Change OS System from Plesk Server

I had a cloud server from Ionos (ionos.de) with centOS and plesk, with the plesk surface I can admin the webpages of my customers, I can clone Websites and make backups. I don't specialize as DevOps but Plesk make it easy to administrate the Webspaces.

The problem that came with Plesk now is that not all OS versions are supported anymore. So I could not integrate newer php versions for the websites.

https://docs.plesk.com/release-notes/obsidian/software-requirements/

So that there is no problem with the updates of the server. I wanted to set up a supported os system as soon as possible without losing data.

So that I not have unnecessary costs I bought a server that has a 30 days test version. On the new server I wanted to import the backup I create from my old server. So I could also test whether the backup works without losing the data.

How to backup plesk?

On the sidebar is the Button Tools & Settings > Tools & Resources > Backup Manager

Click on the blue Button [Back up] Make a full backup and save it on the server or use a ftp Server storage. Download the backup from the Backup Manager.

Here is a short Description how to use a ftp storage, I use a NAS Server with FritzBox. I use my ip address with the port from my NAS Server and configured a user for the ftp access.

Use the backup for the new Server

I uploades via sftp with FileZilla my backup in the path /var/lib/psa/dumps

then I open my terminal and connect to the server via ssh.

I use this command to see my backup in plesk.

plesk sbin pmm-ras --import-file-as-dump --dump-file-specification /var/lib/psa/dumps/backup_2XXXXXX.tar

If you want to use this Server and delete the old one, you have click on the Backup Manager, in this step you have the possibility to generate a ipmapping.txt, because the the server has a different ip address. after you generate this file download it and then uploaded before you start the backup.

I use the new Server only to have a complete mirror from my old Server, after I see the backup is successful uploaded, I reinitialized the old server with Ubuntu 22.04 and repeat the steps to have my old ip address.