Member Avatar for davesh

Hello,
I've been migrating a site from one server to another. Both servers are running Plesk. There was no migration manager for the new server, and no backups available for the old server, so we chose to transfer the files by FTP. The MySQL database has been transferred by a MySQL dump and inserted using MySQL import. For the files, I copied all of the files from httpdocs to the new servers httpdocs folder. Also, I created a new ColdFusion DSN because I didn't know the password of the old DSN.

The time has come to transfer the DNS records. However, I don't think the new site is showing up. I can't access any of the files in httpdocs, and the only thing showing up on the site is a default index file, which I don't know where it's coming from as I've tried to edit all of the index files and nothing changes on the site.

Please PM me for the IP of the new server, and if needed the URL of the old server. This is somewhat time sensitive as the old server will be going down possibly this evening.

Thanks!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rch1231

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Quick, focused checklist (Plesk/FTP/phpMyAdmin only) that extends ’s suggestions and targets the symptoms described — default page visible even after copying files and importing the DB.

First confirm the request is actually hitting the new host (host‑header matters). Create a hosts file entry on a test workstation so DNS is bypassed, then request the site through the new IP while sending the domain as the Host header:

# hosts file (Windows: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts)
198.51.100.45   example.com www.example.com
# quick host-header check (from any shell)
curl -I -H "Host: example.com" http://198.51.100.45/

If the test still serves the default page, the server is receiving the request but routing to a different vhost/site.

Verify Plesk hosting settings for the subscription/domain: the assigned IP, the exact document root path, and whether the site is set to "hosting" (not forwarding). Multiple subscriptions can each have an httpdocs — confirm the file path shown in File Manager matches the domain's Hosting Settings. Check the IIS/Plesk default‑document order and remove or deprioritize any placeholder index.html/index.htm so index.cfm (or the app’s entry file) is served first.

Check ColdFusion execution separately: drop a tiny test page such as

<!-- test.cfm -->
<cfoutput>#Now()# - CF OK</cfoutput>

into the site root and browse it via the hosts-file test. If it downloads or shows raw tags, the CF connector/handler isn’t active.

Look at permissions and logs if possible: IIS logs are typically under

IIS7+: C:\inetpub\logs\LogFiles\W3SVC<id>\
IIS6:  C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\W3SVC<id>\

and NTFS must allow the IIS worker account read access to the files. If Plesk doesn’t expose logs, request the provider to extract the last entries.

Urgent mitigations before the old server goes down: use the hosts-file test to validate the site on the new box, remove any placeholder index file, and confirm ColdFusion DSN credentials and application config (Application.cfm/CFC or connection strings) point to the imported MySQL.

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Member Avatar for rch1231

You need to see if the site is setup in Plesk properly and find out where httpd is looking. If it is Linux server for both old and new then files should have the same permissions on old and new. Try

httpd -V

from a command prompt to see where your configuration files are stored. Make sure you have created the site in plesk on the new server and that it points to the directory you have put the old files in. Is the new IP address associated with the site in the new server?

Member Avatar for davesh

Hi rch, thanks for the reply.

Access to the new server seems to be quite limited at this point. My only access as I can tell is through the Parallels Plesk Panel, FTP, and phpmyadmin. That being said, I'm not sure whether the new server is Linux or Windows. The old server is Windows 2003 Server. I believe the new server may be on Windows as there are a few Windows applications in the panel, namely IIS Application Pool and Microsoft FrontPage.

The new server has an IP address and a few hours ago we updated the DNS settings to point to the new server. From the File Manager app in the panel, it shows that the httpdocs folder contains all of the files and folders from the previous server.

Member Avatar for davesh

After glancing through phpmyadmin->variables, it looks like maybe the server is Windows based.
basedir: c:\Program Files (x86)\Parallels\Plesk\Databases\MySQL\
character sets dir: c:\Program Files (x86)\Parallels\Plesk\Databases\MySQL\share\charsets\
datadir: c:\Program Files (x86)\Parallels\Plesk\Databases\MySQL\Data\

Etc. This is after importing one database from the old server. Would that make a difference?

Edited by davesh because: n/a
Member Avatar for rch1231

Can you access the index file on the new server? I would say you need to look at the IIS log files and see what files it is using for displaying the site. You might also try creating a dummy site as a test, For example if you owned the domain try adding a site called to the server and see where it points. If it is windows can you access the server via RDP (remote desktop) if you can only get in through plesk then I know it has ways to check the log files for iis.

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