Migrate a site from Hetzner using SSH

This guide will show you how to securely share access to your site using SSH, so that you can migrate your site from Hetzner to WordPress.com.

Secure Shell (SSH) is a secure way for us to connect to your current host and copy your site safely. We use it to transfer a copy of your site’s content, media, plugins, themes, and database over an encrypted connection. Your existing site will stay online and unchanged during the migration, so visitors won’t notice any disruption until you’re ready to update your domain name to the newly-migrated site.

To find the SSH details for your site, take the following steps:

1. Log in to your Hetzner account.
2. Select the server you want to migrate.
3. Locate the Public IP address and SSH port (usually 22) under the Access section.
   • If your server uses a firewall, make sure port 22 is open.
4. Copy the following details from the SSH Details panel and paste onto WordPress.com:
   • IP into the Server address field.
   • Port into the Port field.

5. Click the “Verify server address” button.

In a few moments, we’ll validate if the details are correct for what we need to migrate a copy of your site to WordPress.com. If the details cannot be validated, please double check you have pasted the correct information or contact your host for support in obtaining the correct details.

Next, you’ll need to share your SSH details to grant WordPress.com secure access to your site to begin the migration.

1. In the Share SSH access section on WordPress.com, choose the SSH key authentication method.
2. Open a text editor (like Notepad) and copy the key from the SSH key section to the file.
3. Save the file as migration_key.pub. Note where you saved the file.
4. Open your command line interface (CLI) like Terminal or Command Prompt.
5. Move the key file to your .ssh directory (create the directory if it does not exist):
   

mkdir -p ~/.ssh
mv /path/to/migration_key.pub ~/.ssh/

6. Copy the public key to your server by running:

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/migration_key.pub username@your.server.ip

Replace:

• username with your server username
• your.server.ip with your server’s IP address

7. Enter your server user’s password when prompted. The key will automatically be added to the server’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.
8. Back on WordPress.com, click the Continue button.