Migrating with Plesk

Plesk is a control panel that lets you host and manage websites from a browser, without connecting to the server over SSH. This guide walks you through moving an existing project to your server: uploading the site files, creating a database, and importing a database dump.

Before You Begin

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Make sure that:

• Plesk is fully installed on your server. Installation takes several minutes; wait for it to finish before opening the panel.
• You have a local copy of your site files and a dump of your database.
• You know the database name, username, and password used in your site's configuration file.

Step 1. Add a Domain and Upload the Site Files

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1. In the Plesk interface, open Websites & Domains and click Add Domain.

2. Choose how you want to create the website. This guide uploads the files of an existing site from your computer, so select Upload files.

Adding a domain in Plesk

3. Enter the domain name you want to host on the server.
4. Click Add Domain.

Adding a domain in Plesk

Plesk will perform the required configuration, add the domain, and open the Files section—the built-in file manager.

5. Click the plus icon and select Upload File or Upload Directory, depending on how your project is packaged.

File Manager in Plesk

6. Upload the site files to the server.

Once the upload finishes, the files are stored in the document root of the domain you just added.

Step 2. Create a Database and Import the Dump

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1. Open the Databases section.

2. Click Add Database.

3. Fill in the database details: the database name, the username, and the user's password.

We recommend entering the same credentials that your site's configuration file already uses. This way you won't need to edit the configuration after the migration.

Creating a database in Plesk

4. In the Related site field, select the domain you added in Step 1.

5. Click Create Database.

6. Click Import dump and upload your database dump to the server.

Databases section in Plesk

You can also import the dump through phpMyAdmin: click phpMyAdmin, open the Import section, and upload the file there.

Step 3. Point Your Domain at the Server

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For the site to be reachable, your domain's A record must point to your server's IP address. Update the record in the DNS settings of your domain registrar or DNS provider.

DNS changes can take up to 24 hours to propagate, although in most cases they take effect much sooner. After propagation, open your domain in a browser to confirm that the migrated site loads correctly and that it connects to the database.