Revised webserver

Another week, another server migration. This time, I did an intentional migration of the webserver. Previously, my WordPress installation was running on a virtual machine on one of my main systems. This was working fine until my recent eCommerce site addon, establishing my Quartermaster. At that point, the extra database and processing load apparently was over-taxing the system, and I started seeing significant slowness in the site.

I tried the usual culprits, like rebooting, adding cpu or memory, etc, but nothing really worked. And I could not go for enough with resources, since the main system is used for other critical functions.

As such, dedicated hardware was in order, and I migrated the entire site to a new system completely. This was a bit easier given my internal proxy system – I just needed to set up the new site, validate functionality, then update one setting in the proxy to make it real.

However, the transition was challenged by the basic state of WordPress “backup and recover” plugins. These almost universally promise full site recovery and migration, but all seem to be heavily handicapped and limited behind a paywall. You can backup the site easily enough, but restoring only hits 99% of the recovery – if you want the other 1%, then you get to pay. That doesn’t work for me, since I am fundamentally cheap, technically inclined, and open for the challenge.

After several failed plugin attempts, I opted to just do it manually – which turned out much easier, faster, and cleaner. All that was really required was a duplicate of the www source folder, and an export of the MySQL database, both of which are simple commands. With those files in hand, reverse the same process on the target system. In my case, I had to slightly tweak the wp-config.php file within WordPress due to some database differences, but otherwise once I restarted the necessary processes, all testing was successful.

If I get motivated this weekend, perhaps I will write up a tutorial for my records, and for anyone else who might be interested. Otherwise, enjoy the new speed and performance of the site.