Migrate a Tiki to a new server with SSH

Context

• You need to move a Tiki site from server A to server B
• Both servers have SSH and rsync
• Tiki may have been installed by SVN or CVS
• You are not upgrading (you can do this later)
• Downtime is OK while you move the site and change the DNS

Close site

• tiki-admin.php?page=general -> navigation -> Site Access -> Close site (except for those with permission)

DB

You can use PhpMyAdmin if you have it on both servers, but often, files are too big for web interface or you could get "#1153 - Got a packet bigger than 'max_allowed_packet' bytes ". You can also get this via the command line.

Backup DB

Go to a non web accessible directory and create a new directory

cd ..
mkdir mysqlbackup
cd mysqlbackup

mysqldump -u old_db_user -p --opt old_tiki_db > databasebackupfile.sql

tail --lines=200 databasebackupfile.sql

Move DB

SFTP

You may want to compress before you migrate

bzip2 databasebackupfile.sql

This will create a file databasebackupfile.sql.bz2 which will be much smaller. Also, if you migrate a compressed file, and there is a transmission problem, you will get a warning when you uncompress at the other end.

Move the file via SFTP and then, uncompress:

bunzip2 databasebackupfile.sql.bz2

rsync

You can adapt rsync instructions below

Restore DB

Create a new DB via your control panel. This a good opportunity to change the password, so don't use the same as before.

mysql -u new_db_user -p new_tiki_db < databasebackupfile.sql

It's not unlikely that you get an error like

ERROR 1153 (08S01) at line 219147: Got a packet bigger than 'max_allowed_packet' bytes

If so, delete your partially created database, search for the solution for your server to increase this value, and try again.

After you restore, compare both databases via PhpMyAdmin to double check all was well transferred. The number of tables and records should be identical, however, the size in megs can vary, and that's OK.

Files in web directory

Check for differences

This is a good time to check if the Tiki has been modified. The following commands will show you if files were modified.
It's good to detect if you've been hacked or if their are modifications to Tiki that you need to account for (and reproduce when you upgrade later)

CVS

export CVS_RSH=ssh
cvs diff

SVN

• svn st
• svn diff

Security check

• tiki-admin_security.php -> Check all tiki files

Migrate files

Rsync

SSH in the new site. From here, we'll pull the files

Create some directories

cd ..
mkdir temp_directory_to_receive_files
cd temp_directory_to_receive_files

Do a test run

rsync --dry-run --verbose -avz oldusername@olddomain.example.com:/home/oldusername/public_html /home/newusername/temp_directory_to_receive_files/

Do it for real

Remove --dry-run from above

Once this works, you can move the files from
/home/newusername/temp_directory_to_receive_files/*.*
to
/home/newusername/www/*.*

Zip & (S)FTP

• It's better to compress the files (zip/gzip) before you migrate them to make sure nothing is lost on the way...

Adjust the file permissions

sh setup.sh

Files outside the web directory

Check tiki-admin_system.php

And where attachments are stored for wiki, file gallery, trackers, forums, etc. Ex: tiki-admin.php?page=wiki

Make sure to move these as well...

Update database connection

You can do this via tiki-install.php or by editing db/local.php (Edit this file to use new db name/username/password)

Switch the DNS

• Ask whoever controls the domain name to switch the DNS

Add an alternate domain to the old site

• You can do this via cPanel (park domain)
• It is useful to keep a functioning (and closed) version of the old site so admins can go and check if something is fishy on the new site

Open the new site

• tiki-admin.php?page=general -> navigation -> Site Access -> Close site (except for those with permission)

Optional but it can't hurt: log in as an admin and
Admin → Tiki Cache/Sys Admin → Clear all Tiki caches