XF 1.1 Moving forum to a testing location

[Fredjo]

Hello community !

I would like to move my forum to a testing location for safe testing but I don't want to move the permissions.. because I want to create them from scratch.

What I have done so far is :

• uploading installation files to the new location
• installed the forum to the new location

Now I'd like to take all the existing files and move them to the new location : is that right ?
And I'd like to move all the database to the new location but NOT the permissions and usergroup permissions.. : how do I do that ?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Fred

 

[Paul B]

You can't selectively copy parts of the database.

It's all or nothing.

 

[Fredjo]

Thanks for the quick answer Brogan.

So, I import the whole database and I manually delete entries with sql right ??

 

[Fredjo]

What I found weird is that I could import data from phpbb for instance (with the ability not to import everything), but not from Xenforo ?
(it's not a criticism, just something weird to me )

 

[Paul B]

No.
Manually deleting entries from the database will likely break your installation.

You will need to reset/adjust the permissions in the ACP.

 

[Fredjo]

Manually deleting entries from the database will likely break your installation.

You will need to reset/adjust the permissions in the ACP.

Mmmmmmh guess that's what happened in my forum then........

Thanks Brogan

 

[Fredjo]

@Brogan can you tell me how to export the database ??

I thought exporting all tables in phpmyadmin and reimporting in the new location would do the trick... but.. it's doing nothing.

Did I miss something ?

 

[Paul B]

That should work.

Can you screenshot the main index of phpMyAdmin so I can see what databases you have?

 

[Fredjo]

This one ?
This is my production forum database



This is my testing forum database (not much info.. )

 

[Paul B]

Is c0fred your live site database?
Where is the test database? Are there any tables in it?

 

[Fredjo]

Is c0fred your live site database?

Yes.

Where is the test database? Are there any tables in it?

Sorry this is another screen :

I made a clean install of the forum.



ps: now I see that my live site is 1.1.3 and testing is 1.1.5 .. this might have something to do with it ?

 

[Fredjo]

How should I move the forum to another place really ?

Do I need to do a fresh install or copying the files and importing the database should be ok ?

Thanks @Brogan in advance

Fred

 

[TPerry]

Here is how I did it
1) Set the new server up so that it's web server duplicated the original one
1) Did a SQL dump of my forum
2) Immediately after performing the SQL dump, disabled the site on the original server for the forum
3) Archived my entire forum structure up into an archive
4) Transferred the archive and database over to the new server
5) Extracted the archive onto my system and moved to the appropriate location
6) Confirmed that the structure and permissions were correct
7) Created the SQL databases and user for it - granting appropriate permissions for the user
8) Imported the database that I transferred from the old site
9) Set my DNS up to point to the new IP for the forum and made a new DNS entry for the old server (temporary in case I wanted to SSH into it)
10) Once propagation completed I removed all pertinent files from the old server
11) Went and played some xBox 360 Black Ops 2

 

[Fredjo]

Thanks a lot Tracy.. I'll ask some more details if I can.. I'm very new to all this so this could be stupid questions but I'll ask them anyway

1) Set the new server up so that it's web server duplicated the original one : so you simply download everything and put them in the new server ?
1bis) Did a SQL dump of my forum : I think my problems comes from here.. should I use some properties or simply use the simple way ?

3) Archived my entire forum structure up into an archive : how do you do that ?

5) Extracted the archive onto my system and moved to the appropriate location : how do you that ?

7) Created the SQL databases and user for it - granting appropriate permissions for the user : I thought this would be made by importing your "old" database ?
8) Imported the database that I transferred from the old site : in phpmyadmin you simply "import" the sql files from point 1bis ?

11) Went and played some xBox 360 Black Ops 2 : maybe I should stick with playing too

 

[TPerry]

Thanks a lot Tracy.. I'll ask some more details if I can.. I'm very new to all this so this could be stupid questions but I'll ask them anyway

1) Set the new server up so that it's web server duplicated the original one : so you simply download everything and put them in the new server ?

Actually what I did was manually set up another Debian 7 server and then copied the configuration files that were pertinent over (sshd, nginx, etc)

1bis) Did a SQL dump of my forum : I think my problems comes from here.. should I use some properties or simply use the simple way ?

Depends on whether you have shell access or not. If not, you will have to use phpmyadmin to export the database out (and if going to another shared host without shell access to import it in).

3) Archived my entire forum structure up into an archive : how do you do that ?

Again, depends on if you are on a VPS or a shared host. If VPS then you can just use ZIP to do it - another alternative is just to copy the entire structure via FTP client (but I archive it to make it smaller and transfer faster).

5) Extracted the archive onto my system and moved to the appropriate location : how do you that ?

unzip <filename> then I use mc to copy the directory structure over

7) Created the SQL databases and user for it - granting appropriate permissions for the user : I thought this would be made by importing your "old" database ?

The user, nope - you will have to manually create the user. I'm pretty sure even with phpmyadmin, before you can import it you have to have created the DB to import it into.

8) Imported the database that I transferred from the old site : in phpmyadmin you simply "import" the sql files from point 1bis ?

I don't use phpmyadmin (don't trust it and since I have a dedicated server and VPS don't have to - I use the mysql programs from the command line). Pretty sure you will have to (as I reflected before) create the DB before you can import it (and it needs to be the same name as the one you exported from or you need to change your config.php to point to the new name)

11) Went and played some xBox 360 Black Ops 2 : maybe I should stick with playing too

Always works for me after a tough day.... gotta make then youngsters look bad.

 

[Fredjo]

Looks I'm gonna have a bicycle ride myself.. mmmm a headache is coming along just reading your (very kind) answer

Thanks a lot

 

[TPerry]

Actually, if it's a managed system, a lot of times they will transfer your main portion of the site from one to the other (cPanel - I think I remember someone saying) has that capability. I just am a more hands on type of person so I do most from the cli. Check with your host and see if they offer transferring of the site for you.

 

[Fredjo]

My "live" forum is a friends dedicated server.
My "testing" forum is on a hosting service..

I'll ask for help to them indeed

(oh, and I like using my hands too )

 

[Fredjo]

I'm sorry but don't understand.

When I upload the sql file from the database, phpmyadmin just close without notice.

It's mysql5 and the test (xenforo_requirements.php) was ok :

Requirements Met
Your server meets all of XenForo's PHP requirements.

XenForo also requires MySQL 5.0 or newer. Please manually check that you meet this requirement.


I really need some help.
I might even give my passwords so someone can do it for me.........

 

[TPerry]

I'm sorry but don't understand.

When I upload the sql file from the database, phpmyadmin just close without notice.

It's mysql5 and the test (xenforo_requirements.php) was ok :

Requirements Met
Your server meets all of XenForo's PHP requirements.

XenForo also requires MySQL 5.0 or newer. Please manually check that you meet this requirement.


I really need some help.
I might even give my passwords so someone can do it for me.........

Welcome to the world of phpMyadmin..
That is one of the issues that I had with it (there were some settings that I had to do just to get it to upload a larger file). Just use ftp to place the database file on your server.
Create your DB in phpmyadmin, and set up a user with access to it there.

Then, in an SSH shell issue a mysql -p -u username database_name < file.sql and it will import your database into the new system.