Notes
Information gathering
We recommend that you find what is the current version of WordPress and PHP that your site is using. After that, deploy the application on Bunnyshell to be as close as possible to the site you are migrating.
If your WordPress installation requires an older/different PHP version, make sure to deploy it first.
if you are using OpenLiteSpeed: Virtual Machine -> select VM -> OPS -> Edit [on the OpenLiteSpeed line] -> add desired PHP versions in the PHP Versions box -> Update Package -> (with OpenLiteSpeed marked green for deployment) Deploy Changes
if you are using Apache or Nginx: Virtual Machine -> select VM -> OPS -> Add new Package -> select desired PHP version -> Update Package -> Deploy Changes
Remember to set it correctly for your application as well: Applications -> select WP site -> Settings -> Change PHP Version (set the correct version here) -> Apply PHP Settings
Changing the domain name
When you alter the domain configuration of the site in Bunnyshell, the deployer will try to use wp-cli in order to get the WordPress site to change its name as well. Some plugins can interfere with this process. If you experience issues with this step, we would recommend that you change the domain name as soon as you have the application set up (that is before you start migrating anything).
The only thing to keep in mind is that you will very like need to alter your hosts file in order to work with the website until you actually point the domain name to the new IP if you chose to change the domain name at this stage.
Moving the application
Once you have the correct version installed you can migrate your site. The video above explains a manual migration. Please follow it along as it explains where to find some core information about the process.
An alternative that works well if you are migrating a site that is on the latest version of WordPress is to use a migration plugin. The only caveat is that it can introduce some issues. Please read below the tips and tricks from the community as they can help you with some common issues that were observed.
Tips and tricks from the community
If manually transferring the WordPress site is too demanding please use a high-quality plugin that can backup and restore your site. Not all plugins are created equal and some can exhibit strange behaviour therefore we recommend that you chose those that have been rated high by the community.
Disable any caching or security plugin before you migrate your site. This is because some plugins alter the .htaccess file in such a way that it breaks the entire website. We have observed that the customers who are successful in migrating their WP sites are the ones that use a limited selection of high-quality plugins. Once you migrate the WP site feel free to re-enable them one at a time! When you re-enable them on the server issues the command and test that everything works as expected:
# for openlitespeed
sudo systemctl restart lsws
# for nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx
# for apache
sudo systemctl restart apache2
If you notice that when you navigate to the home page your browser just downloads a file, it is very likely that one of the plugins is interfering with your website.
Use only ONE caching plugin. If you are using OpenLiteSpeed please only use LSCache as that is the official plugin that is designed by the OpenLiteSpeed team. Should you wish to use other caching strategies feel free to do so, but ensure that you only use one caching plugin as failure to do so will result in strange behaviour such as when you navigate to the homepage you will notice that a file is being downloaded automatically by your browser.
At the present moment, WPRocket does not work well with OpenLiteSpeed and can cause the above-mentioned behaviour. So if WordPress downloads a file when you navigate to your website it is very likely that the caching plugins are acting up.
Check your combination of site settings, HTTPS redirect and CloudFlare SSL/TLS settings if you notice an error that says too many redirects. Generally speaking, you will get this issue when you have CloudFlare set to Flexible but either the HTTP to HTTPS redirect ON in Bunnyshell or if the site name has https://example.com.
If you need to change the username and password for WordPress, please use the WordPress tools. When Bunnyshell creates a new site it uses its own set of credentials once, and that set cannot be updated.