Moving 10 domains+hosting from 1and1

[cfab]

Hi,

having read here and there that hostgator had great web hosting plans, I'm on the way to migrate my sites from 1and1 to the reseller plan. Before doing that I've some questions which I didn't find precise answers on this site. Let's ask :

1°) I have seen that hostgator handles the whole transfer process : is it true? I mean, I deliver my 1and1 mydomain.com access codes and a few days later I can access to mydomain.com, hosted this time by hostgator?

2°) What's about the email accounts?

3°) How long will my sites be unavailable?

4°) Is there a way to transfer my sites one at a time, in order to reduce the unavailability during the reconfiguration?

5°) Will I have to pay again for the registration of the transferred domain for the current year or will this occur at the anniversary date of the domain?

Well, I guess that's all I have to ask... Thanks in advance for your informations!

cfab
PS : sorry for my english... France here!

[GvilleRick]

HG will transfer up to 30 accounts. To request it fill out the form here. They will attempt to transfer all of the accounts. It is not a bad idea to take a backup of the accounts yourself in case there are problems in the transfer.

The accounts will be down 24-48 hours normally as the domains propagate. HG can transfer the domains before you change the DNS on the domains. Once you make the DNS changes they will have to propagate. I don't think it is possible for HG to transfer one at a time, they will likely transfer them all at once. You can, however, change the DNS on whatever schedule you want.

You don't have to transfer the domain registration. You can leave it with the current registrar if you wish as long as you can change the nameservers on the domains. If you want to transfer the fee will add a year of registration to the domain.

[cfab]

Ok, thanks for this fast answer!

well, all I have to do in order to make it works one at a time is :
- do a backup
- ask for hostgator to transfer my files/db from 1and1 to their servers
- then hostgator will copy my files/db and will provide me dns corresponding to each domain
- at this step, my sites will still be accessible until I change the dns in 1and1 configuration. This way, I can change the dns one site at a time.
- at the end of the registration year for a domain, I shall be able to migrate this domain registration to hostgator.

Correct?

[cfab]

Ok, thanks for this fast answer!

well, all I have to do in order to make it works one at a time is :
- do a backup
- ask for hostgator to transfer my files/db from 1and1 to their servers
- then hostgator will copy my files/db and will provide me dns corresponding to each domain
- at this step, my sites will still be accessible until I change the dns in 1and1 configuration. This way, I can change the dns one site at a time.
- at the end of the registration year for a domain, I shall be able to migrate this domain registration to hostgator.

Correct?

[GvilleRick]

That is correct although you can transfer the registration at any time. When you pay the fee to transfer it includes an additional year of registration. I would not wait until the last week or so to transfer them.

[cfab]

What fee are you talking about? I thought that the transfer was free as it is written on hostgator homepage.

[GvilleRick]

I'm not sure how HG handles domain transfers, I have my registrations elsewhere. Previously when I transfered a domain registration I had to pay for a year of registration which was added to the existing registration.

You should contact sales for a definitive answer, these forums are peer support and the staff does not always monitor all threads. In any case, it is not necessary to transfer the domain registration in order to use the hosting service.

[cfab]

ok, thanks Rick!

[dwrunyon]

I would *very* much suggest just moving your sites yourself... I just cannot imagine trusting such an operation to *anyone* else... *nobody* cares more about your websites than you, and if something, *anything* goes "wrong" with your transfer you'll more than likely be very pissed despite the fact that the site moving is advertised as a best effort service to begin with, *especially* considering the change from a custom paneled host to a cpanel one.

That being said, I referred a friend to HG last year, he let them move his sites over (around 10) and it all worked out well after about a half day of database craziness and he's still a happy customer here.

[cfab]

Well, the point is that I have a pretty bad connexion here (that's the problem to live on a paradise and sunny island! poor internet...), so I will let HG a try, and with a db backup, this is not a big risk.

[dwrunyon]

That's cool then... gotta do whatchoo gotta do, and with your last remark you don't seem the type to flip out over a little something going less than perfectly. I would imagine that things usually work out well... let us know, as I'd be curious.

[cfab]

So, I didn't take advantage of the automatic migration, since I will have some config to do, I will use server to server connexion to transfer.

Well, I'm facing another problem : as I've changed my dns at 1and1 for my first site, my site is working well. That's not the case for my email which doesn't work anymore...
I used to have "contact@mydomain.com" set at 1and1, so I create the same adress at HG. I thought that since I had moved my dns, all mydomain.com requests would be transferrred as well : apparently not because every mail I send is returned back with a 550 error. What am I doing wrong?

Another question on the same point : I have clients which use 1and1 webmail, in order to not change their habits, is there a solution to move only the domain for the website, and to keep emails at 1and1? (I've a baby croc plan, and I have read there's no static IP in this plan)

Maybe this post would have a better place in support forum, but I can't see them even if I've filled the hg plan part in my profile...

