Move everything to a new server
Move this whole server — its settings and all its shops — onto a brand-new server, in one go. SixPanel installs itself on the new machine first, so the only thing you need is SSH access to it.
If you want to move just one shop and leave the rest where they are, that is a different page: Move a project to another server.
What this is for
- You have outgrown the current server and want a bigger one.
- You are changing hosting provider.
- You want everything on newer system software, on a fresh install.
You do not need to prepare the new server. A plain, empty server with SSH is enough — no control panel, no web server, nothing installed.
Before you start
- The new server should be empty. A fresh install from your provider is ideal. If it already runs SixPanel, that is fine too; it will not be reinstalled.
- Room: the new server needs space for your databases and uploaded files, with room to spare. SixPanel checks this for each shop before it sends anything, and refuses rather than filling the disk.
- Open the same ports in your provider's firewall on the new server: 22 for SSH, 80 and 443 for your shops, and the port your panel uses.
- Time: installing takes a few minutes; each shop then takes as long as its files and database need.
Step 1 — link the new server
Migration → Link a server, and give it the new server's address and the SSH
login your provider gave you (root, or a user like ubuntu — SixPanel elevates
its own commands, so either works).
The password or key is stored on this server only, in a file only the system administrator can read, and the connection is checked immediately so you find out now if something is wrong rather than half way through.
Step 2 — start the migration
Migration → Move everything to this server. It then, in order:
- Looks at the new server — is SixPanel there already?
- Installs SixPanel if not, on the same panel port as this one, so your firewall rule and your bookmark still make sense.
- Sends your settings — your mail server, your timezone and contact details, and your blocked-address list.
- Moves each shop, one at a time, exactly as the single-project move does: a safety backup first, then the configuration, the uploads and the database, and then it compares both sides — every table's row count and every uploaded file — before calling that shop moved.
You can watch it step by step, and every shop gets its own line: moved, or not moved and why.
What does NOT get copied, and why
Your new server keeps its own panel address, its own login and its own
sessions. The installer prints them when it finishes — run sixpanel info on the
new server to see them again.
That is deliberate. Copying this panel's login and web address onto the new machine would give you two servers answering to the same address and the same session, and would make the address you were just given stop working. The new panel is a new panel; set its password the first time you log in.
Certificates are not copied either. The new server issues its own, free, once your domains point at it.
Step 3 — point your domains at the new server
Nothing is switched over for you. DNS is never touched. Until you change your DNS records, customers keep reaching your shops on the old server exactly as before — so there is no rush and no moment where a shop is unreachable.
When you are ready, point each domain at the new server's address, then set up SSL there.
The old server keeps everything
Every shop that moved stays on the old server, with all its data, just with its background workers stopped. So if anything looks wrong on the new server you can point DNS back and carry on.
Once you are happy, delete the shops on the old server yourself, and cancel it.
If a shop does not move
The migration keeps going with the rest and tells you which one failed and why. The shop that failed is untouched on this server, still holding all its data, and anything half-built for it on the new server is removed automatically — so you can fix the cause and move that one shop on its own afterwards.
A migration where some shops did not move is reported as partly done, never as finished.
Questions people ask
Do I have to move everything? No. Use Move a project to another server for one shop at a time, as often as you like. Two servers can each run some of your shops indefinitely.
Can I run the migration twice? Yes. Shops that already moved will be refused by name, because SixPanel never writes over an existing shop.
Does my main project move? No. Every SixPanel has one, so it cannot be sent to a server that already has its own. If your shop lives in the main project, move it with a backup restore instead — see Backups.
Is the old server changed? Only that the moved shops' workers are stopped. Nothing is deleted, no DNS record is edited, no certificate is removed.