This article will show you how you can download a complete copy of your webpages.sou.edu profile suitable for migrating to another platform.

Common Steps

SSH to Webpages.sou.edu

SSH provides you with remote access to the webpages.sou.edu so you can view your files and run commands.

Windows

First you need to SSH to webpages.sou.edu to access the remote command line. PuTTY is a free SSH client for Windows if you need one. Below you will find a screenshot showing you how to configure PuTTY to connect to webpages.sou.edu.

After you connect, you will be prompted to enter your username and password. The connection window will not display any characters as you type your password. That is normal.

Mac

If you are using a Mac computer, you can SSH to webpages.sou.edu natively through the Terminal application on your computer. Just launch Terminal and then enter the following on the command line:

ssh <username>@webpages.sou.edu

Use SCP to Download Your Content

You will need to use a SCP client to download your data from the webpages.sou.edu server to your local device. The process is similar to the process for uploading content to the server, which we have documented for Windows and for Mac. The only difference is the direction: to download your data, drag it from the server filesystem to your local filesystem.

Below is an example screenshot showing how you could drag and drop your files from the server to your Downloads folder.

Export Your Databases (Optional)

Every user on webpages.sou.edu has a database automatically provisioned that could be used to support advanced web projects, but most users don’t ever need it. If you don’t recall using a database on webpages.sou.edu, then chances are good that you never needed it for your projects. You should only need to follow the instructions below if you are hosting an advanced web project that features dynamic content.

Verify Your Database Names

After opening the SSH connection to webpages.sou.edu, you will be presented with a command line running on the remote server. First you should connect to MySQL and verify the names of your databases.

Enter ‘mysql’ on the command line and press Enter. That should connect you to the local database engine. Then type in ‘show databases;’ and press Enter. That should return a list of your databases. Make a note of them. Finally, type in ‘quit’ and press Enter to exit the database engine.

[racod@apwebpages03v ~]$ mysql

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]> show databases;

+--------------------+

| Database |

+--------------------+

| information_schema |

| usr_racod_0 |

| usr_racod_1 |

+--------------------+

3 rows in set (0.004 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> quit

Bye

Export Your Databases to Files

For each of your databases that you want to export, run the following command to export them to a file in your user home directory on the webpages.sou.edu server.

mysqldump -u <username> <database name> > <database name>.mysql

For example, I can export both my databases with the following commands:

mysqldump -u racod usr_racod_0 > usr_racod_0.mysql

mysqldump -u racod usr_racod_1 > usr_racod_1.mysql

Download Your Database Files

Now that you have exported your databases to files, you can download them along with the rest of your content through your favorite SCP client by following the instructions given earlier in this article.

Importing Your Databases (Advanced)

Importing your databases into whatever new system you plan to use is beyond the scope of this article. You can consult this guide here, or consider using AI tools such as ChatGPT to help you.

Downloading Your Web Content

Be sure to review the instructions above for using SCP to download your content. This section will cover what you should be sure to grab.

• Be sure to download everything within the public_html subfolder in your user profile.

• Be sure to download your exported database files if you followed those steps above.