So, after more than a decade at WebIntellects hosting, I had to call it quits – they just didn’t keep up with my website – WordPress based, but not very active – still, logging in to the CPanel even got laggy. Moved one site to DreamHost and it was a lot faster, more reliable and easier to manage.

Migration, however, was not as straight forward as they would have you believe. Here is the REAL story.

I’m going to assume you have a current website (wordpress) and just set up your account, domain and got wordpress installed at DreamHost. What now?

Stop. You have some information to gather first.

Start by getting your WordPress MySQL credentials… (1) Click on MySQL Databases, (2) scroll down to Database(s) on this server:

(3) Click on the Users Access ( after you copy down the user name! ) and then scroll down to the “Do you need to know user’s password? and click Show – copy it.

Now, go back to MySQL Databases and scroll to HOSTNAME – click on the phpMyAdmin – where you will use the credentials gathered above to log in….

It should auto populate the MySQL Hostname:

Scroll down until you find wp_users (or wp_somthin_users) and expand that table.

Copy the user_login name and click Edit to change the password :

Find user_pass and click the drop down to set it to MD5

Enter a new password and click GO (bottom right)

When you go back to look at it, it will be in a hex string, so make sure you know what the password is or you will have to change it again.

On your DreamHost, under Manage Websites, manage your site and Get Migration Key under WordPress

Now you should have:
Dreamhost WordPress admin User name and Password
Migration Key
Current WordPress admin User name and Password.

Now, go to your current wordpress and log in as an admin.

Go to Plugins, Add New and search and install DreamHost Automated Migration.

Activate it.

It will ask you for the information gathered – put it all in and Begin Migration!

Once Migration is complete (15 minutes or more depending on your site size), you are not done. Now you need to point your domain’s DNS to DreamHost.

I use Cloudflare for my DNS, so I get the DNS settings from Manage Websites –> Manage –> DNS Records (under Domain)

Update appropriately – but you MUST have a mydomain.com and a www.mydomain.com record – or a sub.mydomain.com and a www.sub.mydomain.com record.

Once those are done, you need to turn on SSL…

Under Websites, click on Secure Certificates – then Add one to your website:

I went with the Free personal site SSL from Let’s Encrypt….

Once that order processes and is installed – you should see the Lock beside your website is green:

Now you should be able to see your new site (given fast DNS updates), though it may take a bit – 15 minutes or longer depending on your DNS’s TTL settings.

And Migration is complete – go in to word press and update plugins, check your Site Health, etc. Explore your page and make sure its all showing properly.

For References from DreamHost :
https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002208532

https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/221610868-Finding-your-database-login-credentials