Jetpack Backup is a premium WordPress migration plugin that lets you back up, migrate, or recover your website to a specific date or time. This guide explains how you can migrate your WordPress Site to Vultr using the Jetpack Backup plugin.
Before you begin, you need to:
This guide uses example information:
You should replace these example values with your information.
Change the web root directory permissions to 777
, which allows Jetpack to write new files. You'll tighten the permissions later when you secure the site in section six.
$ sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/
Grant the web server full permissions to all files in the web root directory.
$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/
Using a web browser, log in to your old, existing WordPress site.
https://www.example.com/wp-admin
On the left navigation menu, navigate to Plugins.
Locate the Backup option and click Purchase.
Click Add Jetpack Backup to redirect to the WordPress.com checkout page.
https://www.example.com
, in the Destination site URL field.22
as the Port Number.Enter the sudo user you created earlier in the Server username field and its associated password in the Server password field, and click Save.
Enter /var/www/html/
in the Destination WordPress Path field.
cloud.jetpack.com
Activity Log.Log in to your DNS provider and change your fully-qualified domain name to point to the IP address of the new Vultr Marketplace WordPress server. The exact steps depend on your DNS host. Use this guide if you use Vultr DNS.
Make sure your DNS has fully propagated to the new address before proceeding with the next steps. You can use a tool like dnschecker.org to check the status.
By default, the Vultr Marketplace WordPress server uses a self-signed SSL/TLS certificate. In this step you'll use the Certbot Let's Encrypt application to create a new SSL/TLS certificate and configure the site for HTTPS.
Back up the original wordpress_https.conf
Nginx configuration file.
$ sudo mv /etc/nginx/conf.d/wordpress_https.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/wordpress_https.ORIG
Using a text editor, edit the wordpress_http.conf
file.
$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/wordpress_http.conf
Find the following section.
server {
listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server;
server_name _;
As you can see in line 4 above, the server_name
directive is using _
as a wildcard. Change that value to your server's fully-qualified domain name, as shown in the example below.
server_name www.example.com;
Save and close the file.
Request a new Letâs Encrypt SSL certificate. Replace www.example.com
with your actual domain name.
$ sudo certbot -d www.example.com --agree-tos
Enter your email address, and allow automatic redirects when prompted.
Test that Certbot auto-renews your SSL Certificates upon expiry.
$ sudo certbot renew --dry-run
If the above command runs without errors, Certbot will renew your SSL certificates every 90 days before it expires.
Restart Nginx to save changes.
$ sudo systemctl restart nginx
Using a web browser, test HTTPS access on your WordPress site.
https://www.example.com
You should find a Connection is secure padlock sign in the web browser URL bar.
To secure your WordPress site from direct IP visits, edit the main Nginx configuration file.
$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
Add the following configuration lines within the http {
section.
server {
listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server;
server_name "";
return 301 https://www.example.com;
}
All requests to your IP are now redirected to your configured domain name.
To avoid random installation risks, delete the WordPress installation script.
$ sudo rm /var/www/html/wp-admin/install.php
To limit write access to your web root directory, set the file permissions to 755
for directories, and 644
for files.
$ sudo find /var/www/html/ -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
$ sudo find /var/www/html/ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
Now, you should be able to access your new WordPress site.
Using a web browser, visit your WordPress site, and confirm that it loads well.
https://www.example.com
Log in to your WordPress administrator dashboard.
https://www.example.com/wp-admin
On the left navigation bar, navigate to Tools and select Site Health.
Scroll through the list of options, and toggle Server to verify that the WordPress system information corresponds with your Vultr WordPress server packages.
To fine-tune and maximize the full potential of your WordPress server, please visit the following guides.