Move your site to Savvii

Moving your site to Savvii is easy and free. You can do this with the Savvii WP Migrate plugin. The migration runs in the background, and takes - depending on the size of the site - 15 minutes to several hours. No time to carry out the migration yourself? We can also do this for you - for a fee. Please contact support for more information. Do you do the migration yourself? Then we advise you to read the manual before you start. 

Moving your site consists of a number of steps. There are a number of things that need to be done before you can start the migration: 

• You need either a new hosting package, or space in an existing package at Savvii. No hosting package yet? Find out here which package suits you best, or contact us. 
• You know the sFTP hostname, sFTP user and the sFTP password of your new site. These details can be found in the mail sent when your package was rolled out, or via admin.savvii.com.  
• You have installed the Savvii WP Migrate plugin on the site you want to move. This can be done via the WordPress plugin store, or you can download the plugin here to put it in the /wp-content/plugins/folder via (s)FTP.   
• On the site you want to move, you have updated all themes and plugins - as far as possible - to the latest version, and you have disabled the plugin Wordfence. This will prevent problems during the migration. 
• Put the TTL of the A-records of your domain as low as possible at the party where you manage your DNS. The TTL (Time To Live) is the time that the DNS records can be saved before the record has to be retrieved again to check if it has changed. If you have this layer in place, you can forward the visitors of your site to the new server as smoothly as possible when you put the site live. 
• Are you going to migrate a multisite? No problem! Note: from the moment you start the migration, the content of your live site and the site on Savvii's server will not be synchronized. Therefore, try to make as few changes as possible in the period between the migration and the live launch of the website. This may involve stock levels of products, new posts or new comments.  

Step 1 - Migrating 

After installing the plugin you will find it in the left bar in the management environment of your WordPress site. If you enter the following information here, you can migrate: 

• An email address. Here you will receive an email when the migration starts and when it is finished. 
• The full URL on which you want to put your website live after the migration. Attention: this should be done by https:// as well.  
• The hostname of your site at Savvii. This is the temporary URL that you can find via admin.savvii.com or in the mail you received when the site was provisioned. 
• The sFTP username of the package at Savvii. 
• The sFTP password. If you accept the conditions and click on 'Migrate', the migration will start automatically. On the next screen you can monitor the progress, but you don't have to leave it open. You will receive an email when the migration is finished! 

Step 2 - Testing

Now that your site is on a new server, it is important to test all the features of your site before you put it live. It is therefore necessary to let your computer know on which server you want to do this. This can be done by changing your hosts file. For this you need the IP address of the server at Savvii. You can find it on admin.savvii.com via Manage -> DNS.  

After the change in your hosts file you will visit the website on the new server. When testing, pay close attention to points on the site where data is processed, such as subscriptions to a newsletter or the purchase of products. Special scripts such as A/B tests, analytics or affiliates are also important for testing. You can also use Screaming Frog to check your website for errors or missing pages, or test your website using webpagetest.org. Then read this article for a manual.  

Step 3 - Configuration at Savvii

Now that your site is on Savvii's server, we have installed the Savvii hosting plugin - Warpdrive - for you. You can find the plugin in the menu bar of your WordPress admin environment. The plugin is open source. 

By default, all servers have a caching layer that delivers your website to your visitors faster. You can flush this cache: rebuild it. This is necessary, for example, if you place a new post. In the settings of the plugin you can choose when you want to flush the cache automatically. You can choose to do this at:  

• Creating a new message or page, new or custom comments and new or custom attachments (default) 
• Creating a new message or page 

Finally you can view the access logs and error logs in the Warpdrive plugin. It is a good idea to fix as many errors as possible before you put the site live in step 4. 

Step 4 - Put the site live    

In order for all visitors to your site to arrive at Savvii's server, it is necessary to let everyone who visits jouwdomeinnaam.nl know which server the files that make up your website are on. You can do this by modifying the DNS records. To do this, you need the login details of your domain name provider.  

In the management environment of your domain name you can then change the A-records of your primary (sub)domain to the IP address of the server where your site is located at Savvii. If you do not use a subdomain, change the A-records for both yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com. The IP address you need is the same as the one you put in your hosts file in step 2. You can find the IP address on admin.savvii.com via Manage -> DNS.  

If in the DNS records of your domain name there are still AAAA records for your primary domain, it is best to delete them. Savvii works completely over IPv4, so any visitors who request your website via IPv6 will no longer be directed to the wrong server.  

Depending on how high the TTL of your A-records is, the traffic is automatically directed to your new server. You can keep an eye on this by looking at the access logs in the Warpdrive-plugin. 

When the DNS has been converted to Savvii's server, a free SSL certificate will be installed automatically. Your site can then be reached securely. Installing the certificate can take up to 2.5 times the TTL. This means that if you visit the website immediately after the DNS conversion, the secure connection is not yet active. You can then see a warning from your browser. A little patience is the solution.  

Is it necessary to be able to use a secure connection immediately after the website has gone live? Please contact support before you put the website live.