Migrating Wordpress servers, same domain.. Few questions

Question

I'm helping a friend migrate her wordpress server to GoDaddy, and I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew... I've never migrated a wordpress before. This page here is the Wordpress wiki for moving Wordpress when your domain isn't changing. It doesn't seem to complex, but I'm terrified of accidentally ruining this website and I don't understand a couple of things on the wiki.

The Wiki says

If database and URL remains the same, you can move by just copying your files and database.

• Does this mean that I can just log in to her server from Filezilla and copy all of the files on the server? What does database mean, is that something separate from the files on the server?

If database name or user changes, edit wp-config.php to have the correct values.

• This sort of goes with my first question.. What initiates a database name or user change?

Apologies for my ignorance, but after an hour or so of searching around for these answers I'm left just as confused.

Last but not least, is there anything else I should be aware of when migrating a wordpress? I'm a little nervous..

Answer 1

You are going to need to migrate you instalation in two parts.

Part 1 you already eluded to. You will need to copy the files from one server to another. I am guessing you know how to do this so I will not dive any deeper into it. If you do need more explanation, please let me know and I will edit the question.

Part 2 is what you mentioned but said you did not understand. Copying the database of wp install. Wordpress runs off of PHP and MySQL. The "files" part in part 1 is the PHP files (along with some html and css). You need to log into his MySQL server and do an export of his database. You should be able to export the database (How to export mysql database to another computer?) and import it into his new server on GoDaddy. (Error importing SQL dump into MySQL: Unknown database / Can't create database).

Just take things slow, follow the guides that I have linked and do not delete anything from the first server until everything is working on the second. Please let me know if you do not understand anything.

Answer 2

if you don't feel confortable with database exports and imports, try using plugins like:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/ or http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-move/

Check his docs for info.

Luck!

Answer 3

• A database is literally a data base. It's where websites (and other applications) store their data eg. For Wordpress, it would be data such as posts, user information etc.

If you are using a cPanel setup then you would need to get access to it and navigate to phpMyAdmin which is the GUI for managing a database.

Now I'm not sure what type of setup you're using but that should be a start.

• A database has a connection server address (usually localhost), a database name, username and password. These are setup at the time of setting up a database.

When migrating servers, you would need to update those details in the wp-config.php file (I think around line 19 or so).

• The annoying part about migrating Wordpress to another server is the domain change as you have to update the old domain with the new domain throughout the database. However since you're not changing domain names, it should be a smooth ride as long as the new server supports PHP and has a database.