After This Challenging Migration, Ole Doc Is Back Online!

After managing to migrate three WordPress blogs into a single large website, my newest creation is finally online. Normally doing a project like this is a charm. But I chose a different brand of web server from Switzerland, Plesk Obsidian.

When it was finally done, all 22GB of it containing several new domains came crashing down as Plesk is famous for. Normally my websites are hosted on WHM/cPanel, but the license fee alone is expensive. When spinning up a web hosting instance it requires a server package. cPanel is the most costly to license, whereas Plesk Web Admin is FREE which is why I chose it. A $40 instance nearly doubles when choosing cPanel.

Updated 02/04/24: Okay, here’s what I am doing now. I found that it’s easier to take snapshots provided by my web host, Vultr. It crashed one more time after I published this article. I now take snapshots at the day’s end, If I publish any new articles do any WordPress major updates, or apply any new mods. Snapshots are not free and are not costly either. I keep one when taking a new snapshot and dumping any others. That keeps a few days older ss in case one fails.

I should have taken a screenshot of the 500 error but it had something to do with a database exception error. While the instance was running I could access some of the domains, but WordPress came up with an unable to establish database connection error. I spent three days searching the web and trying this and that, to no avail.

I didn’t want to abandon the project because of the time spent building the main WordPress site, and the good Internet doctors’ rebranding of my shadow-banned fidosysop.org domain. So went to Plesk to file a support ticket. Then the Plesk form wanted my license number. My vendor of choice Vultr does not give a license number with the instance. Support couldn’t help me either. So with no license number, there is no way to open a support request.

Luckily I had downloaded a full backup file before it crashed that was 21GB. Finally, after the third day, I gave up and wiped the instance from my Vultr account. Another thing of importance to anyone considering Plesk is the compression that is used. Your handy favorite zip utility will not work. Plesk requires WinRAR which must be purchased, to uncompress its backup file.

So, this is my story, and I’m sticking to it. As for me, I’m alive, but what I’ve been through during the last six months has taken its toll. The good news if any, I weighed in at 242 from around 300 six months ago. But no rotten witch will ever do this to me again! 😡