Resolved Migrating to a test environment?

[HelplessHobo]

Hi!

I unexpectedly inherited my company's WordPress site and I have to admit I'm a little overwhelmed. I am glad that we're using Plesk, because I have no real previous experience with WordPress or even just Ubuntu and it really seems to make a lot of things a lot easier, but I still need some help:

Could you guys tell me the necessary steps to "migrate" a hosted Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Server (running Plesk 12.5.3) to a testing Environment (currently an Azure VM running 14.04 and Plesk Onyx,, going to upgrade the OS as soon as the migration is complete though).

I am worried about ****ing things up because, well, it's my company's website... I tried making a backup on our productive server and restoring it on the test server (which kind of worked, even though the full backup was 17GB) but afterwards nothing seemed to work anymore (502 Errors, among others).

I was going to try using the Plesk Migration Manager next but I was wondering if there's anything I need to pay attention to? Also I don't want to use the original server's connection info obviously, I only want databases and wordpress files, but obviously not the IP/DNS configuration. And most importantly I don't want to mess up anything with the original server. Is Migration Manager the right way to go? What do I have to watch out for? Any help is much appreciated.

 

[IgorG]

I think that Synchronization feature of Plesk WordPress Toolkit would be more suitable for your only one production site. Please read about this feature carefully WordPress Toolkit

 

[HelplessHobo]

@IgorG Thanks, going to take a look at it,
It's more than one domain though! There's multiple domain aliases, sub-domains as well as a Piwik installation. Would it make sense to migrate the WP part with the WP Toolkit and the rest with Plesk?

 

[Mr.D]

Hello, I think you could use website importing feature that provided by Plesk Migrator extension.
1. Install Plesk Migrator extension to the target server.
2. Create subscription or domain
3. Click Website Importing
4. Fill all required fields and import your WordPress.
Imported instance will be registered in WordPress Toolkit and you will can manage your WordPress using toolkit.

 

[Mr.D]

There's multiple domain aliases, sub-domains as well as a Piwik installation. Would it make sense to migrate the WP part with the WP Toolkit and the rest with Plesk?

No, toolkit and Website importing can import only one domain. But you could use server migration and migrate all domains using Plesk Migrator.

 

[HelplessHobo]

Tried using the Plesk Migrator but ran into trouble. I can connect, it runs, but then this critical error occurs:

• [2017-10-18 11:45:10][INFO] Remove web agent from the source site
• [2017-10-18 11:45:11][WARNING] Failed to remove web agent from the source site, try to remove it once more
• [2017-10-18 11:45:21][INFO] Remove web agent from the source site
• [2017-10-18 11:45:21][WARNING] Failed to remove web agent from the source site, try to remove it once more
• [2017-10-18 11:45:31][INFO] Remove web agent from the source site
• [2017-10-18 11:45:32][ERROR] Failed to remove web agent from the source site
• [2017-10-18 11:45:33][ERROR] Failed to retrieve information about files on source website
• Cause: Execution of task 'get_base_path' on remote server via web RPC agent failed, see agent logs for details
• That is a critical error, migration was stopped.
• stderr:

What can I do about that? Is this a Firewall or File Permission issue? Maybe something about not having set up passive ftp?

 

[Aleksey Filatev]

Could you please check log of web RPC agent? It should be placed at the same directory on your source hosting where web RPC agent entry point placed. You can browse the document root on the source (it should be directory with long randomly generated name) or find the exact path in the debug.log.

 

[HelplessHobo]

Sorry, I don't know where that is. I found a debug.log at "/opt/psa/var/modules/panel-migrator/logs/debug.log" and one at "/opt/psa/var/modules/panel-migrator/sessions/site-migration-1/debug.log". The first doesn't contain any paths, the second so many that I don't know what to look for.

 

[Aleksey Filatev]

File "/opt/psa/var/modules/panel-migrator/sessions/site-migration-1/debug.log" is the right place. Could you please serach log entries with the following prefix: "Upload file via FTP: " Such entries should be below info message "Deploy web RPC agent to the source website".

