14 September 2012, 18:30

We're trying to migrate the Mahara data from one server to another.

Original server is running OpenSUSE and Mahara 1.4.1.  New server is running CentOS 6.2.  Have created new (empty) database on new server and installed Mahara 1.4.1.  Once we have the data migrated we want to upgrade to the must current version of Mahara.

Questions:

How do I export the database on the old server and import it on the new server?  Have tried various methods and get nothing but failures.

Do I also have to bring the dataroot folder from the other server?

Thank you.

14 September 2012, 20:33

16 September 2012, 11:03

Hello Marlon,
Can you be a bit more specific on what methods you have used?
The general process is this:

1) Create a sql dump of existing database.
2) Create tar files for maharadata folder and htdocs folder
3) On new server, import the sql file and decompress the tar files
4)  Make your adjustments to the config.php file and set permissions and ownership in htdocs and maharadata folders

17 September 2012, 11:36

Sorry, the addendum was supposed to say that I'm using postgresql.

What I've done so far is close the existing database on the old server, then export it with pgdump. Then, on the new server, I imported it the dump file with psql. That seemed to work.

However, when I open up Mahara on the new server, none of the data is there.

If I copy over the Mahara dataroot from the old server as well, now I can't open Marhara on the new server, it acts like it wants me to reinstall everything, but then craps out as soon as it starts.

Unfortunately I'm totally new to Mahara, so I don't really know what data is stored where.

18 September 2012, 1:02

Hi Marlon,

Check that the directory which is configured as the data directory is writable by the web server user, and is in the exact place that the config file is expecting it to be.

Thanks,
Melissa.

19 September 2012, 7:52

Hi Dirk,

i have similar task: move the user datas to a new server and a newest mahara

first i installed the whole system, then started to create the user (its only 11 user currently)

i think than i will copying the userdata, what i think the: maharadata directory,

should i copy the database dump, and the whole htdocs directory?, or in this case enuogh the maharadata directory?

(sorry my english)

19 September 2012, 11:39

Hi Laszló,

why not export each user as Leap2A and then import into the new system? That will bring over all the data you need for each user. You can access that by going to 'content->export->Leap2A->all my data' Then go to the new system and go to 'add user' and select the appropriate otions.

To answer the question: yes, you need the database dump, the whole htdocs folder and the maharadata folder. I don't think I would use the new mahara code before running it with the old (from previous server)

20 September 2012, 14:30

Hi

I'm working on the data migration project with Marlon.  Like he says we've imported the sql data and moved the dataroot folder and the htdocs folder.

the error we get is "Mahara: site unavailable" A nonrecoverable error occured. This probably means you have encountered a bug in the system.

the error in apache log is.

[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1] [WAR] 8f (lib/errors.php:464) An exception was thrown of class Dwoo_Exception.
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1] [WAR] 8f (lib/errors.php:464) THIS IS BAD and should be changed to something extending MaharaException,
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1] [WAR] 8f (lib/errors.php:464) unless the exception is from a third party library.
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1] [WAR] 8f (lib/errors.php:464) Original trace follows
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1] [WAR] 8f (lib/dwoo/dwoo/Dwoo.php:687) The compile directory must be writable, chmod "/var/www/html/mahara141dataroot/dwoo/compile/default/" to make it writable
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1] Call stack (most recent first):
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1]   * Dwoo->setCompileDir("/var/www/html/mahara141dataroot/dwoo/compile/defau...") at /var/www/html/mahara141/lib/dwoo/dwoo/Dwoo.php:259
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1]   * Dwoo->__construct("/var/www/html/mahara141dataroot/dwoo/compile/defau...", "/var/www/html/mahara141dataroot/dwoo/cache/default") at /var/www/html/mahara141/lib/dwoo/mahara/Dwoo_Mahara.php:50
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1]   * Dwoo_Mahara->__construct() at /var/www/html/mahara141/lib/web.php:35
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1]   * smarty_core() at /var/www/html/mahara141/lib/web.php:77
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1]   * smarty() at /var/www/html/mahara141/index.php:89
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1]
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1] [WAR] 8f (lib/errors.php:586) Exception thrown by smarty call while handling exception
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1] Call stack (most recent first):
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1]   * log_message("Exception thrown by smarty call while handling exc...", 8, true, true) at /var/www/html/mahara141/lib/errors.php:109
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1]   * log_warn("Exception thrown by smarty call while handling exc...") at /var/www/html/mahara141/lib/errors.php:586
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1]   * MaharaException->handle_exception() at /var/www/html/mahara141/lib/errors.php:472
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1]   * exception(object(Dwoo_Exception)) at Unknown:0
[Thu Sep 20 12:30:17 2012] [error] [client ::1]

21 September 2012, 13:10

Thanks for the pointer to the export.

I found the bulk export/import utility at /admin/users/bulkexport.php (or bulkimport.php) and it seems to be working.  Although I had to have the file in the web root for the import to work

Phillip

02 October 2012, 23:13

Hello Phillip,

Thanks for that info. I made a note of it to include that info in the Mahara 1.6 manual.

Cheers

Kristina