Retire a site from VIP

Notify the VIP team 30 days in advance of the desired retirement date of a WordPress or Node.js application from VIP by creating a VIP Support ticket. At the end of this period, VIP will typically retire all of the application’s environment(s), database(s), media files, and GitHub repository, and update the account’s billing details as per the agreement.

A recent database backup and a media backup of the production environment—as well as a copy of the application’s wpcomvip GitHub repository—will be needed to archive or migrate a site to other hosting.

VIP recommends that customers review the structure of the VIP WordPress skeleton codebase before migrating a WordPress application. A copy of the application’s wpcomvip GitHub repository will not include VIP MU plugins nor WordPress Core.

Media files and database

A full backup of media files and a backup of an environment’s database can be downloaded from the VIP Dashboard of an application. The media file archive will be supplied with the same directory structure as the file uploads. The data will be supplied as SQL from the mysqldump client.

GitHub repository

A copy of the code in a wpcomvip GitHub repository can be downloaded by cloning a copy of the GitHub repository. This method retains the version history and all changes.

If the GitHub repository will no longer be used by an active VIP site, the associated GitHub repository will be removed once the application has been retired. It is the customer’s responsibility to ensure that a copy of an application’s repository has been saved locally.

Retire a network site

In the case of selective retirement of a network site within a WordPress multisite, customers can mark that site as “Not launched” in the Network Sites panel in the VIP Dashboard to disable production monitoring for that site.

For archive purposes, or to migrate the network site elsewhere, customers can generate a backup of the database tables and media files specific to that network site. Use the Database Backups and Media Backups tools in the VIP Dashboard to generate the backup files.

A copy of the theme and plugins that were active on the network site will also be needed to migrate the site. The customer should create a local copy of the associated wpcomvip GitHub repository for the network site’s application.

The network site can optionally be archived or deleted from the VIP environment’s database. A user with a Super Admin role can navigate to the WordPress Network Admin “Sites” screen to select these options for the network site.