[Plug-webdev] Migrating to new web server

[Alan Dayley]

After some years, at least 3 I think, Integrum has asked that we migrate
off their hosting server. They are changing some of their business
offerings and eliminating hosting services.

We appreciate all the support they have provided to PLUG, including
taking a big DoS hit one time when our site was cracked. They have been
nothing but supportive and helpful.

We need to migrate by the end of this month. Integrum provided this
notification last month and the Steering Committee has been making
plans. We will now be implementing these plans.

I am donating a 3U Compaq server (specs below) for PLUG's sole use. The
server will be co-located at Sequoia Charter School at no cost. It will
have an install of Ubuntu server as a base.

Planned Time Line:
1. I'll confirm the Ubuntu install this weekend.
2. I'll deliver the box for installation in a rack at the school before
the East Side Meeting next week on the 13th.
3. We will then migrate the current site, or start fresh, the weekend of
the 15th.

Needs:
1. I have not migrated an existing Drupal installation to a new server.
Does anyone here have that experience?
2. In this transition I'd like to transition full webmaster duties to
someone other than myself. The weakness of my skills and sparseness of
my time are not good for the group. I'll start a new thread for this topic.

Alan

Server Specs:
- Compaq Proliant DL380-G1
- 3U rack mount with the rails (I'll bought some)
- Dual 1GHz Pentium III CPUs
- 896MB of RAM
- 4 18GB SCSI-2 Hard Drives
-- Hardware RAID controller
-- 3 drives in RAID 5 configuration with 1 drive on hot standby
-- Hot swap removable
- 2 100Mb network ports
- 1 100Mb network port on a separate management board (that I don't
understand yet)
- Dual hot swap removable power supplies, both working
- Video and PS/2 style mouse and keyboard ports

[Alan Dayley]

Post by Alan Dayley
1. I'll confirm the Ubuntu install this weekend.
2. I'll deliver the box for installation in a rack at the school before
the East Side Meeting next week on the 13th.
3. We will then migrate the current site, or start fresh, the weekend of
the 15th.

We're late and cutting it close to the end of the month, but the new
server is now up.

I will be driving the migration to the new server over this weekend.
I'll post to this list as issues come up. I also expect that we may be
using the IRC channel from time to time. I'll post again with the hours
I expect to be working on the system, which may help with scheduling our
communication times.

The immediate goal is to get the PLUG site migrated, since that is now
our tight deadline. Unfortunately that means we won't be creating
"sub-admin" access structures right away. But, we will do that for the
appropriate people as soon as the main site is up on the new location.

Alan

[Alan Dayley]

Post by Alan Dayley
We're late and cutting it close to the end of the month, but the new
server is now up.
I will be driving the migration to the new server over this weekend.
I'll post to this list as issues come up. I also expect that we may be
using the IRC channel from time to time. I'll post again with the hours
I expect to be working on the system, which may help with scheduling our
communication times.
The immediate goal is to get the PLUG site migrated, since that is now
our tight deadline. Unfortunately that means we won't be creating
"sub-admin" access structures right away. But, we will do that for the
appropriate people as soon as the main site is up on the new location.

The base Drupal on the new server is working!

We're currently having access issues with the current server. I'm not
able to slurp the latest database and web site settings at the moment.
We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Alan

[Alan Dayley]

Post by Alan Dayley
The immediate goal is to get the PLUG site migrated, since that is now
our tight deadline. Unfortunately that means we won't be creating
"sub-admin" access structures right away. But, we will do that for the
appropriate people as soon as the main site is up on the new location.

The data migration is complete but not yet working. I don't understand
the error I'm getting.

1. The new site is off line, being a snapshot of the current site which
is also set to off line.

2. I logged into the new site as the first user, "admin" by going to the
"http://www.example.com/plug.phoenix.az.us/?q=user" URL.

3. I click on the "Administer" link of the left menu.

4. I get an error at that URL
"http://www.example.com/plug.phoenix.az.us/admin":

Not Found

The requested URL /plug.phoenix.az.us/admin was not found on this server.
Apache/2.2.3 (Debian) mod_python/3.2.10 Python/2.4.4 PHP/5.2.0-8+etch7
mod_perl/2.0.2 Perl/v5.8.8 Server at www.example.com Port 80

I don't know if the error is because the DNS is not yet updated and the
URL has the extra "www.example.com" prefix or if something else is not
configured correctly. I pulled all the Drupal directory, the database
and the /etc/apache2 directories from the current server to the new one.
I don't see anything anywhere that is wrong.

I do note that the login URL ended with "/?q=user" instead of the
"clean" form "/user". I current site is set to enable clean URLs but
the new one does not seem to be using them. I'll try some things but
any input from the group is very welcome.

I'm in the #plugaz IRC channel right now if you want to discuss in real
time.

Alan

[Alan Dayley]

Post by Alan Dayley
I do note that the login URL ended with "/?q=user" instead of the
"clean" form "/user". I current site is set to enable clean URLs but
the new one does not seem to be using them. I'll try some things but
any input from the group is very welcome.

