Rackspace Cloud Sites to Cloud Server Migration Guide and Blueprint

Rackspace Cloud Sites to Cloud Server Migration is Possibly Now Onwards Should Be in Consideration to the Old Users Lesser Pricing and Robust Performance. Rackspace Cloud Sites, without any doubt; delivered (and still is delivering) the best possible headache free most stable aPaaS Managed Service. There are many Clients like us who are using Rackspace Cloud Sites for past 3-4 years or more. We are trying our best to write the guide from a neutral point of view – it is quite normal that our need, requirements, setup, team, knowledge, manpower, budget will vary from the others – but, possibly will match the most. So, for this Rackspace Cloud Sites to Cloud Server Migration Guide, first we will describe our situation.

Rackspace Cloud Sites to Cloud Server Migration Guide : Our History with Rackspace Cloud Sites

It was great if we could carry the cost of both Rackspace Cloud Sites and Cloud Server – it is not possible for us. Probably it is not possible for the most. We are taking that your monthly budget is $150 USD and we will try to reduce it a bit. We ourselves are not feeling great to write this Rackspace Cloud Sites to Cloud Server Migration Guide – it was a great journey with Cloud Sites since 2011 – Cloud Server was practically kid versus now, there was no OpenStack.

Rackspace Cloud Sites delivered the maximum we ever needed for Commercial Blogs, Personal Websites, e-Commerce websites, Reselling, Buying Domains and their Renewal, Mail service. We have huge number of guides to install various PHP MySQL based softwares specially for Rackspace Cloud Sites as well as WordPress specific tips.

But, currently; an one GB Performance server with Ubuntu will deliver us more to handle the traffic, create SVN, separate subdomains with SSL, run Node.js Apss with a dedicated IP. We will need not one but multiple Performance servers, all unmanaged for our setup. If you lack experience on managing Servers, read whether you need a Managed Server or Unmanaged server.

We can not fully decline the complain the complain by the most – Rackspace Cloud Sites with time has deteriorated in performance. It has not deteriorated, everyone’s need has changed/increased which due to the structure of Rackspace Cloud Sites, may be it is not possible to upgrade. It still can deliver a WordPress webpage at less than 2 seconds, if properly optimized. Rackspace has their own service for migration :

Officially it is not possible to write many points which practically never possible for anyone to cover with the best Migration service. Moreover, you might be like us who want to get the best at lesser cost with unmanaged server. Keep in mind, a Performance Server can be upgraded to Managed Performance Server. There are more three guides which you must read :

Most of us has Domains Registered through or Transferred to Rackspace Cloud Sites. You will not get that excellent Web Hosting Panel, no control of Domain Transfer and Renewal if you leave without a plan. Rackspace, apart from Rackspace Cloud Sites has no Domain related Service. This is a biggest point one must know.

Rackspace Cloud Sites to Cloud Server Migration Guide : Transfer the Domains First

It takes nearly a week for transferring a domain. Either get a Domain Reseller Account from TuCows or Enom or use some existing good one. GoDaddy/SlowDaddy has the problem of getting listed within their Domain Buy-Sell market if you wrongly miss to renew. With Rackspace Cloud Sites it was never a problem, they used to gave alert so many times, many user updated on the last day – all possibly register some domains which are never used but can be used or sold later.
If your billing date is on 5th of the Month, this is March; today is 10th March – you should start transferring the domains and complete within 20th of this month.

Rackspace Cloud Sites to Cloud Server Migration Guide : Next Migrate Mails

Rackspace has separate Mail Service, you can use it or you can create a Subdomain later and install a Mail Server Software. There are hundreds of Third Party Mail Service now. Lite Plan of SendGrid is great for the most, but if you register through Rackspace, it is Free. Heroku Cloud also offers Free Service from SendGrid. SendGrid is Known, but there are more services now.
Actually with Rackspace Cloud Sites you were using a SaaS for Mail for Free, you will just Migrate it too. Complete this step within 25th of this month – check all the emails whether working properly.

