Full site upgrade on an account - best approach

[trout21]

Hi,

Wondered if anyone has experience on how best to go about upgrading the software etc. on an account without any downtime?

Basically I have a huge site with a load of traffic that I need to change/upgrade the software (plural) in its entirety. Previously I just did it by having the software either in seperate directories or running next to the current software and made a switch over. The site is way too big and too much traffic now to have any downtime and or even fear developing on the live version!

Is there a way to have a test/dev account and switch over automatically from within WHM/cPanel? Or how other would be the best approach?

Thanks for any replies.

 

[Infopro]

What software are you using?

 

[trout21]

There are 5 seperate software programmes intertwined and each with their own MySQL database and the idea is to move all of this and the entire userbase onto a consolidated solution.

I wonder if there is anything in WHM that would allow me to install a 'test/dev' account and when the migration to that is done switch over my domain onto that account? i.e. save me going into the guts of the system and manually editing?

 

[trout21]

What software are you using?

One can only presume from your cryptic question and smiley face that it is quite a simple thing that is staring me in the face?

Perhaps a more detailed answer might assist me and or anyone else searching across this forum in the future?

Thanks for any reply?

 

[Infopro]

One can only presume from your cryptic question and smiley face that it is quite a simple thing that is staring me in the face?

Perhaps a more detailed answer might assist me and or anyone else searching across this forum in the future?

Thanks for any reply?

You've misunderstood my smilie?

You don't mention what software you're using for someone who knows that software... to best assist you in what you want to do. (hence the smilie, as you forgot to mention it...)

This does me no help in offering you any solutions I may have:

There are 5 seperate software programmes intertwined and each with their own MySQL database and the idea is to move all of this and the entire userbase onto a consolidated solution.

Nor does this from your original post:

The site is way too big and too much traffic now to have any downtime

Is this a forum or some type of site that people are posting messages to? That's the main issue I think you'd need to be thinking about. If not handled correctly when you switched over from the live site to the dev site you'll not have all the content that was created while you were upgrading the software. (whatever it is)

I'll add a more appropriate smilie this time.

 

[trout21]

^^ Heya. Apologies. We appear to be crossed wires

To me the software I'm using is really of no significance. The migration of the software is no issue, its how the traffic can be moved from the live WHM account to a dev WHM account - if that is possible?

To be more clear. The software will be shut for edits. Databases collated transferred to new consolidated account and ideally I can then hit a switch and the domain.tld will point on my server to the new account rather as the old account

I can do this by manually re-routing through httpd.conf but is this what I really want to do?! No. Not if there is an option in WHM that I don't know about to do this automatically such that might be in the "Alter Account Settings" area that I don't currently understand?!

Thanks again for any reply.

 

[Infopro]

Might be very easy. But, I can only give you an example in the hopes it makes some sense to you.

If you had a wordpress blog at domain.com and wanted to upgrade it in a test environment, you might create a sub folder called test and copy your wordpress to that directory (domain.com/test/) You could use the File Manager for this hilighting all files in domain.com (public_html) you need for the wordpress then right click and copy, then move to the test directory and paste.
Easy so far...


Next, copy the database from trout21_wordpress to trout21_wordpress2 (via phpMyAdmin in your cPanel, be sure you've created the database in advance and added the user to it) and then edit the settings for that test site in the config file (wp-config.php in this example located in /test/) to have the test site, use the test site database (trout21_wordpress2).

With me so far?

Now you do what you need to on the test site with the database(s). Once you're done, if all went well, simply edit the config file (wp-config.php in this example located in /public_html/ of your live site, to use the test site's database. (trout21_wordpress2)

In this scenerio, the original database is untouched and safe in case you screwed up. If that happens of course just re-edit the config file to point back to the old database.

No down time.

Hope that helps somehow. GL!

 

[trout21]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, though thats what I indicated in my first post I didn't want to do.

Let's try to articulate this a different way:

The initial setup will be:
--------------------------
domainA associated with accountA

domainB associated with accountB
---------------------------

Account B is developed and updated and edited and then at the crucial point of switchover:


--------------------------
domainA associated with accountB

domainB and accountA are terminated/suspended etc.

---------------------------

Let's stay away from the software. The only important software here is cPanel I just talked about the software to give some background. No focus there is needed.

So is there a way to do the above in cPanel automatically that I don't have to edit httpd.conf and DNS zones etc. by hand!?!? Is there account settings that I don't currently understand or is this just not possible within WHM?

 

[Infopro]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, though thats what I indicated in my first post I didn't want to do.

Not sure where that part was, but I think I missed it, sorry.

Let's try to articulate this a different way:

The initial setup will be:
--------------------------
domainA associated with accountA

domainB associated with accountB
---------------------------

Account B is developed and updated and edited and then at the crucial point of switchover:


--------------------------
domainA associated with accountB

domainB and accountA are terminated/suspended etc.

---------------------------

Let's stay away from the software. The only important software here is cPanel I just talked about the software to give some background. No focus there is needed.

So is there a way to do the above in cPanel automatically that I don't have to edit httpd.conf and DNS zones etc. by hand!?!? Is there account settings that I don't currently understand or is this just not possible within WHM?

Yes, I think you could using the Park Domain tools somehow. Although the way you describe does sound like a bit more work.