Best solution for migrate active server from Centos 7 to another distro

Hi!

Anyone have step by step guide, what is the best scenario to move an active server from Centos 7 to Centos 8 or Almalinux?

There is no "best" scenario because it depends on many factors. Some factors are your system administration skill and linux knowledge. So if you are very skilled system administrator and knows how linux works then you can try to Elevate your server/VPS to Almalinux 8/9. If you aren't very skilled then prepare a new fresh server and migrate your accounts from the old server to new using CWP migration tools.

Please don't be offended but if you ask such questions and need "step by step" instructions then it means you have average system administration skills and linux knowledge. Therefore you could be unable to fix unmet dependencies during the ELevating. That is why I think the way of migration/transfer should be best for you.

Hmm, I think over the last few years the answer has become - "just use AI to do it". However, I do recommend that you are indeed an average sys admin or at least a below average one so that you can spot check, and guide your AI to do things safely.

Furthermore, a paid solution IDE will do a much better job at it than a regular free chat version. I tried a few, and Cursor is currently the best. Windsurf is lagging behind. Trae not even worth mentioning. You could also use Gemini CLI or Antropic CLI for this task.

You could try to ELevate the system, but Sandeep (a CWP dev) recommends against it (it can introduce inexplicable oddities). The best course is to install a fresh AlmaLinux 8 system and use CWP Migration to move all accounts, sites, and e-mails over to the new server. If you are very knowledgeable, you could try to manually migrate to AlmaLinux 8 or 9:

You should be able to manually migrate, no problem. I just had to manually migrate my last CentOS 7 server to AlmaLinux 8 because I was continually encountering a bug with CWP Migration (even though it's worked just fine for me for other servers). You dump all DB to a single SQL file, on the new server create the user accounts you are replicating, load the DB SQL on the new server and rsync in all your files -- /home and /var/vmail. (Also move any conf you want to carry over -- CSF firewall, Roundcube, nginx vhosts, DNS zone files, etc.).

https://wiki.centos-webpanel.com/how-to-manually-import-emails

But the postfix DB, particularly the mailbox table has all the end user PW hashes stored. So recreating that DB on the new server will get you all the user PW you need. No need to recreate any mail user accounts or aliases. Also bring over the roundcube DB for a seamless mail experience. Just make sure their /var/vmail IMAP storage is in place and all the references will point appropriately. Voila!

Hmm, I think over the last few years the answer has become - "just use AI to do it". However, I do recommend that you are indeed an average sys admin or at least a below average one so that you can spot check, and guide your AI to do things safely.

Furthermore, a paid solution IDE will do a much better job at it than a regular free chat version. I tried a few, and Cursor is currently the best. Windsurf is lagging behind. Trae not even worth mentioning. You could also use Gemini CLI or Antropic CLI for this task.

There use to be an old pilot saying, 'Fly by the box, die by the box'
Referring to early auto pilots and their (un)reliability.

I think the same can go for AI.
It's only as good as it's programming and the person asking the question(s)...

I've heard so many, 'but AI told me...'
Followed by here is my bill... 

Funny, I thought that was an AI bot posting about AI. But maybe it was just a shill trying to "organically" advertise. Too bad you can't look at user profiles anymore here to see how many posts or how long ago the account was registered...

You could try to ELevate the system, but Sandeep (a CWP dev) recommends against it (it can introduce inexplicable oddities). The best course is to install a fresh AlmaLinux 8 system and use CWP Migration to move all accounts, sites, and e-mails over to the new server. If you are very knowledgeable, you could try to manually migrate to AlmaLinux 8 or 9:

I would agree with this solution, but this simply would not work in OpenVZ, OpenVirtuozzo, or alike systems.
He needs to know their system.

Or put the details here.

Regards,
Netino