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Avaloi

Migrate a Multisite network or a site with a custom prefix

Move a WordPress Multisite network, or a site whose database tables do not start with wp_, to Avaloi. Avaloi keeps your prefix, moves every site of the network, and checks each one.

Parts of this feature are still being built. The Not yet section lists them.

Avaloi moves a network the same way it moves any other site (see Migrate a site to Avaloi). A custom table prefix and a Multisite network no longer need a person to start the work. This article covers what is different.

A custom table prefix

Your database tables start with the prefix in wp-config.php. Most sites use wp_. Yours may use abc_, Wp_, or site7_.

  • Avaloi reads the prefix from the table names in your database export, anywhere in the file. It also reads $table_prefix from wp-config.php if you included it.
  • The import keeps your prefix. It does not rename your tables to wp_. The new site's wp-config.php is written to match, and the Table prefix row on the Info tab shows it.
  • The roles and the user rights stay as they are, because they are stored under your prefix.
  • The check shows a line such as Table prefix abc_.
  • Capital letters count. Wp_ and wp_ are different prefixes.

Tables from plugins that use their own names are fine. A person looks at the migration when the export holds core tables of more than one install (for example wp_options and shop_options together), because Avaloi cannot know which one you want. Export only the database of the site you are moving.

A Multisite network

Give Avaloi the backup of the whole network: the files and one database export that holds every site. The check shows a line such as Multisite with 3 sites (subdirectory).

Network What happens
Subdirectory (example.com/es/) Every site moves under the new staging address and keeps its path. example.com/es/ becomes your-site.avaloi.com/es/.
Subdomain (es.example.com) Every site gets its own temporary address, one name under avaloi.com, such as es-your-site-ab12c.avaloi.com.
Sites on their own domains Each of those sites also gets a staging address. Its own domain does not serve anything on staging.

Avaloi reads the old address of every site from the blogs table of your export. If you use the WP MU Domain Mapping plugin, Avaloi reads its table too. You still enter the Current site address of the main site as usual.

A person at Avaloi looks at the result before the import is accepted when the network is a subdomain network or when a site runs on its own domain. A network with more than 50 sites goes to a person from the start.

After the import Avaloi:

  1. Writes the network settings in wp-config.php for the new address.
  2. Rewrites the address of every site, in the blogs and site tables, in the options of every site, and in your content, including values WordPress stores in a serialized form.
  3. Clears caches and refreshes the rewrite rules.
  4. Opens the home page of every site and checks that it answers.

The migration shows the result for each site, so you can see which ones loaded.

Databases from MySQL

An export from MySQL 8 may name collations that MariaDB, the database on Avaloi, does not know, such as utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci. Avaloi converts them while it imports (to utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci). It also removes DEFINER clauses and settings that MariaDB refuses. Your content is not changed.

Custom domains

Staging never serves your live domains. After you launch, add the domain of each site in Domains and choose the site it belongs to. See WordPress Multisite.

Not yet

  • Avaloi does not turn a single site into a network, or the other way around.
  • Avaloi does not rename your prefix to another one during a migration.
  • Subdomain networks and sites on their own domains wait for a person to review them.

Still stuck?

Email [email protected] with your site name and what you tried, or send us a message.