Ultimate Guide to Migrating Your Website to Ovation Hall (Zero Downtime)

Switching web hosting providers can seem intimidating. Many site owners worry about losing database records, misplacing customer emails, or suffering hours of downtime.

However, when properly executed, a website migration involves zero downtime. Even better: Ovation Hall provides free white-glove website migration for all new clients.

If you prefer to perform the migration yourself, follow this proven step-by-step checklist.

Phase 1: Pre-Migration Backup

Never touch live DNS records before having an untouched, full backup of your existing site.

1. Log into your current host’s cPanel or File Manager.

2. Compress your public_html directory into a single .zip archive and download it to your local computer.

3. Open phpMyAdmin, select your website database, and click Export (Quick - SQL format). Download the .sql file.

Phase 2: Upload Files & Import Database to Ovation Hall

1. Log into your new Ovation Hall cPanel (credentials were emailed upon order confirmation).

2. Open File Manager, navigate to public_html, and upload your compressed zip archive. Extract it.

3. Go to MySQL Database Wizard:

• Create a new database name.
• Create a database user with a secure password.
• Assign ALL PRIVILEGES to the user on that database.

4. Open phpMyAdmin in Ovation Hall cPanel, click on the newly created database, and click Import. Upload your downloaded .sql file.

Phase 3: Update `wp-config.php` (For WordPress Sites)

In your Ovation Hall File Manager, edit wp-config.php and update these four lines to match your new database credentials:

define( 'DB_NAME', 'new_database_name' );
define( 'DB_USER', 'new_database_user' );
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'your_strong_password' );
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

Phase 4: Point Nameservers (DNS Switch)

Now that your website files and database are fully live on Ovation Hall, update your domain nameservers at your domain registrar to point to:

• ns1.ovationhall.net
• ns2.ovationhall.net

Because the site already exists identically on both old and new servers, visitors will experience seamless transitions with zero downtime while DNS caches refresh globally over 1 to 24 hours.

Need Help? Call Ovation Hall Migration Support at 0548 771 088 or submit a ticket in your client dashboard. We migrate WordPress, custom PHP, Node.js, and static sites free of charge.