Clone a WordPress Website

Using the Plesk WordPress Toolkit, it's possible to clone a WordPress website to another domain or sub-domain under your hosting plan.

Most frequently, site cloning is used to create a "staging" or "test" site, a copy of your website that uses a different URL. This allows you to test upgrades, new plugins and work on content, without fear of breaking your "live" website.

You may want to clone your WordPress site in one of the following situations:

• You maintain a non-public (staging) version of a WordPress site on a separate domain or subdomain, and you want to publish it to a production domain to make it publicly available.
• You have a publicly available (production) WordPress site and you want to create a non-public (staging) copy of it, to which you can make changes without affecting the production site.

Cloning a WordPress site involves creation of a full website copy with all website files, database, and settings:

1. Login to Plesk Panel
2. Click the Clone button next to the name of the WordPress installation you want to clone.
3. Click new subdomain to select the destination where your WordPress site will be cloned.
4. Select one of the available options:
   1. Create a new subdomain. Type in the desired subdomain name. Then, select the desired parent domain.
   2. Use an existing domain or subdomain on the same or another subscription. Select the desired domain or subdomain from the list.
5. During cloning, a database will be created for the WordPress installation being created. Click the automatically generated database name to change it. When you are satisfied with the selected destination and the database name, click OK.
6. When the cloning is finished, the new clone will be displayed in the list of WordPress installations.
7. You will need to add a DNS 'A' record for the subdomain you have chosen to host your staging site on, and point it to the IP address of your server. You do this on your domain registrar's control panel.