Change the host operating system

Limitations

• Due to hardware and data center location constraints, some Web Hosting hosts do not support an operating system change. Details are provided below:

  Unsupported hosts	Description
  L-series Web Hosting	This series supports only the Linux operating system. No Windows-based resources are available for replacement.
  Shared Web Hosting	This includes the Economy and Enhanced Economy editions. These hosts support only the Linux operating system. No Windows-based resources are available for replacement.
  Economy Edition Dedicated Web Hosting with 512 MB of memory	Due to limited memory, this host cannot run the Windows operating system properly. Only the Linux operating system is supported.
  Dedicated Web Hosting in data centers outside the Chinese mainland	For example, Enhanced and Standard Edition hosts in the Singapore data center, US data center, or China (Hong Kong) data center do not support an OS change.
  Web Hosting deployed in a BGP data center	Hostnames for these hosts typically start with bmu or bmw. Because servers in this data center are being decommissioned, no replacement resources are available in the same region. Note If you need to change the operating system for one of these hosts, you can first try changing the host's data center to a different region, and then change the operating system.

• You can change the operating system of a Web Hosting host only once per day.

Procedure

1. Log on to the Cloud Web Hosting management page.

2. Find the host that you want to manage. In the Actions column, select > Change Operating System.

3. On the Confirm Change of Host Operating System page, in the Change Operating System section, click the target operating system for the host, and then click Next.

   The following example shows how to change the operating system from Linux to Windows 2008.

   Note

   If the original operating system is Windows, click Linux in the Change Operating System section.

4. Verify that the information for the host is correct, and then click Submit.

5. In the confirmation dialog box that appears, click OK.

   After the operating system is changed, the data on the original host will be deleted after 7 days and cannot be recovered. Back up your data in advance. The host IP address and database address will also change. You must update the domain name resolution and the database connection string.

6. On the Success! page, click Back to return to the Web Hosting management page.

   On the Web Hosting management page, find the new host. Click its hostname to open the Web Hosting Management Console. Click Host Information to verify that the operating system has changed.

Next steps

After you change the operating system of the Web Hosting host, related information such as the hostname, host IP address, and database address will change. To learn how to view the new host information, see View new host information after changing the data center or operating system.

Because the host IP address and database address also change, you must update your website configuration. Follow these steps:

1. Upload your web application to the new Web Hosting host. For more information, see Upload website files to a Linux-based Web Hosting host.

2. Import data into the database of the new Web Hosting host. For more information, see Import database files.

3. Resolve your domain name to the IP address of the new Web Hosting host. For more information, see Domain name resolution types for Web Hosting.

Related topics

• If the error message 'The token cannot be empty when changing the operating system' appears, see What do I do if the error 'The token cannot be empty when changing the operating system' is reported when I change the host operating system?.

• If your website's primary audience moves to a different region, you may need to change the host's data center to reduce latency and improve business continuity. For more information, see Change the host data center.