OK, I got to the clean URLs configuration page by manually building the
URL for it in "unclean" format. I disable the clean URLs and now I can
get to all the pages in the menu! The bad news is the clean URLs
setting radio buttons are now both greyed out and the "clean URLs test"
fails. So there is some configuration to do there.

Hans just reported that the DNS has been changed to point to the new
server! We'll keep working this till it goes stable.

Alan

[der.hans]

Post by Alan Dayley

Post by Alan Dayley
I do note that the login URL ended with "/?q=user" instead of the
"clean" form "/user". I current site is set to enable clean URLs but
the new one does not seem to be using them. I'll try some things but
any input from the group is very welcome.

OK, I got to the clean URLs configuration page by manually building the
URL for it in "unclean" format. I disable the clean URLs and now I can
get to all the pages in the menu! The bad news is the clean URLs
setting radio buttons are now both greyed out and the "clean URLs test"
fails. So there is some configuration to do there.
Hans just reported that the DNS has been changed to point to the new
server! We'll keep working this till it goes stable.

I'm getting to the 'It works!' page. Is the * in the default server setup
gobbling up the drupal config?

Theoretically we should get the same config asd before if the db was
dumped and imported.

ciao,

der.hans

[Alan Dayley]

Post by der.hans
I'm getting to the 'It works!' page. Is the * in the default server setup
gobbling up the drupal config?
Theoretically we should get the same config asd before if the db was
dumped and imported.

I'm getting the new site on the new server at http://www.plug.phoenix.az.us

I'm getting the "It works!" page at http://plug.phoenix.az.us

There is something in the apache config that I missed obviously!

Alan

[a***@crackpot.org]

Post by Alan Dayley

Post by der.hans
I'm getting to the 'It works!' page. Is the * in the default server setup
gobbling up the drupal config?
Theoretically we should get the same config asd before if the db was
dumped and imported.

I'm getting the new site on the new server at http://www.plug.phoenix.az.us
I'm getting the "It works!" page at http://plug.phoenix.az.us
There is something in the apache config that I missed obviously!
Alan

Post the httpd.conf/apache2.conf and the conf files for the relevant
VirtualHosts.

Clean URLs might not be working if mod_rewrite is not enabled, or you
have not added the necessary rewrite rules to the Apache config.
http://drupal.org/node/15365

alex

[Alan Dayley]

Post by a***@crackpot.org

Post by Alan Dayley
I'm getting the new site on the new server at http://www.plug.phoenix.az.us
I'm getting the "It works!" page at http://plug.phoenix.az.us
There is something in the apache config that I missed obviously!
Alan

Post the httpd.conf/apache2.conf and the conf files for the relevant
VirtualHosts.

We solved the issue of "www..." vs. "plug..." by disabling the "default
site," a brute force solution, I suppose.

Is it a security risk to post such configuration files in this list?
I'll send them privately to you.

Post by a***@crackpot.org
Clean URLs might not be working if mod_rewrite is not enabled, or you
have not added the necessary rewrite rules to the Apache config.
http://drupal.org/node/15365

I am sure the mod_write is the source of this clean URL problem but I
have not looked into it yet. Let's see what we can figure out.

Alan

[a***@crackpot.org]

Post by Alan Dayley

Post by a***@crackpot.org
Post the httpd.conf/apache2.conf and the conf files for the relevant
VirtualHosts.

We solved the issue of "www..." vs. "plug..." by disabling the "default
site," a brute force solution, I suppose.

Probably doesn't matter if there's only 1 site to be hosted. It's
more correct to say you've made the plug site the default site, since
Apache will always have a default, and serve that default if it gets a
request it doesn't know what to do with.

Post by Alan Dayley
Is it a security risk to post such configuration files in this list?
I'll send them privately to you.

Depends on what's in them. :) For a new install, they're probably
pretty vanilla and not likely to be sensitive.

Post by Alan Dayley
I am sure the mod_write is the source of this clean URL problem but I
have not looked into it yet. Let's see what we can figure out.

I think you said the box was Debian. If so, try 'a2enmod rewrite' as
root and restart Apache. Then try turning on clean urls in Drupal.
The program is a Debian way of adding then necessary symlinks to
enable a module. 'apache 2 enable module'.

alex

[Alan Dayley]

Post by a***@crackpot.org
Probably doesn't matter if there's only 1 site to be hosted. It's
more correct to say you've made the plug site the default site, since
Apache will always have a default, and serve that default if it gets a
request it doesn't know what to do with.

True. Except, it is possible, should some lightening bolt of creativity
and activity occur in the group, that we may run more than one site from
this server. So I'd rather understand and document the issue now rather
than gloss over it and have to re-engineer it later.

Post by a***@crackpot.org
I think you said the box was Debian. If so, try 'a2enmod rewrite' as
root and restart Apache. Then try turning on clean urls in Drupal.
The program is a Debian way of adding then necessary symlinks to
enable a module. 'apache 2 enable module'.

Here is what I got:

$ sudo a2enmod rewrite
Password:
This module is already enabled!

