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  4. Transfer Tool — The Transfer Process
whmui transfers

Transfer Tool — The Transfer Process

Valid for versions 124 through the latest version

Version:

124

Last modified: October 22, 2024

Looking for this interface?
Note:

Your hosting provider can enable or disable this interface for resellers in WHM's Edit Reseller Nameservers and Privileges interface (WHM >> Home >> Resellers >> Edit Reseller Nameservers and Privileges).

Overview

When you click Copy in WHM’s Transfer Tool interface (WHM » Home » Transfers » Transfer Tool) after selecting what to transfer, the transfer process begins.

The transfer process

Note:
  • In the following steps, domain represents the name of a domain that you transferred.
  • The system considers any two records with the same resource name and type to be duplicates.
  • MultiPHP users’ PHP-FPM settings do not transfer. Instead, the system transfers the PHP-FPM .yaml configuration file to the filename.php-fpm.transferred file. You must restore this file manually after the transfer.
Warning:

If you dedistribute a mail account back to a parent node, the system will overwrite any mail that may be on the parent node for that account. We strongly recommend that you use the Transfer Tool interface (WHM » Home » Transfers » Transfer Tool) for the entire distribution process to avoid any issues with moving email to the child node.

During the transfer process, the system performs the following actions:

  1. The system creates the account.
  2. The system compares the DNS zone file from the account’s backup file with the template-generated zone file that the system generated during account creation.
    Important:

    The Transfer Tool feature does not transfer DNS zone templates. If custom DNS zone templates exist on the source server, the system ignores these zone templates when it recreates the account on the destination server.

  3. The system updates the SOA record to match the destination server’s zone templates and comments out the existing SOA record from the source server.
  4. The system updates domain NS records to match the destination server’s zone templates and comments out any duplicate domain NS records from the source server.
  5. The system updates ftp.domain A, AAAA, and CNAME records to match the destination server’s DNS templates and comments out any identical ftp.domain records from the source server.
    Note:

    cPanel & WHM uses the IP address in the destination server’s standardvirtualftp zone template (usually, the server’s main IP address) for virtual FTP when the account exists on a shared IP address.

  6. The system checks whether the template-generated zone file uses an MX preference of 0, and then performs the following actions:
    • If the zone file’s MX preference is 0 and the MX record points to $PRIMARY_DOMAIN or mail.$PRIMARY_DOMAIN, the system does not merge in the generated templates and does not update the MX preference from the source server.
    • If the zone file’s MX preference is 0 and the MX record does not point to $PRIMARY_DOMAIN or mail.$PRIMARY_DOMAIN (a non-standard mail configuration), the system merges the generated templates and comments out templates from the source server.
    • For example, when the zone template’s MX record defines an external mail service, the system prefers that entry over the record in the backup.
  7. The system comments out duplicate records.
  8. The system comments out CNAME records that conflict with any other records. If two or more CNAME records conflict, the system comments out all but the first CNAME record.
  9. The system updates records that reference the old IP address to use the account’s new IP address.
  10. The system increments the SOA serial number for the domain.
  11. The system removes comments that are older than 30 days.
  12. The system updates CalDAV and CardDAV records to match the destination server’s DNS template.
  13. The system transfers any DNSSEC key information from the backup file to the new server.
    Important:

    If the destination server does not support DNSSEC, that system will not restore any DNSSEC keys in the backup file.

  14. If the zone file contains an $ORIGIN directive for an additional domain, the system will not update that additional domain’s records.