 

[HelplessHobo]

Been trying to import again today, it seems to be working ... better, after I set up source server's firewall correctly.
Backup has been running for a few hours now but nothing seems to be happening?

In my sessions's debug.log I just get the same lines over and over again:

+|2017-10-19_08:56:49,817|D|MT|core.runners.base|||Execute command on the local server: plesk db "SELECT name FROM Modules WHERE name = 'plesk-multi-server'"
+|2017-10-19_08:56:49,831|D|MT|core.runners.base|||Command execution results:
=|2017-10-19_08:56:49,831|D|MT|core.runners.base|||stdout:
=|2017-10-19_08:56:49,831|D|MT|core.runners.base|||stderr:
=|2017-10-19_08:56:49,831|D|MT|core.runners.base|||exit code: 0



Same thing for my info.log, only with different lines ...
[2017-10-19 09:18:56][INFO] Initialize Plesk Migrator
[2017-10-19 09:18:56][INFO] Target Plesk host: 10.0.1.4
[2017-10-19 09:18:56][INFO] Target Plesk host: 10.0.1.4

In sessions/site-migration-1 the info.log was last updated an hour ago with
[2017-10-19 08:37:56][INFO] Remove web agent from the source site

around the same time debug.log wrote this, after removing the plesk-migrator-agent-*randomstring* folder via FTP ...
+|2017-10-19_08:38:01,636|D|MT|core.workflow.runner.base|||MIGRATOR END: /opt/psa/admin/sbin/modules//panel-migrator/plesk-migrator get-site-info /opt/psa/var/modules/panel-migrator/sessions/site-migration-1/config.ini --reload-source-d$

Tried manually running the plesk db command but it returns the following error:
Unable to get password: open /etc/psa/.psa.shadow: permission denied
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'admin'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
exit status 1

Even tried giving the file 777 and assigning the /etc/psa/ directory to a group that my admin user and psaadm (or what it's called) as well as putting it to 775 ... still, I can't even ls that folder at this time ... But I know too little about ubuntu permissions to find out wtf is wrong.

Anything I can do ?
Thanks so much by the way, I would be lost without you guys.

Update : Putting the whole /etc/psa/ with every subdirectory to 777 accomplished that I don't get the permission error when running plesk db "Select..."... instead I get nothing.

Same error being written into panel-migrator/logs/debug.log :/

Maybe it's because Plesk versions are different? I read that Onyx is the only one that has the multi-server thing ?

 

[Mr.D]

Hi, this is expected behavior of Plesk Migrator.
There is no need to read debug log without knowledge about internal arrangement of Plesk Migrator. Please use info log.
So, according to provided strings from log files you are tried to use website importing feature. So please clarify what messages and statuses of import of application you see in user interface.
Perhaps you used wrong access credentials for access to website on the source server. Credentials of system user of the subscription or FTP user that has full access to the files and folders should be used.
More about website importing feature you can read in the following article Website Migration

 

[HelplessHobo]

Okay, so after being unable to do it with the "Import Website" feature, I migrated the whole subscription, using the Migration Manager.
Had some trouble with modules, timeouts, etc, but eventually it went through and I now have all the necessary files on my webserver.

But now it just redirects me to my original server, every time I connect??? What the heck? I enter http://myip/assigned_name and it loads for a second and then redirects me to the original site. I am beyond confused. What?

 

[Mr.D]

I enter http://myip/assigned_name and it loads for a second and then redirects me to the original site. I am beyond confused. What?

This is WordPress feature. Just edit your hosts file for working with test environment.

 

[HelplessHobo]

This is WordPress feature. Just edit your hosts file for working with test environment.

Actually I had to edit the wp-config.php and then press "Refresh" on the wordpress Installation in Plesk!

Thanks for all the help guys, finally got my testing environment running !