How to fix cPanel after restore a droplet from snapshot

Posted on February 13, 2017

Hi, im trying to move my current droplet into a new droplet with a new IP address, i currently have 2 droplets with 2 different projects, and i would like to create a “bigger” droplet where both can work together, the problem is that when i create the new droplet and restore the snapshot cPanel is no longer accesible and have a lot of issues, when i log into WHM, i change the IP for the new ip address, but seems to broke my site anyway. and i still dont know why.

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Jonathan Tittle

February 14, 2017

@josue

Since cPanel/WHM is licensed directly to the public IP of your Droplet, creating a snapshot and then restoring to a new Droplet is most likely going to result in licensing errors or an environment that just does not work (as you’ve indicated) unless you end up with the exact same IP (which is possible, but not guaranteed – it’s also random, so you have no control over it).

That said, when it comes to migrating the best way to handle this is:

1). Setup a new Droplet and get a temporary license, if possible**.

2). Use the built-in migration utility to migrate from one server to another.

3). Modify your DNS accordingly and then test to make sure it’s working.

4). If the DNS is a go, take a snapshot of the old Droplet and destroy it.

** In regards to #1, a temporary license is only possible if that IP has never had a temporary license or a cPanel installation on it. If it has, you’d need to purchase a second license and then cancel your first after successful migration.