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[EP-tech] Re: Migrating EPrints

I wouldn't go the export/import route - in such instances I trust more
my own awareness and reasoning than generic tools constructed by other
people (who cannot anticipate everything you've done locally).

Instead, copy your database to replace the one created by a fresh
installation. Also copy the document files, archive configuration and
./perl_lib/EPrints/SystemSettings.pm to the new system (regarding the
last, compare it with the one created by fresh install and tweak as
needed). Run epadmin upgrade on this mix if you're switching to a newer
EPrints version to try bringing the database structure up-to-date. See
what the result is, note any problems encountered (e.g. to better guide
your next attempt - expect a few ones and backup things accordingly).
Document all steps as you go, so as to make them repeatable for yourself.

If the result of the attempted migration looks mostly functional, then
migrate all patches to non-configuration source files individually. This
will be the most time-consuming task if you previously hacked without
concern.

If you want to be more systematic, start off by comparing your present
old installation against the baseline version that you used for it -
make an inventory of everything that you have modified, as you're going
to have to reapply it in one way or another. If you used version control
to document each change (as you should have), it is going to be easier.
Otherwise, diff is your friend.

Note that relevant changes can be in the file system (possibly even in
non-EPrints modules if you were very creative), database schema or
database contents. But since you're going to replace/overwrite the
database, you probably don't need to worry that much about the latter
two. Still, for the sake of understanding, you can mysqldump the schema
without data and compare it against the baseline db schema mysqldump to
check for differences.

On 09/09/2014 12:36 PM, Andrew Beeken wrote:
> What I¹m kind of hoping to be able to do is migrate all of our data across
> without all of our customisations, try to map it to a vanilla version.
> We¹ve made several modifications that have become unwieldy and potentially
> problematic, many of them pre-dating my arrival at the university. What
> we¹re planning is a purely hypothetical exercise to see if we could bring
> all of our content to a fresh system that we can then build back up with a
> bigger focus on not only what we need out of EPrints, but also how we need
> it to interact with other systems.
> 
> 
> 
> On 09/09/2014 11:21, "Ian Stuart" <Ian.Stuart@ed.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
>> On 09/09/14 10:21, Andrew Beeken wrote:
>>> Hello all! Is there a handy guide anywhere on how to migrate an
>>> existing EPrints to a fresh install?
>>
>> The first questions that spring to mind are
>> * How modified are your datasets (eprint fields, etc)
>> * How modified is your GUI? (template, browse fields, abstract page
>> rendering, etc)
>> * How big is your database?
>>
>> Assuming your are moving from a stock eprints (perhaps with some changes
>> to the stylesheet, logos, and template files), and a fairly small
>> dataset - then you can export the eprints & export the users, then
>> import the users & import the eprints
>>
>> I've recently done a move of a complex, extended, dataset from one
>> hosting system to another.
>>
>> * Install a base EPrints & check it works
>> * Update the various datasets & rebuild the database
>> * Add in the importers & exporters, the template & GUI changes, and all
>> the other ancillary stuff
>> * test your importers & exporters
>> * run around your GUI, make sure everything's there.
>>
>> NOW copy the old database to the new database (at
>> MySQL/PostgreSQL/MongoDB level) and the Disk0/ tree to the new
>> filesystem... and get the system to regenerate views & abstracts...
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Ian Stuart.
>> Developer: ORI, RJ-Broker, and OpenDepot.org
>> Bibliographics and Multimedia Service Delivery team,
>> EDINA,
>> The University of Edinburgh.
>>
>> http://edina.ac.uk/
>>
>> This email was sent via the University of Edinburgh.
>>
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>> Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
>>
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> 
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