[development] Moving working Drupal environment to another web-hosting server

[Shai Gluskin]

Kamal,

Larry's list is quite extensive... I'll add just a couple more things.

It's possible/likely that default PHP settings are different on the two
servers. If both servers allow it, you might create a custom php.ini file
that you then also copy over to the new server with the other files.

The most common differences will be in memory settings and maximum file size
and posting sizes.

But be careful where you put the php.ini file depending on the requirements
of each server. For instance, a php.ini file that is put in a sub-directory
of a public_html directory will likely be ignored.

If you go to: example.com/admin/reports/status you'll be able to click on
the PHP version number which takes you to a page which lists the active PHP
settings on the site. That way you can verify if your custom php.ini file is
the one actually be applied on the site.

The other typical problem with moving a site can be URL links. As long as
links are relative, you won't have any problems. However, there are some
good reasons to use absolute paths. For instance, the imagecache and insert
modules both use absolute paths. The
Pathologic<http://drupal.org/project/pathologic> module
and some other modules could take the pain away on this issue. If you ever
get that anxious feeling after moving to a new server, like, "I think I
handled everything regarding link integrity, but maybe I forgot
something..." the Linkchecker <http://drupal.org/project/linkchecker> module
is awesome, it will uncover any problems with links.

But I do agree with Larry, it's really pretty easy to migrate a Drupal site.

Shai

On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 3:35 AM, Larry Garfield <larry at garfieldtech.com>wrote:

> It's absolutely possible and quite easy to move a Drupal install from one
> server to another.  There's various handbook pages on the subject you can
> find
> with a little searching on the new site, but the general outline is:
>
> 1) Copy all of your code and files directory to the new server.  (Remember
> the
> .htaccess file, which is hidden by default.)
>
> 2) Copy the database you've been using to the new database server.
>
> 3) Update the settings.php file to point to the new database credentials.
>
> 4) Maybe edit your .htaccess file if necessary, but frequently it's not.
>
> 5) Clear the cache.
>
> 6) Profit!!!
>
> Drupal doesn't store information anywhere else besides its own files
> directory
> and the database you've configured.  (Well, unless you have an add-on
> module
> that uses some other database or system for some reason, but you would
> definitely know if that's the case.  If you have to ask, then it's not.
> <g>)
>
> --Larry Garfield
>
> On Sunday, November 07, 2010 12:47:41 am Kamal Palei wrote:
> > Hi All
> > Let me first thank you all for providing such a great platform Drupal.
> > I am quite new to Drupal environment. With the given documenttaion I was
> > able to get Drupal up and running.
> >
> > I have few questions as below.
> >
> > 1. Now I am gooing to develop complete site in my local machine.
> > Basically I am going to make a site, where site visitors can upload their
> > resumes.
> >
> > In the process of development, I might use panels, blocks, views etc.
> > I may add contents to different pages and customize it as per my need.
> >
> > Once all development is done, I plan to move my site to a proper web
> > hosting machine.
> > Is it possible to move a working Drupal based environment to new web
> > hosting platform?
> >
> > My worry is, in the process of developemnt, Drupal might have used local
> > machine database
> > to store any informations, once we move the environment to new web
> hosting
> > m/c, will it
> > not loose those informations?
> >
> > Can somebody guide me, is it possible to move localy developed Drupal
> > environment to a new web hosting machine.
> > If possible, please explain and provide link to related documentation.
> >
> > Regards
> > Kamal
>
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