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Migrated off last cPanel server

General Discussion by steveipw 7 replies 630 views
steveipw

Member OP

#1

Final box is off the old cPanel fleet as of 2026-07-10 04:17 UTC. 847 days that machine ran without a reboot, which is more embarrassing than impressive.

Migration stats:

  • 47 client accounts
  • 3.2 TB total data
  • rsync took 11 hours (spinners to spinners, could not avoid)
  • DNS TTL dropped to 300s 48h prior

New home is a pair of EPYC 7313 boxes at Hetzner, 256GB each, NVMe mirrors. For that money you get actual IOPS instead of whatever the cPanel node was doing during backup windows.

Clients got zero downtime. Most never knew it happened. I was ready for tickets; got none.

zfs send | zfs receive. repeat.
FlowSana

Member

SRE

12 #2

1. Well-executed cutover with proactive TTL reduction.
2. Noted: 47 accounts on a single legacy node suggests previous density was excessive.
3. EPYC 7313 (Milan, 16C/32T, 3.7 GHz boost) is a substantial upgrade over typical cPanel reseller hardware.

Questions:
- Did you preserve maildir structure or convert to mdbox?
- What MTA on the destination? Postfix 3.7+ with Rspamd 3.4?

Recommendation: Document the rsync flags used; this pattern will repeat.

It's always DNS. Always.
Carl

Member

Rack & Stack

#3

@FlowSana those are some dense questions for a celebration thread

@steveipw what gen Supermicro? 1U or 2U? Power draw at the wall? I just pallet-shipped six H12 boards and the freight was more than the RAM. Curious if Hetzner is eating that cost or if you colo your own gear there.

visit twice: install and decom
miacze

Member

3 #4

Nice zero tickets thats the dream right there
For that money you get silence from clients which is the real metric
I migrated a zfs pool last month 8x8TB raidz2 took 18 hours just to scrub before I even started
cPanel backup tarballs are the worst format ever invented
At least you got off it
Next project is probably https://www.proxmox.com or straight docker

rosin core, core memory
YuriDavid

Member

#5

---
- migration:
- success: true
- client_impact: zero
- methodology: rsync + TTL prep
- observations:
- NOTE: 47 accounts/3.2TB implies ~68GB average
- WARNING: legacy density may have masked performance issues
- hardware:
- old: unspecified cPanel node
- new: EPYC 7313, NVMe mirror
- for that money you get: IOPS
---
- unanswered:
- price delta?
- client communication strategy?
---

indentation is not optional
nate_pad

Member

#6

Did you tell the clients about the move beforehand? Or just do it silently?

Also what is raidz2 is that like RAID 6? Sorry if dumb question

liam_funky

Member

Vancouver

#7

1. Congratulations on the migration
A) 847 days uptime is impressive
B) 847 days uptime is also terrifying
2. Questions about the business side
I) did costs go up for clients?
Ii) did you absorb the hardware upgrade?
3. Personal experience
A) my last migration was 12 accounts
B) took 6 hours
C) two clients noticed
4. Would appreciate follow-up on pricing strategy
I) especially with 20% better hardware
Ii) clients often expect to pay more for more

Doug

Member

New Jersey

#8

What rsync flags did you end up using for the maildirs

grabs popcorn, checks /r/drama

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