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Transferring ATutor to a new host



  • 2003-10-21 23:12:23

    Transferring ATutor to a new host

    Hello...

    I have a huge ATutor going with some 200 students involved. The use has overtaxed the host on which Atutor is running. I am trying to transfer the entire system over to another host that has a much faster server that can handle the demand.

    What is the most efficient method of transferring the database? The database is too huge for a phpmyadmin sql query. I've tried doing individual tables and am getting a mysql complaint about the syntax of the dump so it will not process.

    What is your opinion??? Help?

    Thanks!

    Bob Lee
    http://wolfpsy.phpwebhosting.com/ATutor
    moving, soon, to
    http://rboblee.com/atutor

    Thanks.


  • 2003-10-22 12:07:46

    sql errors?

    what are the errors you are getting? are you using the latest version of phpmyadmin to export the db?

    the language tables use a variable called "key" which must be escaped, like: `key` for it to work correctly. otherwise mysql will give an error thinking that the term is incorrectly being used. (key is a reserved word).

    phpmyadmin should be able to export the entire db to a gz file no problem. give that a try.

    if it doesn't work, you could wait a week or two for the 1.3 release because it'll include the course backup feature and a student export feature. both those will let you export and import your courses and students easily.

    how many MB is your database?
    what kind of server are you using? the hardware?
    do you have cacheing enabled?


  • 2003-10-22 19:07:32

    Partial Success... still need some help

    I have managed to export atutor database off the old slower host server and import the atutor database into the new faster host server. The best way to do this appears to be this:

    1. create the atutor database tables on the new server
    2. export the tables one at a time from the old slower host server.
    3. import the tables one at a time into the new faster host server.
    4. do this recursively until all tables are transferred.

    So it is working now at http://www.rboblee.com/atutor BUT there is still a problem....

    Here's the problem... some of my old content files (under the atutor/content subdirectory, e.g., subfiles 1, 2, 3, etc. are in chmod550 and cannot be downloaded from the old host server via FTP and cannot be, subsequently, uploaded to the new faster host server. Net result, I cannot export/import files in the classes that existed on the old server and were not installed in the new server without being able to migrate these old server atutor/content subfiles... but I cannot download or open these atutor/content subfiles as they are chmod550 and I cannot change them to chmod777.

    Any ideas on how to fake it, break it, or bake it?

    Thanks! :)

    Bob Lee
    running atutor with 200 students at: http://www.rboblee.com/atutor


  • 2003-10-22 19:21:46

    Answers to Joel's questions

    what are the errors you are getting?

    > mysql was complaining of an sql syntax error in the field associated with the language data tables... I resolved by only exporting "data" (checked in phpmyadmin export area) and not any extended comments, etc. in phpmyadmin. This worked fine, taking them a table-at-a-time and importing them a table-at-a-time.


    are you using the latest version of phpmyadmin to export the db?

    >Yes, I think so. Version phpmyadmin is 2.5.1 as I recollect.


    the language tables use a variable called "key" which must be escaped, like: `key` for it to work correctly. otherwise mysql will give an error thinking that the term is incorrectly being used. (key is a reserved word).

    > this was resolved when I did not try to export extended comments, etc., in phpmyadmin and just requested data alone (table-by-table... no structure as the structure of the database had already been created on the new host server).


    phpmyadmin should be able to export the entire db to a gz file no problem. give that a try.

    > Yes, it would copy the entire database in a zip file but the file was too big (unzipped it was 4 megabytes) for phpmyadmin to import as a single file. Nonetheless, I worked around this by taking tables at a time out of the old server and into the new server.

    if it doesn't work, you could wait a week or two for the 1.3 release because it'll include the course backup feature and a student export feature. both those will let you export and import your courses and students easily.

    > Oooooh... :) This sounds interesting. I can't wait to see what you've added in 1.3.

    how many MB is your database?

    > database was 949k zipped; 4 megs unzipped.

    what kind of server are you using?

    > server is an Apache/Linux box... a 2.4 gHz Dell so they say... top of the line. Seems to fly now... compared to the old host that was on-again/off-again and timing out, etc.


    the hardware?

    > hardware a Dell... it's a rented host so I do not know what all they have going there but it seems to fly.

    do you have cacheing enabled?

    > No, not yet... but I will give it a try here once I can figure out how to get my old server's atutor/content files down from there and uploaded to the new server's atutor/content subdirectory... basically overcoming the chmod550 vs chmod777 access problems.

    Thanks! :)

    Bob Lee
    http://www.rboblee.com/atutor


  • 2003-10-23 09:00:30

    The content directory owner

    When you originally set up, did you set the owner of the content directory to the web server's owner (nobody usually), or did you set the permissions on the directory to be world writable? I suspect the former. If the web server owns the content directory, then you will not be able to ftp the contents. In most cases hosting servers won't allow you to change the owner, thus this problem is avoided because the files remain owned by you. It appears your old host does allow ownership changing.

    One option might be to have the root/sys admin user reassign ownership to you so you can ftp the files off the server.

    You might also export your courses using the current ATutor Export tool, then import them on to your new server. Be sure the new content directory is set to recursively world writeable before you attempt this (rather than setting the owner to nobody).

    Regarding caching, I suspect if caching had been turned on on your old host, things would have moved much quicker.

    To help us understand the effects of traffic, can you give us any information about your old server. Particularly the cpu power and ram available on the system.

    greg


  • 2005-07-13 19:12:56

    database backup

    Hello, is there any function in atutor (1.4) for expor database? or students information? to restore in case problem? Sorry for my english. I am spanish.


  • 2005-07-13 20:04:05

    Use phpMyAdmin

    There is no function in ATutor, but you could use phpMyAdmin:

    http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/

    [reply][b]In reply to:[/b]
    Hello, is there any function in atutor (1.4) for expor database? or students information? to restore in case problem? Sorry for my english. I am spanish.
    [op]forums/view.php?fid=7;pid=524;page=1#5096[/op][/reply]