[cfab]

Well, having chatted with hg support, I'm even more confused...

Apparently in baby plan, my IP is static, which is not what is written on the features for this plan, but if it's true, good.
I can't do ftp on my domain, it still points on my former server... and I was told to use the given IP. So what about ftp accounts I can create, useless?

[dwrunyon]

Originally Posted by cfab

Apparently in baby plan, my IP is static, which is not what is written on the features for this plan, but if it's true, good.

There *is* a difference between static, and dedicated... while the ip *generally* will not *change*, it is still shared by most everyone else on your server.

I can't do ftp on my domain, it still points on my former server... and I was told to use the given IP. So what about ftp accounts I can create, useless?

Yes, just use the ip to connect to until your propagation is complete... that's the way we all did it.

[striddy]

Originally Posted by cfab

I'm on the way to migrate my sites from 1and1 to the reseller plan.

Originally Posted by cfab

I have clients which use 1and1 webmail, in order to not change their habits, is there a solution to move only the domain for the website, and to keep emails at 1and1? (I've a baby croc plan...

Bonjour.

Earlier you said that you were getting a "reseller" plan. Now you say that you got the "baby" plan. You also say you have "clients".

If you have clients you are hosting you shouldn't be using a baby plan but instead a reseller plan.

Please check the Terms Of Service link at the bottom of this page.

[cfab]

Hi,

yes, I thought it was a reseller before to order it.
I'm a web developer, I don't resell the hosting but I host the projects I develop. Isn't it allowed?

Regards,
cfab

[dewt]

Yes, that is allowed. Several Gators have clarified this in various threads. You can charge customers for 'added value' services such as development and maintenance but not for hosting.

[cfab]

Great since my job is not to resell hosting but to provide websites and apps.

As I'm beginning this activity on my own, I'm looking for an adapted hosting. I don't know if I have choosen the right company or the right plan and as I saw a 250.000 inodes limit, I guess I'll have to upgrade one day. I didn't find a "web agency pack", that would be a perfect offer for me.

[dewt]

On the subject of inodes - there are two limits.

Once you reach 50k your sites will no longer be backed up by HG, only your databases.

If you then reach 250k then there is a risk of getting suspended. I say a risk because it is dependent on how your account is being run. From reading the various posts by Gators this limitation was brought in to give some control over users who had badly written scripts which were creating then deleting large numbers of files there-bye putting a very large strain on the drives and causing problems for others on the same shared host.

Do bear in mind that each email is an inode as well so if you have email accounts with massive numbers of 'historical' messages this can boost your number of inodes.

PS. I don't think you will regret moving here from 1&1. I left 1&1 because of their abysmal support and so far I am very impressed with HG.

[cfab]

I'm quite impressed too by the support : fast, efficient, answer within the hour... far far away from 1and1 which I still wait for an answer since 3 days.

And for the backup, as there is no backup at 1and1, well, database backup is a good point, even without files!

Thanks for your advice on emails, I'll keep in mind.

[alemcherry]

Inodes limit of 250k is very high for a shared hosting environment. If you expect more files, then probably you need a dedicated server. Even if you host 10-20 reasonable sized sites, you shouldn't cross the limit.

[slapshotw]

I think the limit is actually 50,000, not 250,000, even though the cPanel meter says 250. You should check with support to clarify.

[striddy]

I agree with slapshotw. The HG ToS is quite clear.

7b.) INODES
The use of more than 50,000 inodes on any shared account may potentially result in suspension. Accounts found to be exceeding the 50,000 inode limit will automatically be removed from our backup system to avoid over-usage. Every file (a webpage, image file, email, etc) on your account uses up 1 inode.

Sites that slightly exceed our inode limits are unlikely to be suspended; however, accounts that constantly create and delete large numbers of files on a regular basis, have hundreds of thousands of files, or cause file system damage may be flagged for review and/or suspension.

[cfab]

Well, with 7 sites, I'm at 75k inodes, so 50k is very easy to overshoot. As i saw it, with joomla or magento, it's about 10k inodes per site.
Maybe this offer is not the one that suits with my needs and I'll reconsider to get the reseller one, even if i'm not interested by the reselling part, space is my concern.
Is the reseller pack suffering of same inodes limit?

[striddy]

Originally Posted by cfab

Is the reseller pack suffering of same inodes limit?

The limits are the same, however it's per cpanel account (customer) that you create.

That's just one of the reasons why "reseller" accounts should be used by anyone with "client" websites.

Another reason is if any site on your shared plan breaks the Tos for let's say using more system resources than allowed (like cpu), then ALL of your "client" sites would go down as they are under the one cpanel account. However with a reseller package, each site (customer) is using a separate cpanel account so the resource usage is also calculated per client.