How to move accounts over from old shared server to my new VPS Server?

[Rsync]

QUESTION
How do I move accounts from my old shared server [cPanel] to my new VPS Server [WHM/cPanel]? As there is no root access to old server.

SOLUTION
There are several possible ways of transferring accounts from one server to another without having root access. You can transfer account by generating a cpbackup of the account, transfer that backup to the new server and restore it.
Below is one possible way and step by step guide for transferring an account.

Generating a Backup of the Account
In order to move the account as it is to new server, you need to create a full backup of it and cPanel provides an easy tools to do this.

1. Login to the account's cPanel on the old server.

2. Click on the Backups icon under "Files" option.

3. Now, you will see a button of "Download or Generate a Full Backup" under "Full Backup" option, Click on that button.

4. After clicking "Download or Generate a Full Backup" you will see following options shown in screen shot, you need to fill up the details as mentioned.



After following the above step, Full backup of your account is generated. This backup contain full backup of your account including database.
It take few minutes to a few hours for the Full backup generation of an account to finish [it depends on the account data size].
When the backup process completes, you should be able to see the generated backup and it looks like in the format "backup-date_time_username.tar.gz".

Preparing to transfer the backup to VPS server
1. Go to the File Manager option of the cPanel.

2. You will be able to see the generated backup file "backup-date_time_username.tar.gz". Move that backup file into the "public_html" directory and Change the permission of the backup file to "644" so that it can be downloaded.
Following is the screen shot which show the steps more clearly.



Downloading the backup file to VPS server.
1. Login to your new VPS root account using SSH. If you've never used SSH, pleaser see how to SSH.

2. Once you logged into your VPS shell, Change the path to "/home" directory and download the backup file using "wget". Steps you can see in below screen shot.



Restoring the Account
The account backup has been completed and moved to the correct location. All that's left is to restore the account.

1. Login into the WHM of your new VPS.

2. Choose Backups and then click on Restore a Full Backup/cpmove file. "WHM >> Backup >> Restore a Full Backup/cpmove file"

Enter the "username" of the account you want to restore into the appropriate box. (You should see the backup file listed below in the list of "Possible cpmove archives found".)

3. Once you enter the username click on "Restore" button "cPanel" starts the restoration process.



Now allow time to cPanel to complete the restoration process.

You can repeat the above steps for however many number of accounts you need to copy to you new VPS server.

Also, Don't forget to point the nameservers of each domain which you transfer to your new server's DNS.

Enjoy.