The proflehman.com website is officially migrated to AWS!

All data files, about 9 GB, were backed up from IONIS via FTP. Most of that space came from archived family reunion photos (2012, 2014, and 2016) I’d been hosting on the site.

After confirming that both proflehman.com and basingerlehman.com were transferred to AWS, I submitted the online request to cancel my IONIS contract (required a quick phone call for verification). I had been a customer since 2007 and had no issues with IONIS (formerly 1and1.com), but I wasn’t using their resources and wanted to gain experience with AWS.

In AWS Route 53, I created a hosted zone for proflehman.com and updated the name servers. I also added an entry for www.proflehman.com. Using DNS Checker , I could see propagation begin within 5–10 minutes.

I used ChatGPT to guide me through the migration steps, which was very helpful for understanding the process. I also used the bncert-tool to quickly request and install a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate for my WordPress site (It’s running on a Bitnami pre-configured WordPress stack in AWS Lightsail.).

While I’m using Route 53 for DNS, AWS Lightsail appears to offer free DNS for associated domains, unlike Route 53’s $0.50/month hosted zone fee. I haven’t set up DNS for basingerlehman.com yet and am still deciding how to handle it.

Now time to update the WordPress design and maybe start posting more often.

Well, in an effort to “declutter”, I am finally getting around to shutting down the IONIS (formerly 1and1.com account).

1. It looks like I fixed the image issue by downloading the images and adding them to the media library.
2. I backed up all files stored at IONIS via FTP. I had images and some conference documents stored.
3. I saved another copy of my old WordPress site using HTTrack website copier. Note: had to specify that images should be saved, set the minimum link level to check, and turn off the check robo .txt file (whatever that is).
4. I had to get access to WordPress on AWS again by updating the admin password in the database.
5. I first transferred basingerlehman.com to AWS Route 53. I had to open the domain at IONIS and get an authorization code. Process took about five days (lost track). Had to validate my email address with ICANN.
6. So, today I just started the transfer of proflehman.com to AWS Route 53. Will need to fix DNS and need to look at DNS options. AWS Route 53 charges for DNS, not sure it is worth the extra cost.

Stay tuned …

Finally working on migrating my ProfLehman.com blog to a different server. This post is on the new site hosted at AWS using their Lightsail server. I used the smallest micro server instance with 512 MB of memory and 20 GB of storage which is $3.50 per month (2022). I used the pre-built WordPress image which meant the server was running in a just a few minutes.

Steps …

• Created the Lightsail server instance
• Backed-up and downloaded old site using UpdraftPlus WordPress plugin. I used the free version.
• Uploaded back-up files and restored on new site
• Logged into mysql to fix WordPress user password that was lost as my original user account was lost in the transfer 🙂
• Changed the server instance to use a static IP address

So … remaining issues … my images still have a reference back to the old web host. I think this can be changed either by editing the post in WordPress or by going into the database.

My next step is to transfer and link my ProfLehman.com domain name.