How to Migrate Existing WordPress Sites into Sail CLI

Make a full backup of your existing project

Start by making a full files and database backup of your existing WordPress site. The exact procedure will vary based on your hosting provider. Once you have the application files and the database export, proceed to creating a new Sail project.

Create a new Sail project and import files

In a new empty directory run:

sail init

This will provision a new server for your WordPress project. It will take a few minutes. Once the project has been provisioned, make a copy of the new wp-config.php file and store it in a safe place.

Next, copy all the application files from your existing WordPress site, to the newly provisioned Sail project. Make sure you copy all your uploaded media to wp-content/uploads too.

Merge wp-config.php

The wp-config.php file restored from your backup, and the configuration file provided by Sail will be different. At this point you should carefully merge the two files. Make sure that the database credentials come from the new wp-config.php file, as these are the correct credentials to the production site.

You can also fix/reset the credentials later with sail db reset-password.

Import the database

Import the database using:

sail db import path/to/database.sql

Deploy and update domains

Once the database has been imported, push your application files and uploads to production using:

sail deploy --with-uploads

Once the deployment is finished. Add the relevant domains to your Sail project, and set primary:

sail domain add example.org www.example.org
sail domain make-primary example.org

If everything is looking good, you should point your domain to Sail as described in the domains documentation. After DNS propagation is complete, you should be able to request and install a new SSL certificate for your domains:

sail domain make-https example.org www.example.org

If you need assistance migrating your existing projects into Sail, visit our getting help section.