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

[Randy Fay]

Great advice.

I don't see  a good handbook page on this subject, or at least it's not easy
to find. I encourage one of you to create a handbook page (or make it
findable) with this excellent summary. Don't want to have great info like
this hidden in the dev list.

-Randy

On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 9:42 AM, Shai Gluskin <shai at content2zero.com> wrote:

> 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
>>
>
>


-- 
Randy Fay
Drupal Module and Site Development
randy at randyfay.com
+1  970.462.7450
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/development/attachments/20101107/d68c9fd9/attachment-0001.html