Change a project’s region

To host your project data, Platform.sh offers several regions. You specify a region when you create a project.

You can also change the project’s region after it’s created.

Why migrate between regions

• Different data centers are located in different geographic areas. You may want your site close to your users for improved performance.
• You may want to move to a region with a lower environmental impact.

1. Plan the migration

Before starting the migration process, you need to plan for it:

• Plan a time frame in which to handle the migration. Your code shouldn’t change during this time to ensure all changes are copied to the new project. Prepare for a brief site outage when you migrate, just as with a relaunch of a site.
• Set your DNS Time-to-Live as low as possible. This ensures the switch to the new site propagates as quickly as possible.

2. Create a new project

In the target region, create a new project from scratch.

If you plan to test for long, start with a Development plan and upsize it before switching the DNS. Otherwise, use the desired plan size from the start.

3. Add code and environments

4. Copy files

If you have files in a mount, first download them:

platform mount:download

Then upload them to your new project:

platform mount:upload

See more options on how to export files and how to import files.

5. Copy data from services

For services with generated data such as Solr and Redis, you don’t need to copy data directly. Just rebuild the data in the new project.

To download data from persistent services such as databases, see how to export and then import data for each service:

• InfluxDB
• MongoDB
• MariaDB/MySQL
• PostgreSQL

6. Migrate variables and project settings

Make sure anything else connected to your old project is moved to your new project:

• If you have project or environment variables defined on your old project, add them to your new project. Get a list of all variables set outside of code by running platform variables.
• Add any users to your new project that you want to continue to have access.
• Add any existing integrations.

7. Test the site

Verify that the new site is working as desired before continuing. You can leave the two projects running for as long as you need. After you have finished all your testing, sync all your data (code, files, database) for the last time.

8. Switch to the new site

Now that you know the new project works, switch public traffic to that site:

1. Make sure your new project has the right plan size.
2. If possible, put your site into read-only mode or maintenance mode.
3. Add your domain names to your new project and remove them from the old project.
4. (Optional) Add any custom SSL certificates you have.
5. Update your DNS provider’s records to point to the new site. See more on setting custom domains.

It may take some time for the DNS change and SSL change to propagate. Until it does, some browsers may not see the new site or may get an SSL mismatch error. In most cases that resolves itself in 1–3 hours.

9. Remove the old project

Once the new project is running and the DNS has fully propagated, delete the old project.

Alternative process

Although not directly supported by Platform.sh, an agency named Contextual Code has built a bash migration script. This script automates most common configurations. If your site is a typical single app with a single SQL database, the script should take care of most of the process for you.

See more at the Platform.sh Project Migration repository.