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Migrating a Site from Stage To Live

Assumptions: This assumes that you have a drupal site in a development
environment or other environment that needs to be moved.

Considerations: It is important to consider the target environment (where you want to
move your site to) in relationship to your development environment.

1. Does your development environment match your target environment?
a. Linux
b. Apache
c. PHP the same version
d. MySQL
e. Same drupal version

The Backup and Migrate Module:

1. Download the module from
http://drupal.org/project/backup_migrate
2. Install it onto your development site.
a. Unzip the file and place it in your /sites/all/modules folder
or place the zipped file in your /sites/all/modules folder
and unzip it there. Discard zip file.
3. Turn on the module in your modules directory. Find it at Administer Site
Building Modules (admin/build/modules) under the “other” tab
4. Save

Configuring The Module in your Development Environment

1. Find the module configuration settings at Administer  Content
Management  Backup and Migrate
(admin/content/backup_migrate)
2. Backup/Export database
a. Default settings for table exclusions and data exclusions are usually
“replacement sufficient. If you have errors, you may want to exclude certain tables.
The data exclusions streamline your file size by eliminating
unnecessary data. It is not recommended that you exclude any tables.
You might, however, consider excluding data from all tables that are
“logs,” “cache” data, “devel” data (if you are using the devel module)
and “watchdog” if you are looking to decrease size or clean up excess
development data for the first migration/launch.
b. Backup File Name can be changed. You can use different tokens. You
are provided with a list of tokens that can be used under the
atterns” tab.
c. Compression: You can compress the files to make them smaller or not.
Your preference.
d. Destination: You can choose to have it downloaded to your computer or
saved to the files directory. I would recommend doing both.
e. Timestamp Format is provided. If you would like a different format, it
must be a PHP format string and a link to the date page for PHP is
provided if you want to look it up.
http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php
3. Restore/Import database allows you to browse your computer for a
database file and use it to restore your database. You can also choose a
backup from your “saved backups directory” by clicking the link at the
bottom of the page. You will be able to choose from manual or scheduled
backups. The administration screen looks like this:
4. Saved Backups shows you your manual backups and your scheduled
backups. You can download them, delete or restore.
5. Backup Schedule allows you to choose how often to back up your database
and also how many backup files to keep. These backups will live in your
live files directory, so it is recommended that you also do manual backups
that you keep locally (in case your entire site goes down, including all of
your live files).

Copy your sites folder from your development environment

Set Up Your Target Environment

1. Place a fresh Drupal download in your target environment
2. Replace the “sites” folder with your copy of your sites folder from your
development environment.
3. In phpMyAdmin (on your live server) Create a new database
a. type in a name in the create a new database field and click create
b. Click privileges tab and create a new user with all privileges if
necessary. Make a password for the user and add log in information.
Click “go”
4. Import your database
a. Click the Import tab in your phpMyAdmin.
b. Under Files to import, browse for your database backup
c. Click “Go” in the bottom right corner of phpMyAdmin
5. Alter The settings.php File
a. Line #92 put in your new information in this format exactly
$db_url = 'mysql://username:password@localhost/databasename';
i. NOTE: localhost may not be accurate for your
specific database server. You need to know what
your database server URL is, as well as if it uses
a specific port. For example, your database
server might be mysql.yoursitename.com
– in which case “localhost” would be replaced
with that name.
b. Save

Navigate to your live drupal site at http://www.yoursitenamehere.com

1. You should see your site up live!
2. If you don’t and see a maintenance page, double check your settings.php
file and make sure:
a. You saved your changes
b. Your changes are correct and you have the correct user name,
password and database name.
c. You have the right syntax (meaning: all the quotation marks, colons,
semicolons, etc. are accurately placed and completed).
H. Set up Cron!
This is extremely important and often forgotten. Many of the things that Drupal does
so well (site search, actions triggered by events, full use of taxonomy, and even
mailings through SimpleNews or other options) depend on cron. Even backup and
migrate requires Cron in order for the backups to be fully reliable.
Read about Cron here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron
Setting up cron properly is different on different hosts. If you cannot find easy help
files for how to set cron up on your site, contact your host and they should be able to
let you know what to do.
If you have no other way of setting up cron, there is also a simple drupal module to
help you: Poormanscron
http://drupal.org/project/poormanscron
I. So, you want your site in a live environment but you do not want it available to
the world or search engines?
There may be reasons for you to put a site into a live environment, but want to protect
it from the general public and from search engines. One good reason: the site is nearly
ready but your client needs to start using the awesome CMS you’ve configured to
enter the content into the site!
a. The primary way to do this is to use .htaccess and .htpasswd.
The advantage to this method is that it is simple and does not add
another module to your site. The disadvantage is that now your site
editors/client need two sets of usernames/passwords – one to access the
site at all, and the other to log into their account on the drupal site you
have created.
b. Alternatively, there is another simple drupal module that can help you
with this: Secure Site
http://drupal.org/project/securesite
The advantage to this method is that your client/site editor only has to
log in once, directly into their account on the site. By using Secure
Site, you essentially set it up so that only users with roles of your
choosing have access to the site at all. This also blocks search engine
crawlers until you release the site from Secure Site. The other
advantage: if your client/site editor forgets their log in information, the
module gives them a field where they can request it be resent.
J. If you prefer to zip your files before downloading/uploading them:
You can use shell (Terminal, for example) to zip your site files up so that you only
move them as one chunk instead of as many files at a time.
a. type ssh FTPusername@domain.tld and press return
b. Answer “yes” to “do you wish to continue connecting” and press
return
c. Type in your FTPpassword and press return
d. Type ls and press return
e. Type tar –czf name_of_file_you_want_to_create
domain_directory_wanted and press return
f. Type ls again and press return, just to check in the list and make sure
your new zipped file is there.

Modules to take away from this:

Backup & Migrate - http://drupal.org/project/backup_migrate

Automate backups, create an easy administrative environment for backing up and restoring
your database.

Secure Site - http://drupal.org/project/securesite

Protect your website with browser-based authentication that is tied directly to user accounts in
your drupal site.

Poormanscron - http://drupal.org/project/poormanscron
A module that runs cron on your site during pre-set intervals without requiring you to set up
cron on your web host.

Boost - http://drupal.org/project/boost
Static page caching for performance and scalability boost, which can also then be used to
offer a static version of your site during maintenance “offline” time.

Software to take away from this session:

MAMP – http://www.mamp.info
Mac-based apache/mySQL/php setup used for running a “localhost” web environment,
enabling you to build and test a site on your local machine.

XAMPP - http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
An apache/mySQL/php + option for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems.

(Some of the text of this article was altered for viewing in this format. The authors and their information are below. Thanks for their sharing this information with the community).

How to find us:

Nicole Bluto –
Twitter: @nbluto
Online: http://www.nicolebluto.com

Rain Breaw –
Twitter: @sunrainprods
Online: http://www.sunrainproductions.com

Takeaways from this talk can be downloaded here:
www.sunrainproductions.com/drupalcampla