Quick Guide Steps
Below are the basic steps, full detailed steps are listed further down the page.
This guide will take you through the steps of moving a Drupal 8 website from one host to another in detail. All of the steps below are using systems such as PhpMyAdmin and FTP that all hosts (or at least the ones worth using!) provide. The guide has been created so that anyone can follow it (no matter your technical experience or which host you are using).
Ok, so let's gets started
From a little research online it looks like some people have had issues with migrating Drupal 8 when the caching is enabled. As such, we recommend you turn this fully off and clear the caching before starting the migration.
Open your Drupal 8 admin and click the "configuration" button at the top.
Next click the "performance" link.
From the dropdown under the "caching" section select "<no caching>". Under the "Bandwidth optimization" untick "Aggregate CSS files" and "Aggregate JavaScript files" then click the "save configuration" button.
You should now see the message "The configuration options have been saved." Click the "clear all caches" button.
Once complete, you should see a message saying "Caches cleared.".
That's it. You can now move onto backing up your Drupal 8 website for the migration.
Your Drupal 8 website is split into two sections, the files/folders of your website and the database. First you will need to download a copy of all the drupal 8 files and folders. In this guide, we will explain how you can do this using FTP. Whilst many hosts offer a 1 click back up solution, this is often limited to premium packages. However, FTP is almost always available no matter which host you use and as such we have chosen to show how to back up up using this method.
The first step is to create a folder on your computer to store your Drupal 8 backup in. This folder can be called anything you like but in this guide we will call this folder "Drupal 8 backup" and save it onto our desktop for easy access.
Next, contact your current host and ask them for the following:
1) Your FTP host.
2) Your FTP username
3) Your FTP password
4) Your FTP port (this is usually 21).
You can usually find this information in your host's control panel (or in a welcome e-mail) but if not, give them a call and ask for the above details (they will know what you mean).
Once you have this information, you will need to get hold of a FTP client. A free FTP program called FileZilla can be downloaded from Filezilla-project.org (which is the one we have used in this guide) but any FTP client should work although the steps will vary slightly to the ones below.
Open your FTP program (in this case FileZilla) and enter the connection details your host has provided you with then click "QuickConnect".
Once connected, you should see a public folder which you will need to open. This is usually given the name of 'public_html' or 'htdocs' (ask your host if you are unsure or do not see either of these).
Once you have opened your public folder, you should see a list of your drupal files. These will include (but are not limited to) "core", "modules", "update.php" and "web.config". Assuming you can see these files, you are in the right place.
In the left hand pane, locate the 'drupal 8 backup' folder you made earlier and open it.
Select all the drupal files/folders on the right pane and right click on them, then select 'Download'. Alternatively you can select them all and drag them into your "drupal 8 backup" folder.
You should now see the files and folders downloading at the bottom.
Once complete, check the failed transfers tab at the bottom for any files/folders that have failed to download. If any are listed, set these downloading again.
To back up your Drupal 8 database, you can use PhpMyAdmin. This is almost always included with hosting packages and is a web interface that will allow you to export your database quickly. This can usually be found in your hosting control panel but contact your host for details if you are unable to locate it.
Once you have found PhpMyAdmin, open it up and if your drupal 8 database has not already been opened, select it from the menu on the left.
You should now see a list of tables. These will include (but are not limited to) "batch", "block_content" and "cache_bootstrap". If you can not see these tables, it is likely you are not in your drupal database.
Click the "Export" tab at the top of the page.
Then click the "Go" button and save the exported file to your computer.
Once complete, you can close PhpMyAdmin.
Now that you have a full backup of your Drupal 8 website, you can move on to restoring this on your new hosting. The first step is to set up a new MySQL database and import the backup you made in the previous step using PhpMyAdmin.
How to set up a new database will vary depending on your host's control panel (look for a section called "MySQL databases"). Contact your new host if you are unable to locate it and ask them how to open PhpMyAdmin.
Once you have set up a new database, make a note of the following:
1) Your database host (usually localhost).
2) Your database name
3) Your database username
4) Your database password.
as you will need these later on in the guide.
Once you have these, open your new database in PhpMyAdmin. If your database is not already opened automatically, select it from the left menu.
Next, click the "Import" tab at the top.