I'll look at the Drupal documents and all the config files during lunch
today. I don't have time to dig into it right now.

Alan

[Ben]

Look to see if the .htpasswd file from the old site (if it existed)
was copied to the new site. scp /some/path/* will not copy the dot
files in that directory, so if there was one there (a usual suspect
for rewrite rules such as though for clean URLs - I think Drupal's
installer has a htpasswd in the package that needs to be renamed to
.htpasswd, or just look at the old site docroot for .htpasswd - 'ls
-a'). With this file in place the test should pass and the option to
enable clean URLs be available (and assuming Apache Allows such
Options for this in the conf file - if this is not an option then you
can place the contents of the .htpasswd file in the VirtualHost block
for the site).

Ben

Post by Alan Dayley

Post by a***@crackpot.org
Probably doesn't matter if there's only 1 site to be hosted. It's
more correct to say you've made the plug site the default site, since
Apache will always have a default, and serve that default if it gets a
request it doesn't know what to do with.

True. Except, it is possible, should some lightening bolt of creativity
and activity occur in the group, that we may run more than one site from
this server. So I'd rather understand and document the issue now rather
than gloss over it and have to re-engineer it later.

Post by a***@crackpot.org
I think you said the box was Debian. If so, try 'a2enmod rewrite' as
root and restart Apache. Then try turning on clean urls in Drupal.
The program is a Debian way of adding then necessary symlinks to
enable a module. 'apache 2 enable module'.

$ sudo a2enmod rewrite
This module is already enabled!
I'll look at the Drupal documents and all the config files during lunch
today. I don't have time to dig into it right now.
Alan
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http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-webdev

[Jeffrey Uurtamo]

I think you are talking about .htaccess not .htpasswd .

Post by Ben
Look to see if the .htpasswd file from the old site (if it existed)
was copied to the new site. scp /some/path/* will not copy the dot
files in that directory, so if there was one there (a usual suspect
for rewrite rules such as though for clean URLs - I think Drupal's
installer has a htpasswd in the package that needs to be renamed to
.htpasswd, or just look at the old site docroot for .htpasswd - 'ls
-a'). With this file in place the test should pass and the option to
enable clean URLs be available (and assuming Apache Allows such
Options for this in the conf file - if this is not an option then you
can place the contents of the .htpasswd file in the VirtualHost block
for the site).
Ben

Post by Alan Dayley

Post by a***@crackpot.org
Probably doesn't matter if there's only 1 site to be hosted. It's
more correct to say you've made the plug site the default site, since
Apache will always have a default, and serve that default if it gets a
request it doesn't know what to do with.

True. Except, it is possible, should some lightening bolt of creativity
and activity occur in the group, that we may run more than one site from
this server. So I'd rather understand and document the issue now rather
than gloss over it and have to re-engineer it later.

Post by a***@crackpot.org
I think you said the box was Debian. If so, try 'a2enmod rewrite' as
root and restart Apache. Then try turning on clean urls in Drupal.
The program is a Debian way of adding then necessary symlinks to
enable a module. 'apache 2 enable module'.

$ sudo a2enmod rewrite
This module is already enabled!
I'll look at the Drupal documents and all the config files during lunch
today. I don't have time to dig into it right now.
Alan
_______________________________________________
PLUG-webdev mailing list
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-webdev

_______________________________________________
PLUG-webdev mailing list
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-webdev

[der.hans]

Post by Alan Dayley
We solved the issue of "www..." vs. "plug..." by disabling the "default
site," a brute force solution, I suppose.

Not really as we want the PLUG site to be the default site. If we run
other sites on the same box we still want the PLUG site to be the
default.

ciao,

der.hans

[Ben]

oops right you are.

Post by der.hans

Post by Alan Dayley
We solved the issue of "www..." vs. "plug..." by disabling the "default
site," a brute force solution, I suppose.

Not really as we want the PLUG site to be the default site. If we run
other sites on the same box we still want the PLUG site to be the
default.
ciao,
der.hans
--
# https://www.LuftHans.com/ http://www.CiscoLearning.org/
# "But you could teach these skills to a high-school student, and you could
# probably teach them to an artist." -- Richard Roberts
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[Jeffrey Uurtamo]

Assuming that this is a debian like install, you will want to modify
the default enabled site file located in
/etc/apache2/sites-available/default

in that file you will find a line starting with DocumentRoot
after it will be a path, change it to the path that you want the
default site to point to. You will also need to update the line
<Directory old/path> to <Directory new/path>

Post by der.hans

Post by Alan Dayley
We solved the issue of "www..." vs. "plug..." by disabling the "default
site," a brute force solution, I suppose.

Not really as we want the PLUG site to be the default site. If we run
other sites on the same box we still want the PLUG site to be the
default.
ciao,
der.hans
--
# https://www.LuftHans.com/ http://www.CiscoLearning.org/
# "But you could teach these skills to a high-school student, and you could
# probably teach them to an artist." -- Richard Roberts
_______________________________________________
PLUG-webdev mailing list
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-webdev