Moving To And From FediHost
Migrating to and from FediHost is easy
By Paige Saunders
A key philosophy of the fediverse is the freedom to move which means most hosting providers like FediHost are pretty good about facilitating migrations. With FediHost it's easy to export a complete copy of your data from the control panel.
Moving to FediHost from another place is largely depended on your current provider.
Migrating A Single Account
If you currently have an account on another server and want to start hosting your own instance you can create a Mastodon or GoToSocial instance and use the tools built into Mastodon and GoToSocial to migrate your account.
Moving A Whole Server
If you currently have an instance hosted elsewhere and want to move to FediHost this is situation dependent.
Remember that you can't migrate a server to a different domain, your domain name has to match exactly.
Downtime & Cost
The length of downtime is a large part of what determines the price.
High Downtime
FediHost has a day we do high downtime migrations once a month. Typically this is for small instances where you can have up to 48 hours of downtime during the process.
To do a high downtime migration to FediHost you will just need an account with $100 of credit on it.
Low Downtime
Low downtime migrations are carefully orchestrated with the client and take a number of days to script, plan and execute. Typically this is the option for larger instances and enables downtimes of between 2-8 hours done during off-peak time times for your users.
Low downtime migrations to FediHost depend on a number of factors but typically cost anywhere from $2500 to $5000. These costs are usually rolled into a custom enterprise contract and paid off over time.
Move Preparation
Before moving we need to check that everything will work.
1. Check Backups are Supported
Check that you can download or export a copy of your data from your existing provider.
2. Data Download and Analysis
Download a copy of your data and share a link to it with support@fedihost.co so we can analyse it.
- We need to check that it is complete and does not have custom code or processes running.
- We need to see if it could take longer than 48 hours to migrate.
Once the checks are run we will be able to give you a list of upcoming moving days so you can choose which one you want to go with.
Usually the data can be put on the server, but sometimes we will have to work on it. If this is the case you will be given a quote for the work and will be able to choose if you would like to go ahead.
3. Create FediHost Account
A few days before moving day you will need to create a FediHost account and add payment details for your new instance. Skip the step where you choose the domain so that your service remains in the "Setup Needed" state.
Make sure that you use the same email address to create your FediHost account as you have been emailing support with so we know who you are.
4. Prepare Domain For Moving Day
For moving day to go smoothly you should update the TTL record on your domain to 600 ahead of time. This ensures that that the domain migrates immediately when you point it at FediHost in future.
Moving Day
Moving day occurs every four weeks and starts at 7am Eastern Standard Time. On moving day we work quickly through a number of steps to get smaller high downtime instances migrated across.
5. Disable Your Old Instance
At this time you will disable your old instance to prevent new data and records from going into its database and storage.
Check that your instance is not accessible at your domain. Throughout this process do not restart your instance.
6. Download Backup and Send to FediHost
Download a final backup of your old instance and send it to FediHost.
If downtime doesn't matter to you and you want to be first in line, you can always send us your backup the day before.
If you send us your backup later than 9am Eastern Standard Time on moving day there may be delays in migrating your instance. If extra downtime is not an issue for you, go ahead and send it.
If you have a larger instance remember to factor in the time to download, archive and upload the data so that you make it before the 9am cutoff
7. Migrate Your DNS Settings
While FediHost is setting up your instance you should migrate your DNS. On your DNS provider update the records to match the table which the FediHost control panel generates. The settings depend on if you are using a subdomain or a top level domain.
| Subdomain eg: service.consultatron.com |
Top Level Domain eg: consultatron.com |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | CNAME | ALIAS or A | ||
| TTL | 600 | 600 | ||
| Hostname | service.consultatron.com | consultatron.com or @ | ||
| Target | lb.fedihost.co | lb.fedihost.co |
DNS Issues? Read our troubleshooting guide
8. Migration Success
Provided no insurmountable barriers are encountered your instance should be up and running once the DNS has migrated and your data is restored. After testing everything is working correctly for a few days your old instance can be deleted.
Migration Failure? Although rare, this can happen. When this occurs you can switch your domain back to the old hosting and turn the instance back on.
How to handle issues with the hardest step of setting up managed hosting: DNS.
Why FediHost and other managed hosts don’t often support forks and custom code.
FediHost automatically makes daily backups which can be restored in the case of user error. A backup can be made every 7 days for users wanting to make their own backups or move services they are able to in the FediHost control panel for the service. Run Export Process Services > *Service Name* > Edit > Export Find the service you would like to export a backup from in your list of services. Click the edit button, navigate to the export tab, and download a backup. This backup takes a while