Migrate a site from OVHcloud 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 OVHcloud 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. Visit your OVHcloud Control Panel and navigate to the Web Cloud section.
2. Select “Hosting plans” and choose your website plan from the list of services.
3. Select the FTP – SSH tab.
4. In the user table, under the SSH column, check if the user is listed as Disabled or Enabled. If disabled, enable SSH access by:
   • Clicking the ellipses (three dots) button on the right.
   • Choosing Edit.
   • Selecting “FTP, SFTP and SSH” under “Connection protocols” and click Next.
   • Clicking Confirm.
5. Click the copy button next to SSH server, which will look something like ssh.cluster123.hosting.ovh.net and paste it into the “Server address” field on WordPress.com:

6. Copy the SSH port number (usually 22) and paste it into the Port field on WordPress.com.
7. 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. There are two methods to do so:

1. Return to where you left off in your OVHcloud account’s FTP – SSH page.
2. Copy your username from the Login column of the users table and paste it into the SSH username field on WordPress.com.
3. Enter your SSH user password into the SSH password field on WordPress.com. If you don’t know this password, you can click the ellipses (three dots) button on the right of the user table to change the password.
4. Click Continue:

1. In the “Share SSH access” section on WordPress.com, choose the SSH key authentication method.
2. Click the copy icon in the top right to copy the public key to your computer’s clipboard:

3. Return to your OVHcloud Control Panel.
4. Click on your account name in the top right and select the “My offers and services” option.
5. Under “My services“, select the SSH keys option.
6. Click the “Add an SSH key” button and choose Dedicated.
7. Fill in the details:
   • ID: this can be a name like “WordPress.com Migration” for example.
   • Key: paste the exact key you copied from WordPress.com.
8. Click the Confirm button to install the key.
9. Once the key has been installed, return to WordPress.com and click the Continue button.