Buying Up Other Host Companies For Clients?

[Sponge]

Hi Everyone,

I've searched around a little on webmaster forums about this and just thought I'd ask here too

I'd like to start buying other hosting companies as an easy means of gaining clients
I use client exec right now for billing and it seems to be pretty easy if I wanted to add new clients and send them a new invoice etc.

But how would I go about transfering them to my servers?
There is some software available for this right?

It would be around 50 clients or so, nothing too big to start so I'm hoping it wouldn't be too much trouble

Has anyone done this? On a smaller scale even

I'd appreciate your input

Thanks!

By the way what's your webmaster forum of choice? Its seems some are not so great

[jason]

If the host you buy out uses CPanel then there is a facility within WHM (Web Host Manager, the administrative level of CPanel) to initiate the transfer. If those accounts aren't on CP then you'll probably have to do the transfers manually (although you may be able to script something to automate some or all of the process).

As for forums, aside from this one, I don't spend too much time in forums. Web Hosting Talk (www.webhostingtalk.com) is a good one, though.

--Jason

[Sponge]

Thanks for you help,

I've looked all through WHM and cPanel and can't find anything that would seem to do that.
I'm going to try cpanel forums now.

[Sponge]

After some more research on cPanel forums it seems that might be the limited part of WHM that jag mentions with the partner plans
They talk of alot of functions that don't seem to exist on my WHM

Does that sond right? Would I need a vps or something wth full WHM to be able to access those functions?

Thanks Again!

[JPC-Greg]

Its only a root level tool, you need root access at the losing and the gaining server to use that transfer tool. As a reseller you probably wont have either. I'll have one of our big brains post here that has tons of experience with client moves.

[JPC-Les]

You could create backups from the cpanel on the old server and then restore them using the canel restore feature in each account. If you can get the cpmove tarballs from the old host we can restore them to an account for you. If you have root access on the old server we can do the transfers for you as well if you prefer that method.

[Sponge]

Great,

I was looking into doing it via backup too but the other methods posted using WHM seemed like less trouble

I would have to manually change all the DNS via the backup route right?
Is there any other settings that would have to be manually changed?
Could these changes be done without asking the clients for anything?

Ofcourse I'd like to have it be as smooth a transition as possible for all the new clients

What's the "cp move tarballs"?

Most of the companies I've looked at are on the same type of reseller plans with limited WHM and cPanel as I am, so I guess what ever options I have they'd have

Thanks for the help!!!

[jason]

To limit the inconveniece of your clients, you could "take over" their nameservers, that is have JPC set you up with additional nameservers under the bought out company's name. Then your new clients wouldn't have to do anything on their side. There'd probably be an additional charge for this, of course, but it would be minor and probably worth it. Likewise, park the bought out host's domain name to your site name so that existing clients and word-of-mouth referrals will be able to find you.

--Jason