Migrations

Do not use migrations if both servers have Loft Deploy installed. In such case use a "prod/staging" relationship and move files using the pull command.

You may wish to migrate a database and/or files from another server, which does not have Loft Deploy installed. As long as you can scp and rsync from this other server you can use this feature. If you cannot then see the section The Push Option for a method to push the files to your destination server.

Migrations are unique in that they DO NOT honor the file excludes or the database filters. In other words, the migration process moves ALL tables, and ALL files.

Hooks are available, you can see the hooks if you run a migration with the -v option.

Also, migrations affect the destination server immediately, they are unlike the fetch/pull strategy. When you migrate, the database is directly imported and the files are immediately deleted to match the source.

In a migration, the database is backed up unless you use the --nobu option. The files are NOT backed up, so be sure you're ready as destination files are deleted without an undo.

On the source server

1. Create a mysql dump of the database and take note of it's path.
2. Take note of the paths to each of the user files directories, up to 3.

On the destination server (the one you are migrating to)

1. Add something like the following to your Loft Deploy configuration file .loft_deploy/config.yml. You do not need to add both database and files as they can act independently, if desired.

   migration:
     title: d8-staging.mysite.com
     database:
       user: cwcd8
       host: 192.168.0.100
       path: /home/parrot/backups/migrate.sql.gz
     files:
     - user: parrot
       host: 192.168.0.100
       path: /home/parrot/public_html/web/sites/default/files
     - user: parrot
       host: 192.168.0.100
       path: /home/parrot/public_html/private/default/files
   

2. Clear caches to update the config ldp cc.

3. Check your configration with ldp info; you should see a migration section with the paths to the assets you can migrate.
4. When you are ready call ldp migrate. You will asked to confirm each step.

The Push Option

If you try to migrate and the process hangs, one issue may be that there is a problem with the SSH tunnel made during the scp operation. In any event you can use the --push option to create a markdown file with step by step instructions and code snippets to run on the source server to push the files to your destination by hand.

The second part of this method requires the you do a manual ldp import of the database file on the destination server, so don't miss that step.

Simply call ldp migrate --push to see the output on the screen. As a sidenote, the configuration is the same as above, you still need to add the migration array to your configuration file.

Or pipe it to a file like this ldp migrate --push > migrate.md.

Follow the instructions therein.