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Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

#15132 Site Transfers

Posted in ‘Akeeba Backup for Joomla! 4 & 5’
This is a public ticket

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Environment Information

Joomla! version
n/a
PHP version
n/a
Akeeba Backup version
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Latest post by nicholas on Wednesday, 27 February 2013 15:02 CST

Nick_Q

HI Nicholas,

I am currently attempting to move a couple of sites between hosts and therefore would like to utulise the site transfer utility to effectively re establish all the content on the destination servers prior to changing DNS servers from the exsiting servers.

I am therefore using the IP address for the destination URL as, clearly, the "URL" currently points at the current server,  is this likely to be a problem as I am currently getting "500" errors when I attmpet it.  Should I be able to do this with the site transfer function?

I have successfully used this function before but only between two different existing domain URL's.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

At which point do you get the 500 error? When the transfer is in progress? In this case I'd like to see the backup log file – remember, the site transfer is nothing but a regular backup with some very specific settings.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Nick_Q

Hi  Nicholas,

Sorry things seem to have gone from bad to worse :(

The problem is now compounded by me not now seeing akeeba backup listed on the component menu.   I note there is a new version available I was runing 2.6.12 and, using the live update function attmepted to upgrade before trying the site transfer again - unfortunately this failed with a system message confirming upgrade failure, after which Akeeba backup is no longer listed on the component menu.

Interestingly, I also use "admin tools" and can report exactly the same issue there - I am currently running 2.4.4 and with advice of an upgrade to 2.5 - the process fails using live update with similar results - admin tools are no longer listed on the components menu.

Just to be sure there was nothing peculiar about this particular installation I tried both upgrades again with another domain - exactly the same result.  Until I can get this one sorted out I can not persue the original issue unless you suggest I re install version 2.6.12.

How would you like to proceed?  Happy to help in any way you suggest if I can....

 

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

You're using PHP 5.2. Please read the release notes of Akeeba Backup 3.7.0.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Nick_Q

Sorry - my fault completeley (its been a long day!)  - now reinstalled admin tools 2.4.4. and akeeba backup 3.6.12 and, of course, all is good.

I will reset everthing and attempt the site transfer again  -  if there is a problem still a problem I will include the log file; if not I will close the ticket.

as usual, thanks for the support!

 

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

You're welcome!

I totally hear you about the long day. It's been a long day and an even longer week for me.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Nick_Q

HI Nicholas,

OK I am pretty sure its the way I am attempting to set up this transfer...

if I use filezilla I can make a connection to my destination server ith no problems.

if I use the same ftp settings within the set up for the akeeba file transfer, it fails giving me a "500" error.

I attache a zip file with 2 documents in it

  1. the log file as requested; you will see my various attempts and the results
  2. a document showing images of the filezilla set up, and the akeeba set up, along with the usual 500 error message.

Please let me know if you need any more information...

 

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

Can we do it the easy way? Take a backup from Site A and have it automatically transferred to Site B (Rochen). Use the "Upload by FTP" post-processing option and remember to set a Part size for split archives in the Archive Engine about 2-10Mb – depends on your server. Then upload kickstart.php to Site B and run the restoration.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Nick_Q

Hi Nicholas,

OK I understand this approach.  I set up a new profile within akeeba to run this type of backup and used the previously sent settings within the "upload to Remote FTP server" set up.

At the bottom is the "Test FTP connection" button which when pressed gives me a 500 error response...

the implication is that via akeeba I cannot connect using FTP via filezilla I can?!?  Does this make any sense to you?

 

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

That most likely means that the server has disabled PHP's FTP functions. In this case, you have to go old school: take a backup, download it, upload it to the new host alongside kickstart.php, do the restoration.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Nick_Q

I will do as you suggest and see  how I get on.

Also, I have now learnt that at my new host (Heart Internet) the following quote from support over at Heart:

"you're not actually accessing the webserver itself though via FTP."

"The FTP account is handled by a separate dedicated FTP server. I'm not sure how your transfer tool works but if it doesn't function with a plain FTP account then I don't think this would work for you."

Does that make any sense to you?

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

None at all. The web server daemon and the FTP server daemon are always separate, I never thought that they would be the same or even remotely related (I would be flabgergasted if they were).

What I really wanted to know is completely different: does the old host have any restriction on the PHP functions related to FTP?

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Nick_Q

HI Nicholas,

OK - it does not look like it from the system infomrmation pages for PHP - it simple says FTP support is "enabled" so I have asked the specific question of FASTHOSTS (current servers) and will let you know (they are shut now so it will be tomorrow - alright for some eh!)

I suspect not though because I have used the "site transfer option", on more than one occasion, to move a site between FASTHOST servers with no issues at all.  This issue only seems to exist when attempting to move a site from FASTHOSTS to HEART.

I will attempt to upload a "normal" backup via FIleZilla and activate it using Kickstart and let you know how that goes - my challenge there is getting a download via the browser that does not corrupt!

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

You can always download the backup via FTP as well. In fact, it is the recommended method.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Nick_Q

Hi Nicholas,

Update for you -

I have set up a couple of trials to see if I can not get you more information to assist is getting to the bottom of this.

I have a site which I was attempting to move over WITHOUT changing the DNS as its a live site and the hope was that I could re-establish it on the new server before switching Nameservers. 

To that end I have uploaded a recent backup and kickstart.php in readiness (BTW this is the first time I have used Kickstart so do I need the EN ini file?) 

However, in the  notes there is a comment about not attempting to use KICKSTART in a temporary URL

Trying to restore to the temporary URL of a cPanel host (e.g. http://1.2.3.4/~username) will lead to restoration failure and your site will appear to be not working. This is normal and it's just how your server and CMS software work.

but of course this is at the moment (http://176.32.230.17/broadleaf4web.co.uk/) is this why the site transfer would not work?

I have also switched a test site fully over to HEART internet and am currently awaiiting the nameservers to update.  There I will attempt to use:

i) normal site transfer, and if that doesnet work

ii) the manual FTP upload a backup + kickstart option.

I am a subscirber to akeeba backup pro so does that mean I could take files directly from amazon S3 as I am using Kickstart professional?  Most of my back ups are stored on S3 so that would make a lot of sense for me - Do I have the professional version by virtue of my current subscription as I dont see a "pro" option within the downloads?

As ever - thanks for your paitence with my learning curve and I will let you know how I get on :)

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

but of course this is at the moment (http://176.32.230.17/broadleaf4web.co.uk/) is this why the site transfer would not work?

It depends. It's not the reason the direct FTP transfer doesn't work. It's the reason why the actual installer (which restores the database) may not work and definitely a reason for SEF URLs not to work if you restore the site (even manually).

I am a subscirber to akeeba backup pro so does that mean I could take files directly from amazon S3 as I am using Kickstart professional?

Definitely! But please use the current dev release if Kickstart Pro 3.6.0 doesn't seem to be able to import files from S3. If you do have this issue and the dev release works please let me know. I am waiting for one more positive test before releasing this as version 3.7 of Kickstart Professional. It seems not enough people are using it and I don't trust me being the only tester before a release :(

Most of my back ups are stored on S3 so that would make a lot of sense for me - Do I have the professional version by virtue of my current subscription as I dont see a "pro" option within the downloads?

Yes, you do. The download is under Downloads, Kickstart. Pick a version and Kickstart Pro should be listed on top. If not, let me know!

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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