migration
This article discusses how to successfully move an installation from one server to another. It will cover the following topics:
- Generating the database dump.
- Moving files.
- Setting up the new installation.
- Testing the migration.
- Performing the final DNS switch over.
Hopefully this process will not be too daunting, but you should be aware that it does require some basic system administration knowledge. We recommend you read this entire article before proceeding and executing any of the steps it documents. If you feel that any of the steps are beyond your skill level, we strongly recommend you consult a qualified Melody professional to help with the migration.
Endevver also recommends that users do NOT attempt to migrate and upgrade at the same time. Do these steps separately. Upgrade and then migrate, or vice-versa.
To move a site, you must first package all of its contents in a zip file to be moved effectively. A sites contents are typically in three major pieces:
- The Database Data
- The files on the file system
- Melody application files
At Endevver we use the MySQL command line tool called mysqldump to export a database's contents. The command is documented at MySQL. But this is what it usually looks like:
prompt> mysqldump -h localhost -u DBUSER -p movabletypedb > mt.DATE.sql
A site's files contain:
- the files published by MT
- files uploaded by the user
The location of these files will depend upon where you have configured your Melody install to publish files. Furthermore, the location of these files may dispersed across an entire file system if each blog publishes to different location on the server's file system. For example, in a shared hosting environment, it would not be unusual for a system with two blogs to have its site's files published to directories like so:
/home/userA/www//home/userB/www/
It will be your job to ascertain where Melody is publishing files for each of its blogs, and to add those directories to a single zip file containing all of the installation's site files.
This should be pretty easy. Find where Melody is installed. Then zip up that entire directory. Be sure you include in this zip file:
- All of the plugins you have installed
- All of the static files of your system. If your static files are located outside of the
MT_HOMEdirectory, be sure you copy these too. - All of Melody's application files.
Once all of the files have been zipped up let's move them to the new server. Follow these steps.
-
Setup your database. Create a new database on the new server. Then import the SQL file you exported using
mysqldumpearlier. -
Next, take the zip file containing the Melody application, plugin and static files and install them on the web server on your new machine. Edit the
config.cgifile with the database credentials needed to access the database you created in the previous step. Confirm that theconfig.cgireferences the right mt-static files and paths. -
Access your
check.cgiscript on the new machine. Ensure that all necessary perl modules are installed. If they aren't, install them. -
Check to make sure you can login to the new instance of Melody. Make sure all of your data is there from the old install.
The "hard" part about a server migration is making sure all of the paths to all of the files in your old system, which are now present in your new system, still resolve properly.
The quickest and easiest way to do this, is to mirror where your site's files are stored in your new system with that of the old system. In other words, if on your old system files were published to /var/www/html then they should be published to the same place on the new system.
Changing where files are stored
Sometimes when executing a server migration, you want to reorganize the file system itself to better organize it. If this is the case, then extra work may be required to ensure that all old URLs and paths still work when the files are moved from one server to another.
Melody is smart enough to allow users to change the Base Path of their blog without impacting Melody's ability to find files located beneath that base path. If you desire to re-organize how and where your files are stored during the course of a server migration, we recommend consulting a qualified Melody professional. Otherwise, more time will be required to document the specifics of that process.
In the mean time, you can just try relocating the files as you see fit and then just seeing if it works. If it doesn't, then you probably will need help. It it works, congrats.
Now it is time to change each of your blog's publishing settings. This is what we recommend. For each blog:
- Navigate to Preferences > Publishing.
- Change the "Publishing Path" accordingly and if necessary.
It is also recommended that you setup your new machine on a separate domain from your main website, like stage.yourdomain.com, or beta.yourdomain.com. Then set your Blog's URL to use this temporary domain while you test to make sure the migration was done successfully.
The next to last step is test everything out. Try publishing your new blog. Check to see that the changes are being reflected on your new server accordingly.
If everything looks good to you...
Now that the new machine is setup and working properly, tell the world the new IP address. Do this by editing your site's DNS settings.
If you setup the new server under a temporary test domain like stage.yourdomain.com, you will need to change it back to your primary domain, e.g. www.yourdomain.com, and republish your site. Do this before changing your DNS.
Questions, comments, can't find something? Let us know at our community outpost on Get Satisfaction.
- Author: Six Apart Ltd., Byrne Reese
- Edited by: Violet Bliss Dietz