If you entered Pisces-iscariot on your browser, or otherwise clicked a link going to Pisces-iscariot, please don’t adjust your sets. This is now my new blog, which I’ve moved to partly to separate my personal blog from the Exchange.ph domain and partly to practice the eventual migration of the Exchange.ph domain and subsequent websites to a new host.
So I’ve been busy practising a big move to a new server, and this is the first of many migrations I’m about to do in the next few days. Everything looks like it’s working fine now, so I’m pretty happy and hella relieved as well. Below is a shortlist of what I’d had to do to transfer Pisces-Iscariot blogposts, comments and pics lock stock and barrel to this brand spanking new one. This is so that I won’t forget when I have to do it again, with some extra details for whoever else might need the same information. Believe me I’d had to do a lot of groping in the dark (ie. searching in forums, sending tons of email to my host’s excellent support team, testing on my practice server, bugging the chief, etc.) to finally be able to do what I did, so if I’d have appeared extra nervous or cranky these past few days, now you know. At any rate this’ll help anyone who’d happen to be in the same boat I’d be happy. Read on:
- Bought domain. Fixed it to point to my new host’s DNS settings, which I gather are in two very different parts of the world, allowing redundancy of the highest order.
- Opened a VPS account with my new host, which allows for root accounts. And since Ubuntu has proven dead – easy to use, I’ve gone and chosen Ubuntu Dapper Drake (where in heck do they get these names?!) as my operating system of choice.
- Installed, or rather mentioned that I was going to use them, after which the support team installed these themselves (they’re that friendly), mysql, php, phpmyadmin and lftp.
- Used LFTP, a command line FTP client, to transfer everything. It’s interesting how I’d never thought of FTPing files from remote host to remote host before, and consequently don’t know of a GUI client that can do so. LFTP is quick, efficient, and since I used it’s mirroring ability, now I know how that process works. This is partly the reason why I like doing things myself. Who knew it’d have been so easy. Now I’ve actually thought of a new service that can make use of that. Details much, much later.
- Used WordPress Database Backup, a WordPress Plugin, to either download or otherwise save my WordPress databases in a specified folder on my webserver, from which you can use LFTP again to transfer it to a directory on the new server. PhpmyAdmin is unable to do the job as it limits downloads to only 2,048kb. I chose to download it instead, so I can check it’s innards or edit it as well.
- Again since PhpMyAdmin on the receiving end is not up to the task of uploading the sql backup because of size constraints, I used the marvelous Bigdump, a configurable php file that you upload to your destination server, to take care of importing it. Basically, I created a new database on my new server, then imported my SQL backup into it. Worked wonders, or rather (and more to the point), it just worked, which is way terrific enough given that the default method, phpmyadmin, didn’t / couldn’t. I think it’s even mentioned, (although not necessarily recommended, but mentioning it is enough), in the PhpMyAdmin help files as a solution, which says a lot.
- The next steps are WordPress SOPs. Once I uploaded all the WordPress 2.13 files in the
/var/wwwsection of my new server, I created the all important wp-config file. At this stage, when I enter the URL http://lefthandedlayup.com on my browser I should be able to view my old posts in the new blog in the standard Kubrick WordPress theme. - WordPress asks the main URL at the wp-admin to point to, so I changed all that to www.lefthandedlayup.com from the previous Pisces-iscariot.exchange.ph. If you do not do this, all internal hyperlinks to such things as comments and images will still point to the old URL. Once you do this, WordPress admin will effectively shut you out, so you’ll need to login again. Don’t worry this is normal.
- Now, to transfer the pictures I’ve LFTPed in step 2 above. I log in console and use the ff. command:
$cp -r /var/www/pisces-iscariot/wp-content/uploads /var/www/lefthandedlayup/wp-content/uploads/. To transfer the plugins, it’s just$cp -r /var/www/pisces-iscariot/wp-content/plugins /var/www/lefthandedlayup/wp-content/plugins/. All I do now is look at a post that I know had pictures in it and voila, the pictures appear. Ditto with the plugins, which you’ll need to activate. Happiness. - I decided to use the highly efficient .htaccess method of transferring queries to http://pisces-iscariot.exchange.ph to this site, instead of other redirect techniques. This is a more permanent, easy, quick and complete method, which I think may affect RSS queries as well, negating my having to tweak that. Anyway, just uploaded it so we’ll see. A good tutorial is here.
- I chose this theme for awhile, but I reverted back to this one for reasons I’m not really sure of, but that Ferrari at the top probably has a lot to do with it. Nothing like putting a red prancing horse on the cover of a magazine to get people to look at it, and I’m sure now that the same holds true for blogs as well. Anyway, I think I’ll keep this one, maybe make the fonts a little smaller or something, but I think this is it.
Well, I think that’s it. Everything seems to be dandy at the moment with the site, so I’m a little less nervous about moving the rest.
I’ll make a post later explaining what lefthandedlayup means. Those who’ve known me from way back know that was the name of my early, early, early blog way back, but it means a little bit more than that. Anyway, I’m glad I finally bought it, so I can finally do stuff on a different domain other than Exchange.ph.
I’m hoping this is gonna be my last blog. I’ve been blogging for approximately 8 years now. I think I like it here though. Maybe this is the one I’ll keep using till I grow old and gray. Stay tuned.