Migrate your server in minutes: the Server Importer tutorial

Server migrations have a reputation for eaten weekends: provision a new machine, remember the right rsync flags, rebuild the directory layout by hand, discover at midnight that half of /etc never made the trip. The Server Importer in the InstantNode panel automates that mechanical middle. It connects to your existing server over SFTP, lets you tick the folders you want to keep, creates a new KVM VPS with a matching operating system and pulls everything to its original location. This tutorial walks through the wizard screen by screen.

What you need before you start

• An InstantNode account.
• SSH access to your old server: hostname or IP, port (22 unless you changed it), username and password.
• SFTP enabled on the old server - it ships with OpenSSH, so virtually every Linux server already has it.

That's the whole list. The old server can live at any provider - if you can log in over SSH, the importer can read it. One practical note: the wizard signs in with a username and password, so if your server only accepts SSH keys, temporarily enable password authentication for the duration of the migration.

Step 1 - Connect your old server

Open /dashboard/import in the client panel and enter the connection details: host, port, username and password. Use root, or another user that can read everything you plan to migrate - a user that can't see /etc can't copy it.

On the same screen, pick the operating system your old server runs: Debian, Ubuntu, Rocky Linux, CentOS or AlmaLinux. This choice matters more than it looks, because your new VPS is automatically created with a matching OS image - so your restored configs land in a system that expects them, with the same paths and the same package layout.

Step 2 - Pick the data to migrate

The wizard connects over SFTP and shows your old server's file tree. Tick the folders and paths you want to bring along. Typical picks:

• /var/www - web roots and site files
• /etc - configuration: nginx, PHP, cron jobs, TLS certificates
• /home - user data and dotfiles
• /opt/yourapp - anything you installed by hand

Choose folders deliberately instead of grabbing the whole disk. Caches, old logs and package archives only slow the transfer down - the less you select, the faster the import finishes.

Step 3 - Size the new VPS

Finally, decide what you're migrating onto. Pick one of the preset plans, or build a custom machine with sliders - up to 32 vCPU, 64 GB RAM and 1 TB of NVMe storage - and watch the monthly price update live as you drag. Match or exceed the old server's specs, and make sure the disk is comfortably larger than the data you ticked in step 2.

Click "Create server & import". Your part is done.

What happens next

1. InstantNode deploys your new KVM VPS - this takes about 60 seconds.
2. The importer pulls each selected path from your old server over SFTP.
3. Every path is restored to its original location: /etc/nginx on the old machine is /etc/nginx on the new one, /var/www stays /var/www.
4. A live progress view shows each path as it transfers, so you always know where the import stands.

The importer only reads from the source, so your old server keeps running untouched the whole time - your site stays online during the transfer. How long it takes depends on how much data you selected and on the old host's uplink.

After the import: the first 30 minutes

Your files are in place, but a migration is not a clone. Work through this short checklist on the new VPS:

1. Reinstall your packages. The files came over; the package database didn't. Run apt install nginx php-fpm mariadb-server (or the dnf equivalent) - your configs from /etc are already waiting for them.
2. Restore your databases from a dump - see the limitations below.
3. Enable and restart services, then test everything against the new IP before touching DNS.
4. Update DNS to point at the new VPS.
5. Keep the old server for a few days as a fallback, until you're sure nothing is missing.

What the importer doesn't do

An honest tool deserves an honest box. The Server Importer migrates files - three things remain yours to handle:

• Databases. Live database files should never be copied. Dump them on the old server (mysqldump or pg_dump) and restore the dump on the new one - it takes two commands and is the only safe way.
• Services. Nothing is auto-started on the new VPS. Reinstall the packages, then systemctl enable --now whatever you need.
• The target. The destination is a Linux KVM VPS with one of the supported images - the importer won't migrate a server onto Windows.

Quick answers

Does the old server stay online? Yes. The importer never writes to the source; it reads your files over SFTP and leaves everything exactly as it found it.

Can I migrate away from a container vServer? Yes - if it runs Linux and you can SSH in, it's a valid source. Moving from a cramped container onto a full KVM VPS is one of the most common uses.

Stuck somewhere? Reach us on Discord or open a ticket in the panel - migrations are the one topic we never get tired of.