You should now see a database import page. Click the "Choose file" button then select the database you downloaded earier.
Then click the "Go" button to start the import.
Once complete, you should see a "Import has been successfully finished" message.
You can now close PhpMyAdmin.
Before you can upload your drupal 8 files/folders you will need to change some lines of text in a file called settings.php. Without making these changes your drupal site will not be able to communicate with the database (and in turn it will act like a brand new install of drupal being set up).
In your "Drupal 8 backup" folder, open the folder called "sites".
Next open the folder called "default".
You should now see a file called settings.php (note the 'php' may not show up if your computer is not set to show extensions). Open this file with a plain text editor such as notepad or notepad++. Do not use a rich text editor such as WordPad or Microsoft word as this will corrupt the file.
locate the line:
'database' => 'AAAAAA',
(yours will have something other than AAAAAA) and change the AAAAAA to your database name.
Next, locate the line:
'username' => 'BBBBBB',
(yours will have something other than BBBBBB) and change the BBBBBB to your database username.
Next, locate the line:
'password' => 'CCCCCC',
(yours will have something other than CCCCCC) and change the CCCCCC to your database password.
and finally, locate the line:
'host' => 'DDDDDD',
(yours will have something other than DDDDDD) and change the DDDDDD to your database host (usually 'localhost').
Once the changes have been made, save and close the file.
TIP : You may see the above lines more than once. If you do, check to see if it has a * in front of it e.g.
* $databases['default']['default'] = array( * 'driver' => 'pgsql', * 'database' => 'databasename', * 'username' => 'sqlusername', * 'password' => 'sqlpassword', * 'host' => 'localhost', * 'prefix' => '', * );
If it does, this is not in use and is not the section to edit. Usually the section to edit will be right at the bottom of the file.
You should now be ready to upload your drupal 8 files and folders. To keep things simple in this guide, we will show you how to do this using FTP. Contact your new host and ask them for the following:
1) Your FTP host
2) Your FTP username
3) Your FTP password
4) Your FTP port (usually 21).
Usually, you can find these in your hosting control panel or in your hosting welcome e-mail. However, if not, contact your new host who will be able to provide you with these.
Once you have them, open up your FTP client again and enter the details in the connection boxes then connect.
Once connected, locate your public folder on the right (usually public_html or htdocs) and open it.
Next, locate and open your "Drupal 8 backup" folder on the left.
You should now see all of your Drupal 8 files/folders. Select all of them then right click and choose 'Upload'.
You should now see all of your Drupal 8 files being uploaded at the bottom of your screen.
Once this has completed, check the Failed transfers tab for any files that did not upload. If any failed, reset them and try again.
Now all of your files are uploaded, you need to make sure that the settings.php file has read only permissions (this is for security). This can be done whilst still in FileZilla. To do this, open the sites folder on the right, then open the default folder. Right click on the settings.php file and click "File Permissions"
In the popup box, enter 444 then click 'OK'.
You can now close FileZilla.
Once you have done all the above, your Drupal 8 website is ready to launch. However, you still need to tell your domain to look to the new hosting. To do this, you will need to update the domain's nameservers (or DNS A Records) to point to the new hosting company. The steps required to do this can vary depending on your registrar (the company you purchased the domain from). In brief, you would do the following:
1) Contact your new host and ask them for the nameservers.
2) Contact your registrar and ask them to update the nameservers on your domain to the ones your new host provided.
Once the nameservers have updated (can take up to 24 hours), you should be able to load up your new hosting with your domain. At this stage all that would be left to do is to re-enable caching (which you turned off at the begnining of this guide).
If this guide has helped you or if you feel it could be improved, please let us know in the comments below.
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Which hosting company do you use? I'm Philip and this little website is my online side project. I often get asked which company I use for my website projects. Most of the hosting companies out there are no longer independent but instead owned by one of the big hosting giants who generally offer poor or average services (in my opinion). Krystal.uk (the company I use) are still independent (UK based) and go against everything the big companies stand for. Fast servers, good tech support and they actually re-invest a huge chunk of their profits to keep improving their services. All Krystal customers can offer people a £20 referral discount. If you do move to Krystal, please consider using the discount code "WMG" to get £15 off your hosting order (Krystal will give me the remaining £5 for referring you). Thanks again and happy surfing. |