As an old-time unix hacker, I know my way around the inside of a web server pretty well, but right now I'm in "I want a tool not a hobby" mode and need to find a web hosting service for a club I belong to. There seem to be plenty of places out there offering amazing amounts disk/bandwidth/etc for amazingly low prices, and it's not clear how to determine which are fly-by-night and which are reliable.
So, the question is, if I go with a hosting service and later decide to switch to a different provider, how hard is it to pick up my drupal-based site and move it to another host? Is it as simple as finding another place that offers LAMP services, dumping the database, and restoring it onto the new server? And, of course, changing the DNS registration.
-- roy@panix.com
Yup. That's pretty much it. Remember that there are two components: the database and the associated drupal file directory. Unless you directly reference an IP address or a directory structure (/home/foo/bar/baz/) for something that may be set up differently on the new host, you're done.
This is pretty much how one promotes an initial site from dev to production.
ari
On 10/19/07, Roy Smith roy@panix.com wrote:
As an old-time unix hacker, I know my way around the inside of a web server pretty well, but right now I'm in "I want a tool not a hobby" mode and need to find a web hosting service for a club I belong to. There seem to be plenty of places out there offering amazing amounts disk/bandwidth/etc for amazingly low prices, and it's not clear how to determine which are fly-by-night and which are reliable. So, the question is, if I go with a hosting service and later decide to switch to a different provider, how hard is it to pick up my drupal-based site and move it to another host? Is it as simple as finding another place that offers LAMP services, dumping the database, and restoring it onto the new server? And, of course, changing the DNS registration.
--
roy@panix.com
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
To totally nitpicky, I should have mentioned that the server on which your database resides will likely change its name (and your tables may have to be renamed), so the setup fields where you put the database login info will be changed to accomodate that, and I should have said Drupal _directories_--there are several associated with the install.
But you get the picture ;-).
ari
On 10/19/07, Roy Smith roy@panix.com wrote:
As an old-time unix hacker, I know my way around the inside of a web server pretty well, but right now I'm in "I want a tool not a hobby" mode and need to find a web hosting service for a club I belong to. There seem to be plenty of places out there offering amazing amounts disk/bandwidth/etc for amazingly low prices, and it's not clear how to determine which are fly-by-night and which are reliable. So, the question is, if I go with a hosting service and later decide to switch to a different provider, how hard is it to pick up my drupal-based site and move it to another host? Is it as simple as finding another place that offers LAMP services, dumping the database, and restoring it onto the new server? And, of course, changing the DNS registration.
--
roy@panix.com
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
On Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:24:23 -0400 "Ari Davidow" aridavidow@gmail.com wrote:
To totally nitpicky, I should have mentioned that the server on which your database resides will likely change its name (and your tables may have to be renamed), so the setup fields where you put
Why tables renaming?
Actually, not tables--I'm utterly mistyping today--but the _server_ on which the database lies will almost always have a new name. (In theory, you could migrate the domain name of the dev MySQL server and avoid that rename, if you are hosting internally, but then you have no dev MySQL server for the next round of development. It is counterproductive to work in that manner.)
ari
On 10/19/07, Ivan Sergio Borgonovo mail@webthatworks.it wrote:
On Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:24:23 -0400 "Ari Davidow" aridavidow@gmail.com wrote:
To totally nitpicky, I should have mentioned that the server on which your database resides will likely change its name (and your tables may have to be renamed), so the setup fields where you put
Why tables renaming?
-- Ivan Sergio Borgonovo http://www.webthatworks.it
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
1) Disable clean URLs, clear the cache, set logs to a short lifetime, then run cron to clear old ones. (All but the first one there is just to reduce the size of the database dump.
2) mysqldump oldserver > mydatabase.sql
3) mysql newserver < mydatabase.sql
4) Copy entire Drupal directory from old server to new server, being careful to get the .htaccess file with it.
5) Edit settings.php to specify the new database login info.
6) Enable Clean URLs again.
7) There is no step 7. :-)
(I recommend disabling clean URLs in case there's an issue on the new server. You don't want all your links to be broken.)
Really, Drupal is an extremely portable system. I do the above process to move from development servers to live servers on a regular basis. 98% of the time is spent waiting for files to copy. :-)
On Friday 19 October 2007, Roy Smith wrote:
As an old-time unix hacker, I know my way around the inside of a web server pretty well, but right now I'm in "I want a tool not a hobby" mode and need to find a web hosting service for a club I belong to. There seem to be plenty of places out there offering amazing amounts disk/bandwidth/etc for amazingly low prices, and it's not clear how to determine which are fly-by-night and which are reliable.
So, the question is, if I go with a hosting service and later decide to switch to a different provider, how hard is it to pick up my drupal-based site and move it to another host? Is it as simple as finding another place that offers LAMP services, dumping the database, and restoring it onto the new server? And, of course, changing the DNS registration.
-- roy@panix.com
In addition to what Larry said, avoid entering full URL links containing the domain name for images/files in the content (otherwise you may need to search/replace them when you move).
On 10/20/07, Larry Garfield larry@garfieldtech.com wrote:
- Disable clean URLs, clear the cache, set logs to a short lifetime, then run
cron to clear old ones. (All but the first one there is just to reduce the size of the database dump.
mysqldump oldserver > mydatabase.sql
mysql newserver < mydatabase.sql
Copy entire Drupal directory from old server to new server, being careful
to get the .htaccess file with it.
Edit settings.php to specify the new database login info.
Enable Clean URLs again.
There is no step 7. :-)
(I recommend disabling clean URLs in case there's an issue on the new server. You don't want all your links to be broken.)
Really, Drupal is an extremely portable system. I do the above process to move from development servers to live servers on a regular basis. 98% of the time is spent waiting for files to copy. :-)
On Friday 19 October 2007, Roy Smith wrote:
As an old-time unix hacker, I know my way around the inside of a web server pretty well, but right now I'm in "I want a tool not a hobby" mode and need to find a web hosting service for a club I belong to. There seem to be plenty of places out there offering amazing amounts disk/bandwidth/etc for amazingly low prices, and it's not clear how to determine which are fly-by-night and which are reliable.
So, the question is, if I go with a hosting service and later decide to switch to a different provider, how hard is it to pick up my drupal-based site and move it to another host? Is it as simple as finding another place that offers LAMP services, dumping the database, and restoring it onto the new server? And, of course, changing the DNS registration.
-- roy@panix.com
-- Larry Garfield AIM: LOLG42 larry@garfieldtech.com ICQ: 6817012
"If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it." -- Thomas Jefferson -- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
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Ari Davidow -
Cog Rusty -
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo -
Larry Garfield -
Mike Martin -
Roy Smith