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Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

#8368 Database restore kickstart failure on Go-Daddy

Posted in ‘Akeeba Backup for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Latest post by nicholas on Sunday, 14 March 2010 03:31 CDT

austega
I am trying to move a J1.5.15 site from IXW Hosting (Linux) to Go-Daddy Linux (Economy). I have backed up database and files using JP1.2.4 .jpa format (abt 26Mb) and tried to restore on Go-Daddy using KickStart 2.4.1.

I had set up a new database on Daddy and tested my connection through Go-Daddy's phpAdmin.

KickStart shows the in optional error message that Display Errors is On - I have not been able to find a way to turn this off even though I included display_errors = off in the php.ini file in the root directory.

On the Kickstart database details page I have tried several versions such as localhost and the full server address listed in phpAdmin, and also the short and long form db and db user names (taken from the phpAdmin screen). In all cases there are no explicit error message returned when I click on Next, but nothing is written to the database (according to phpAdmin) and there are no superadmin users showing the the dropdown on the next KickStart page.

Kickstart proceeds merrily to completion without reporting any errors. All the files seem to be in place as expected. But no database tables and :

1. The site and admin backend (viewed through GoDaddy's preview URL) both return error messages - firstly a 500 error (until I correct the next point) and then a database connection error.
2. The .htaccess file includes a few lines of IXW PHP version redirect code which when removed gets rid of the 500 error
3. The configuration.php file still includes references to the old database connection values - but even when I change these the same database connection error remains ( not surprising I guess if the database is empty...)

I am at my wit's end at present. I am new to Go-Daddy so may be missing something. Their phone support was not able to get me through this problem.

What might I be missing? Is there a workaround to upload the database directly?

dlb
GoDaddy is a little different on the database. They do not use "localhost", they use the server address. They do not prefix the database and user names with the host account name. The user name is always the same as the database name and they have to be unique (among the MySQL server or all of GoDaddy, I never figured out which).

Technically, kickstart has handed off to the JPI4 installer at that point, so it is the installer that is messing up. It should not go merrily on, it should stop with a "can't connect" error.

Yes, you can manually restore the database. It needs to be edited first to restore the table prefixes. There are some instructions for that in the Manual Restore documentation.


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
You say JP 1.2.4. I really hope you meant to say JoomlaPack 2.4.1, because 1.2.4 has never been released :) Then, I don't know which embedded restoration script you use. Kickstart is just the part which extracts the archive. It doesn't do the restoration. I assume that you are using JPI4. If this is so, there should be this huge "JoomlaPack Installer 4" text on the top of each page.

You say:
[quote]In all cases there are no explicit error message returned when I click on Next, but nothing is written to the database (according to phpAdmin) and there are no superadmin users showing the the dropdown on the next KickStart page.[quote]
Does it fill up the progress bar to 100% and says that your database restoration is complete, or does it compeltely skip displaying the dialog box with the database restoration progress? In the latter case, just restart the restoration procedure (revisit www.yoursite.com/installation/index.php) to clear the JPI4 session data and enter your correct database information.

The regular workflow (including the descriptive error messages you should get if you enter the wrong db info) is outlined in the JPI4 section of our documentation. If there is absolutely no dialog, there's something wrong with loading the jQuery UI. In this case I'd suggest first changing the permissions of the whole installation directory and its contents to 0744 and trying to use a different browser. Do NOT use Chrome 4! This browser introduced a feature which breaks all web applications which use redirections, including JPI4 and the Joomla! admin panel itself. I suggest using FireFox (with Firebug deactivated, if it's installed), IE7/8 or Safari.

If all else fails, the manual procedure Dale talked about always works. However, it's the most painful method of restoring your site and I don't recommend it except as a last resort.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

austega
Thank you both for your replies.

Quick answers to Nicholas' questions. Yes JP2.4.1 - dyslexia as well, what hope is there for me? And the JPI4 installer shows no progress bar at the database stage.

I will try your suggestions and report back here.

austega
OK, I have achieved success, but not without some interesting stages on the journey and heavy dependence on your advice.

First I tried the standard JPI4 route this time with the full db server name and short form db name and db user name. No difference - no progress bar, no error messages, some pause and then presenting the next JPI4 page with a message saying the the FTP connection was fine. No writing to database. Tried again with db server IP address - same difference. Tried reducing the two max size parameters (down to 128,000 and 100) - longer pause but no other difference.

Second I tried to get rid of the Display Errors warning - and with a bit of luck found the hidden php.ini file that was used (in the case of php 5) rather than the one in the root directory. Tried the above again - no difference.

So it appeared to be manual database restore. Downloaded Notepad++ and it worked beautifully. With trepidation went phpMyAdmin and imported the 1.2Mb edited SQL file. GoDaddy's import page suggested a file size limit of 1Mb - but its suggested zip file upload was not recognised - so I tried the uncompressed file. It came back with a timeout error message but the data tables were now all there (or appear to be).

Edited the configuration.php to show the new db parameters, killed the installation folder and the site and the backend both are now visible and appear to be complete.

I would appreciate it if you could suggest any ways I can ensure that the last part of the sql file was successfully restored - but basically it appears to be all fine.

Thanks again for your great support. There are a few screen shot attachments.

David

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
If the dialog never shows up, it's a Javascript issue. There are two simple redundant steps you can follow:
1. Use a different browser. Preferably, use a browser with no development extensions loaded. If in doubt, FireFox Portable (from PortableApps.com) is a perfect fit for the job.

2. Especially true if you are on a Windows server or if you have used Kickstart's FTP extraction mode on an anal host. It may be that the Javscript files are simply not loading. In this case, give 0644 permissions to the installation directory and all its contents recursively. If you are on a Windows server there's no such thing as permissions. In fact changing them will do nothing. You have to go to your host's site administration panel, find out how to change ACLs and give the web visitors full read access to all of the contents of the installation directory and its subdirectories. I'm sorry for being vague, but each Windows server I have worked with seems to be implementing its own control panel software. One more reason not to use a Windows server for hosting a site, unless it's written in .NET .

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

dlb
David,

You can break that SQL file in two. Just make sure you break it so that the second file begins with a CREATE TABLE line. That keeps the CREATE and the INSERT for a single table together and if you reverse the files, it still works.


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

austega
Thanks Nicholas. It was solely Linux server, but I was using FireFox 3.6 with a number of developer addins, though I have not had the JS problem before. Next time I will use IE as an alternative.

And thanks Dale. That gives me a good workaround the next time I have this issue. So far there doesn't seem to be anything missing from the new site.

Thank you both for your great support. The site is the FreeWorldFoundation.org (a Ghanean charity registered with the UN online volunteer organisation - should be live within the next week.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
You're welcome :D

I have overloaded my Firefox with development plugins, so I occasionally get all sorts of strange JS and/or layout errors on different websites (not necessarily with Akeeba Backup - even on GMail). As a rule of thumb, I have a "clean" installation of PortableFirefox and Iron Portable to make sure that the issue is the plugins and not the site / software I am trying to use.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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