UNiTE, Remote CLI, eXtract Wizard

Wednesday, 10 December 2008 07:38 CST

user1351

OK... I've spent all day so far today on this project and I admit I'm getting a little testy...

I'm trying to move my site from one server to another...

I *think* I successfully uninstalled an earlier version of JoomlaPack, successfully installed the upgrade; then successfully created a backup.

The backup landed on the old server, so I have ftp'd it down to my hard drive, then up to the new server.

I then opened Kickstart, navigated to the backup file and started the process. All looks well until I get to the database page. At that point, although I did NOT change any settings (this is a complete restore, correct?) I am getting the following error message:

"Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL"

I'm clueless... anyone have any ideas? This is a "clean" server in that I didn't set up a Joomla database first, as I would have if I were doing an original Joomla install.

UPDATE: I found a similar post -- discovered that I had to set up the database first after all, so I've done that and moved past that screen. I did get an error message saying Congratulations Your site has been restored. It advised to be sure to delete the installation folder, which I did. I now have the following error message when trying to view my site:
JError Unable to load Database Driver:

Any help available? Thanks!!

Wednesday, 10 December 2008 09:25 CST

dlb

That is different than not being able to connect to the database. I don't have any answers on that, I'll flag it for Nicholas to look at.

Dale

Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist

English: native

Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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Wednesday, 10 December 2008 09:43 CST

user736

On the new server you have to create the username and the database first before you can successfully turn the site on another server.

what i usually do is create the same database and user with the same password on the new server before i do the restoration. so that way usually i can just click next, next, next, next, etc.

do you understand what i mean?

Thanks

Mike

Thursday, 11 December 2008 05:51 CST

nicholas

This error usually means that you did not set up your database correctly. During the restoration to the new site you must change the database setup to match the new server's database configuration. This usually involves changing everything: database host, username, password and database name. The JoomlaPack Installer handles restoring your database contents to the new host from that point.

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!

Thursday, 11 December 2008 08:05 CST

user1351

OK, I'm at the end of Day Two on this project and still don't have my site successfully moved.

Mike said the new host must have the db set up first, using the same credentials as the old site. I've spent most of today trying to do that (I've had technical issues within my network that have nothing to do with you or your software).

After spending all day on it, it didn't work anyway... so I'm back here for more help.

It sounds like you are saying just the opposite: that the db must be set up first on the new host, but then the OLD site must be changed to match the new site db settings... is that correct?

If so, can you give me a clue as to how to go about doing that? Thanks!

May I just add that I'm moving it to a Mac OSX10.5.5... would that make a difference (or be the reason for my issues)?

Thursday, 11 December 2008 19:43 CST

nicholas

OK, forget everything we told you about the database and start over.

When you are moving to a new host / server / subdomain / subdirectory / etc., you have to forget that the old site even existed. It will make your life simpler!

Remember: you are moving, not restoring a backup on the same site it was taken from. From your perspective it should be the same as installing a new site, only that instead of creating an empty site, all of your original site's content will be installed as well. With this information in mind, we can proceed to the specifics of the database restoration that's giving you trouble.

Before begining the migration process, create a new database (on the new site) with any credentials you please. Note down the database server hostname, the name of the new database, the username and password.

Begin the normal JoomlaPack restoration process, e.g. using Kickstart to deploy the backup archive on the new site. When you get the database information screen, hold it! Delete the information in the boxes of this screen and input the ones you noted down above. The database should be restored successfully upon clicking Next.

The FTP information has to be changed as well! Go ahead and enter the FTP information to your new site.

The final parameters page should be populated with the correct site name. Double check it's all OK.

That's all. Your site should be working. If it doesn't, edit configuration.php manually and make sure there is no $live_site line, as this is known to cause trouble when migrating to a new location; it is a known pitfall.

I hope this helps. If you have any more questions, just drop us a line :D

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!

Friday, 12 December 2008 03:42 CST

user1351

TA-DA!!!

It worked... thank you SO much! Great support! I have no idea what I was doing wrong (I thought I followed the instructions)...

But in any event, it is now working and I am thrilled. Give me your address and if I ever win the lottery, I will send you your very own MAC.

Thanks again and have a great day!

Friday, 12 December 2008 04:34 CST

nicholas

Ha ha! I guess if I win the lottery I can buy you a Mac as well :D lol: Cheers!

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!

Monday, 15 December 2008 05:28 CST

user1351

OK, I think I saw several areas where I thought I followed the instructions, but something went awry:

First, I already had an earlier version of JoomlaPack installed and working on my joomla 1.5.8 website. I thought I saw in your documentation that I could install the latest version over the old version without uninstalling first (Chapter 1: Getting and Installing JoomlaPack: "All you have to do is merely install the new version without uninstalling the previous one. Honestly! That's all there is to it!"); yet when I tried that, it did not work. Visits to the forum said that the older version needed to be uninstalled first so I tried that and it worked.

Step Two: Again, I believed the documentation to say that the JoomlaPack install was a complete install and it was not necessary to do a base install of Joomla first on a new, clean server... in fact, it recommended against it... so that is what I tried. I'm not sure if that is what messed me up or not, but just in case the documentation is incorrect and a new install should be performed first, then that part of the manual needs to be corrected.

Again, I'm very pleased now that it is working so well and I really, really appreciate the prompt and courteous support. I hope you guys are making money with this component somehow because you deserve it!

Monday, 15 December 2008 07:13 CST

nicholas

The first point is taken. The documentation was talking about migrating from 2.0 Alpha and Beta, not 1.2.x, it wasn't very clear.

About the second point, you are wrong. We do recommend against having an already set up Joomla! site. You don't need it! That's the point of designing JoomlaPack in the first place! In fact, we regularly use this procedure to restore our live sites on local testing servers which have nothing installed on them. Probably your problem was with permissions. Installing Joomla! has the side-effect of creating all the folders you need; setting generous permissions of them allows the archive extraction to proceed even though your site's root might have restrictive permissions.

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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