Thread

I’m currently planning to upgrade from EE Core to EE 2.1

Would anyone be able to tell me roughly how long the procedure takes?

What problems are most common or any tricks to avoid them?

I am not running Multiple Site Manager if that helps any estimate.

I did back everything up but the user guide is a little vague on what happens during the Upgrade Wizard.

Thank you for any help.

- A

tsfexhibit,

Giving you any sort of guidelines regarding time would not be fair. If you have a fairly stripped down install of EE then it may take you 30 minutes. If you have a complex site with lots of custom add-ons that are no longer supported it could take you days.

The best advice I can give you is to make sure to make a backup. If at all possible do the update on a dev copy of the site and document and deviations you have to make from the upgrade documents so you are working through any issues with the site still online.

Most changes take place by just updating the files. But the Upgrade Wizard makes some changes to the database to allow for the changes that were made in the code.

Hi tsfexhibit,

why don’t you just make a local install of your running site - this in most cases is very easy:
- copy your database to your localhost-phpmyadmin
- copy all your ftp-files to your localhost
- update in system/config.php the necessary informations
- login into the backend
—-> admin -> system preferences -> general configuration: adjust paths
—-> admin -> weblog administration -> weblog management -> your weblog -> path-settings (as above)
eventually adjust htaccess
don’t forget the details (like admin -> file upload preferences -> edit file upload preferences etc.)

then you should be up and running locally.
Now duplicate everything locally and try to install 2.x (why don’t you directly install 2.2.1?!)

If it works upload the stuff preferably to a subdomain (like temp.yourdomain.com), adjust all path-settings and check if it works.

good luck 😊

Thanks lehrerfreund, and I absolutely agree, tsfexhibit. Get a local clone of the site up and running and test with that until you’re comfortable everything is working as expected on 2.2.

We have an official page on how to move EE to another server. Let us know if that helps!

Hi tsfexhibit,

I agree with lehrerfreund here. Generally speaking, the best practice for upgrading software that powers a website is to do so in a test environment first, where any issues that arise don’t immediately cause a panic. Often we see folks just set up a subdomain like http://upgradetest.domain.com where they fully upgrade their site before moving those changes over to the live site. You’ll want to work with your host to get that set up.

You could also set up a local test environment on your Mac or PC. Products like MAMP and WAMP really help you if you’re not the server admin type.

Then, like lehrerfreund suggested, once you have your site working in the test environment, upgrade that installation. After you’ve verified that the test environment upgrade worked, push those same changes to the live site, essentially reversing the process you used to create the test environment.

Once you get the site working on the test environment, you might even consider creating a multi-server config.php file like Matt Weinberg suggests in this tutorial.

Best of luck!

Thank you all for your expert advice. I appreciate it.

I’ve gone the route of setting up a subdomain and copied the EE2 files over.

Started the wizard and immediately got error:

The following error occurred:
Unable to locate any database connection information.

I created a test SQL server through my hosting control panel and have all the info for it but I must have done something wrong.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Please confirm that there exists the file system/expressionengine/config/database.php and this file contains the correct information.

If not you should check if there have been more errors duplicating your ee-files before trying to upgrade again.

OK.

So going through upgrading on a sub domain and got through the installer. Deleted the installer folder and went into the CP.

Able to navigate through the CP but getting PHP errors at the top of the page:

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Warning
Message: is_dir() [function.is-dir]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/var/www/vhosts/tsfexhibit.com/httpdocs/themes/) is not within the allowed path(s): (/var/www/vhosts/tsfexhibit.com/subdomains/upgradetest/httpdocs:/tmp)
Filename: libraries/Core.php
Line Number: 183


A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Warning
Message: is_dir() [function.is-dir]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/var/www/vhosts/tsfexhibit.com/subdomains/upgradetest/httpdocs/../themes/) is not within the allowed path(s): (/var/www/vhosts/tsfexhibit.com/subdomains/upgradetest/httpdocs:/tmp)
Filename: libraries/Core.php
Line Number: 185

That’s a restriction put into place by your host. It sandboxes PHP applications so that your whole server isn’t susceptible to attack if one of your PHP applications gets hacked.

In this case, however, it’s just an issue because your EE installation within your subdomain still has paths in its settings that point to the original installation, which is outside it’s “sandbox”. All you need to do is update the paths in in the screen at Admin > General Configuration and you’ll be all set!

Then once you’ve tested this installation at your subdomain and are happy that everything is in working order, you’ll need to change those paths again once you move the installation over to your main domain’s directory.

Does that help?

Does that help?

Immensely

I really can’t begin to thank you guys enough. A huge help you have all been.

One last question I have is this:

now that I have upgraded to the newest version, how can I get familiar with changes / new features of EE 2 over EE Core?

Thanks.

Hi, tsfexhibit.

You can read through the change logs in the docs, but the best way to get familiar with the new changes is to actually use them by creating a project. Was there anything in particular?

Hi, tsfexhibit.

You can read through the change logs in the docs, but the best way to get familiar with the new changes is to actually use them by creating a project. Was there anything in particular?

Nothing in particular. Is it possible to get help with the other forum post I have put up? it seems to be being ignored by staff leaving me dead in the water.

Yep, I’ll take a look at that one right now. Don’t worry, we weren’t ignoring you! We promise to answer every post within 1 business day, and your other post was actually very close to being next in the queue. 😊

Is it alright with you if we close this one up?

Good to go. Thank you all once again.