On a *fairly*[^fn1] recent episode of [Build & Analyze](http://5by5.tv/buildanalyze), Marco Arment suggested that web developers host their applications on a [Linode](http://www.linode.com/?r=0a0ee6d9705b4ea2ace5f56965fd14bde1b69828)[^liref] instance instead of a shared hosting provider. Though most of my web development these days would be classified as “tinkering,” I decided that I might as well make the jump to Linode for my websites instead of the shared host I was using.
Here are a few things I learned while working on the migration of my [Wordpress](http://www.wordpress.org) sites from the shared host to Linode:
* Take advantage of the [Linode Library Guides](http://library.linode.com/hosting-website). They have a lot of good information about how to get things started.
* Remember to import your migrated data into the *correct* database.
* Update your WordPress wp-config.php file with your new database configuration information. (This is especially important if your shared host did not run its databases as a “localhost” you could access.)
* To log into a [Mysql](http://www.mysql.com/) instance on your localhost with a database user you created, you have to set the “localhost” permissions for that user (*See* [this article from ServerFault](http://serverfault.com/questions/219499/cant-login-to-a-new-mysql-user) for what I’m talking about).
* Though you can mass copy your WordPress files to your new server, you are almost certainly going to want to deactivate all of your WordPress plugins and then reactivate them one by one to make sure they all work in the new environment. (You can [deactivate all plugins via the database](http://perishablepress.com/quickly-disable-or-enable-all-wordpress-plugins-via-the-database/) if you have trouble logging into your WordPress instance initially.)
Overall, the migration from WordPress to Linode was pretty painless. None of the above issues took much more than a Google search to debug. Now I wait and see how well the site holds up on a server that I’m totally responsible for.
[^fn1]: I cannot remember which one, but it might have been a few weeks ago.
[^liref]: Referral Link