Rackspace Cloud Sites to Cloud Server Migration Guide : Calculate the Total Cost of One Server

There is a Pricing Calculator on Rackspace’s website. You will get your bandwidth usage from Rackspace Cloud Sites Control Panel. Add 10% extra of usage (this is avoid under-calculation) and Calculate the cost. For 1 GB Performance Server with GNU Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS etc.) it will be around $63 per month (unmanaged).
Now, according to your need plan how many servers you will need. We always suggest to use One Server for Serious Websites. You will Create another Server, maybe of 512 MB for not that much used websites. As the second one will eat lesser bandwidth, for 1 GB Performance Server with GNU Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS etc.) it will be around $50 per month (unmanaged).

So, your total cost remained within $150 per month even with 3 Servers. Planing of allocating domains is a big work than you can imagine. Suddenly a less popular website can start getting more visitors resulting in increase in bill. Google bots will freshly crawl (they possibly officially deny it, but it definitely happens) and increase in traffic is almost warranted. That is why that 10% extra Bandwidth is calculated. You must complete these with 27th of the month.

Rackspace Cloud Sites to Cloud Server Migration Guide : Real Technical Works

For unmanaged servers, you have to do the technical works too. We will suggest to use Ubuntu and Apache2 Webserver for lesser advanced users. Rackspace Cloud Sites is Apache, you’ll shift to another Apache server. If you like NGNIX, you can play latter. Migration is very easy from Cloud Server to Cloud Server than from Cloud Sites. None of us everyday spins up 30-50 servers, we need to spin up servers to test, do changes in the target IP from New Cloud Control Panel with lesser important websites which are running on complex CMS like WordPress.

For newbies, we will ask to read our guides, our YouTube Videos plus Rackspace’s official guides. DO NOT read any guide from non-Rackspace employee, non long term Rackspace users and Rackspace’s official guides. They have tweaks, hacks for kicking underpowered servers to work properly. We have all repository’s mirror on Rackspace itself.

So, Total Cost of Ownership will start with :

1. Existing Pending Payment for Rackspace Cloud Sites
2. Cost of running Rackspace unmanaged Server for 25th to 5th of the next month. It is better to have this margin because it is probable that we will need to test and delete Server instances. Do not hesitate to delete or rebuild for practice. The working servers must be clean at setup.
3. Cloud Files practically cost next to nothing.
4. Email is depending on your usage
5. The thing will fully suck is Transferring the domains. We have a bigger number of domains. Multiply with $15 for each on average.

At budget, the cost will not go $100 extra for the migration month. On the next month, ask for adding the Managed Service Level (optional, cost $100 extra). You already did your best – it is impossible for any expert to know why you used a certain PHP file inside wp-includes folder.

You will write a Ticket on 1st of next month or have a chat with support announcing your migration and requesting Closure of Rackspace Cloud Sites but not Your Rackspace Cloud Account.  This is what we did is – kind of Property Management in real life.

Rackspace Cloud Sites to Cloud Server Migration Guide : Micro Command Line Guide for WordPress Setup

Well, there is actually various shortcuts with Ubuntu. You can install all the needed softwares to run WordPress, Joomla etc. with :

You need some graphical interface, one is PHPMyAdmin for managing MySQL databases and another is Webmin. Webmin is a Free minimal Web Hosting Control Panel, you need not to fight with command line to add multiple domains :

This is older version, but this is the right way for Rackspace Cloud Server. You can do all the things but unexpectedly, WordPress Database migration can give you huge pain. Deactivate the Cache Plugins, remove the Cache folders, may be you need to follow this way and/or reduce the size of database by cleaning Akismet database tables. We have a WordPress Plugin named FTP To Zip to take backup very easily. Take backup of MySQL using PHPMyAdmin. Do not use complex plugin to take full backup. Once on Cloud Server, your website will over 30% faster with some tweaks. You can optionally move Move WordPress Administration to Different Server or Sub-Domain.
Here we can end our long guide for Rackspace Cloud Sites to Cloud Server Migration. Hosting is painful, not really with Rackspace; this is basically an optional upgrade.