Moving Drupal from Another Server

All ThetaJoin development servers are configured exactly like your production Drupal server, so going "live" is a straightforward process. There are two major steps to moving to your live ThetaJoin server - move the Drupal MySQL database, and copy the drupal directory containing all your site files using the Webmin filemanager. These directions can also be used if you have your own in-house development server, or can be used to move your existing Drupal website from your current generic hosting company to your new high performance ThetaJoin server. It's easiest if you have the same version of phpMyAdmin installed on your development server. It's very important that all developers are not using the ThetaJoin development server.

Moving the Drupal MySQL Database 

Exporting the Drupal MySQL Database

Logon to the phpMyAdmin MySQL using a link similar to https://www.example.com/phpmyadmin. Click on the Export tab on the phpMyAdmin main menu. Highlight the name of your drupal database in the Export area of phpMyAdmin. In the Options->Database export options, check add DROP DATABASE. In the Options->Structure area, check Add DROP TABLE / VIEW / PROCEDURE / FUNCTION, Add CREATE PROCEDURE / FUNCTION.

Scroll to the bottom of the Export page, select the Save as file, and gzipped in compression. ThetaJoin servers are configured to support up to 256MB file uploads. By choosing gzipped, your database can be around 2GB in size, depending upon how well your export file compresses. Once configuration is complete, click the Go button.

After clicking the Go button, you'll be presented with a download screen from your web browser. Save the file to your desktop.

Importing the Drupal MySQL Database 

Importing your Drupal MySQL database into your ThetaJoin server is a simple process. Click on the Import tab in phpMyAdmin, the choose your file that contains your exported Drupal MySQL database from your development server. Once selected, click the Go button to import your database.

 

The results of importing your Drupal MySQL database should look like the image below.

This concludes moving your Drupal MySQL database from your ThetaJoin development server to your "live" ThetaJoin server.

 

Moving Drupal Files

Our goal is to create a tar.gz file with all of your Drupal files. There can be many ways to accomplish this task by using the commandline, or an archiving program. We'll cover both approaches in these instructions.

Commandline

ThetaJoin development servers are not configured for commandline access - yet. It's on our todo list. If you have commandline access on your own development system, the following command can be run in terminal:

# tar cvzf MyDrupalSite.tar.gz /var/www

Provided your Drupal development site is in /var/www in your development server. Change /var/www if your Drupal development site is located in another directory. This command creates the file MyDrupalSite.tar.gz that contains all the files, and directories in /var/www directory. The /var/www directory is the configured directory that all ThetaJoin servers use for your Drupal site. You'll upload this file using Webmin.

Archiving Program

There are many graphical archiving programs available to make the tar.gz file. We'll demo using the Create Archive built into Ubuntu.

Using the Gnome Filemanager, double click on the var directory, then right click on the www directory, choose Create archive.

 

Creating Archive with Webmin

ThetaJoin development servers are configured identically to your "live" production server. Webmin makes it easy to create your Drupal site tar.gz or tgz file. Logon to Webmin, then navigate to the File Manager through Others->File Manager. Select the directory that contains your Drupal site files, then click the Save button. You'll be presented with a Download Directory dialog box. Click on the TAR.GZ button. Your web browser will prompt you to download the newly created tgz file. Save this tgz file to your desktop.

 

Transfer Drupal Using Webmin

Webmin is used to upload the tar.gz or tgz file containing all your Drupal site files. With a new ThetaJoin server, your /var/www directory will be empty. Upload your tar.gz or tgz file by clicking on the Upload button on the Webmin Filemanager menu. Choose the file to upload, leave the Upload directory as /, then set Uncompress ZIP or TAR file to Yes, or Yes, then delete. Once the Upload File dialogbox has been filled out, click Upload.

Once the upload is completed, you may have to click the Refresh button. Your new Drupal website has been uploaded, and untarred/gunzipped into the /var/www directory.