploaded into “domains/your_domain/public_html/” folder.
2. Transfer database
2.1. Download database backup
For website database exporting you could use the phpMyAdmin tool, which is provided by most hosting companies. How to download database backup via the phpMyAdmin tool, could be found here. If your hosting provider does not offer phpMyAdmin, you may contact him for information, how you could download database backup (in general it is “.sql” file).
2.2. Upload database backup
In order to upload database backup to Hostens:
create a database in DirectAdmin control panel;
log in to phpMyAdmin tool: https://SERVER_NAME.hostens.cloud/MyAdmin/ (change ‘SERVER_NAME” to actual server name, e.g. “lime”);
select created database from the right side menu;
on the top menu press the button “Import”;
under the “File to Import:” section press the “Browse” button and select database backup on your computer;
Click the “Go” button to upload database backup.
3. Check website routes in the database
In some cases (e.g. if you are using WordPress) it would be necessary to change website routes to pages and files in the database. It is required due to after the website transfer server’s user, which is often provided in routes, would be changed. In order to search for the old server’s user and change it to the new:
log in to phpMyAdmin tool;
choose the actual database and press the button “Search” on the top menu;
into the field “Words or values to search for” enter your old server username (between % symbols, e.g. %username%);
in the section “Inside tables” choose “Select All” and press “Go”;
in search results you will see records with database tables and amount of found routes with old username;
to see found routes press “Browse” near the actual database table and to change the route double click on it.
There is also another solution to change website routes in the database. After downloading database backup (“.sql” file) by following step 2.1. you could open it with a text editor (e.g. “Notepad”) and change records via “Find and Replace”. After it just follows step 2.2.
4. Update configuration file
If you are using some CMS (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.) for your website, it is most likely that after website transfer would be necessary to change the configuration file. In this file are provided credentials for accessing the database. You could easily change it in the most popular CMSs:
WordPress Configuration file is “wp-config.php“, it could be found in main website folder (“public_html” on Hostens); Change database name on the line define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘****’); Change database user on the line define(‘DB_USER’, ‘****’); Change database password on the line define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘****’);
Joomla Configuration file is “configuration.php“, it could be found in main website folder (“public_html” on Hostens); Change database name on the line var $db = ‘****’; Change database user on the line var $user = ‘****’; Change database password on the line var $password = ‘****’;
Drupal Configuration file is “settings.php“, it could be found in folder “public_html/sites/default/“; Change database name on the line ‘database’ => ‘****’, Change database user on the line ‘username’ => ‘****’, Change database password on the line ‘password’ => ‘****’,
Prestashop Configuration file is “settings.inc.php“, it could be found in the folder “public_html/config/“; Change database name on the line define(‘_DB_NAME_’, ‘****’); Change database user on the line define(‘_DB_USER_’, ‘****’); Change database password on the line define(‘_DB_PASSWD_’, ‘****’);
Opencart Configuration file is “config.php“, it could be found in main website folder (“public_html” on Hostens); Change database name on the line define(‘DB_DATABASE’, ‘****’); Change database user on the line define(‘DB_USERNAME’, ‘****’); Change database password on the line define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘****’);
5. Point a domain
Before pointing your domain to Hostens, check if the transferred website working correctly. You are able to access your host on Hostens website by visiting the address:
For example http://domain.tld.lime.hostens.cloud
If the website is working correctly, you could point to your domain. The most convenient solution is to change your domain name servers to Hostens, so you will be able to manage it throw our DNS Manager. Hostens name servers are:
ns1.hostens.com
ns2.hostens.com
To order our DNS Manager service (it is free), just open a new support request. After name servers would be changed to our (it takes up to 24 – 48 hours), all domain records will be sorted automatically.
Another solution is to point the domain to the Hostens server (e.g. “lime.hostens.cloud”) manually. This action should be done from your domain name servers provider’s system