Migrate from AWS EC2 to VPS

Why Migrate from AWS EC2?

AWS EC2 costs can escalate quickly, especially with data transfer charges, EBS storage, and associated services like RDS, ElastiCache, and ALB. A self-managed VPS can provide equivalent or better performance at a fraction of the cost. This guide covers a systematic migration from EC2 to a VPS.

Cost Comparison

A typical t3.medium EC2 instance (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM) costs approximately $30-40/month before adding EBS, bandwidth, and other AWS services. An equivalent VPS typically costs $10-20/month with generous bandwidth included. For many workloads, the savings are 60-80%.

Pre-Migration Assessment

• Inventory all AWS services in use (EC2, RDS, S3, SES, CloudFront, Route 53)
• Document security groups and network ACLs
• List all environment variables and secrets
• Map dependencies between services
• Identify AWS-specific services that need alternatives

AWS Service Alternatives

Step 1: Prepare the VPS

# Provision a VPS with matching or better specs
# Install the same OS version as your EC2 instance

# Install required software
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y nginx mysql-server redis-server \
    php8.3-fpm php8.3-mysql php8.3-redis php8.3-curl \
    certbot python3-certbot-nginx ufw fail2ban

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw enable

# Harden SSH
sudo sed -i "s/PermitRootLogin yes/PermitRootLogin no/" /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo systemctl restart sshd

Step 2: Migrate the Database

# From RDS or EC2 MySQL:
# On EC2/RDS, export the database
mysqldump -h rds-endpoint.amazonaws.com -u admin -p \
    --single-transaction --routines --triggers \
    --databases myapp_db | gzip > myapp_db.sql.gz

# Transfer to VPS
scp myapp_db.sql.gz user@vps-ip:/tmp/

# On VPS, import
zcat /tmp/myapp_db.sql.gz | mysql -u root

# Create application database user
mysql -e "CREATE USER 'myapp'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'secure_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON myapp_db.* TO 'myapp'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

Step 3: Transfer Application Files

# From EC2 to VPS using rsync
rsync -avz --progress -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/ec2-key.pem" \
    ec2-user@ec2-ip:/var/www/myapp/ \
    user@vps-ip:/var/www/myapp/

# Or use scp for a one-time transfer
scp -r -i ~/.ssh/ec2-key.pem \
    ec2-user@ec2-ip:/var/www/myapp/ /var/www/myapp/

# Fix permissions
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/myapp
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/myapp

Step 4: Configure Nginx

# Create Nginx virtual host
sudo tee /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp << NGINX
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    root /var/www/myapp/public;
    index index.php index.html;

    location / {
        try_files \$uri \$uri/ /index.php?\$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME \$realpath_root\$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}
NGINX

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

# Get SSL certificate
sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

Step 5: Update Application Configuration

# Update .env or configuration files
DB_HOST=localhost          # Was RDS endpoint
DB_DATABASE=myapp_db
DB_USERNAME=myapp
DB_PASSWORD=secure_password

REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1      # Was ElastiCache endpoint

CACHE_DRIVER=redis
SESSION_DRIVER=redis
QUEUE_CONNECTION=redis

# Replace S3 references with MinIO or local storage
FILESYSTEM_DISK=local
# Or set up MinIO for S3-compatible local storage

Step 6: DNS Cutover

# 1. Lower DNS TTL to 300 seconds (24h before migration)
# 2. Test everything on VPS using hosts file
# 3. When ready, update DNS A record to VPS IP
# 4. Monitor for issues during propagation
# 5. Keep EC2 running for 48h as fallback

Post-Migration Checklist

• Verify all application features work correctly
• Set up automated backups (Restic, Borg, or similar)
• Configure monitoring (Uptime Kuma, Prometheus)
• Set up log rotation for Nginx and application logs
• Terminate EC2 instances and related AWS services after confirmation period
• Cancel or downgrade AWS account to avoid residual charges