CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Alright, I've been scouring these boards for an answer and, failing to get one, I just stumbled around till I fixed my problem.

I'm documenting what I did here because I hate CiviCRM and I want to spare anyone the pain my org and I went through.  We're dumping this mother as soon as possible (I'll post an alternative, maybe ) but till them I'm stuck with you bastards and might as well contribute.

Our web site was recently migrated to a new server and everyf**kingthing broke.  First I got an error like this guy http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,4832.0.html and then shit didn't even load.  I ended up reinstalling civicrm (by reinstalling I mean running the 'installer' on http://yourmomssite.com/sites/all/modules/civicrm/install/index.php).  But this wipes out your MYSQL databases, so obviously its not an option if you're moving to a preexisting databases.  Here's what I'd do now, now that I know what happened.

I will site where I got the ideas, maybe.  Its been a mad hunt through the bowels of the internet to find anything about this damnable info.

Migrating Servers

First, make sure your civicrm.settings.php file is up to date.  It uses an absolute address for both the civicrm directory and the civicrm temp directory.  Don't assume you're at the same absolute place on the new server.  http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC21/Moving+an+Existing+Installation+to+a+New+Server+or+Location

Second, clear those mutherf**king temp files (templates_c/* and config.ids).  Do it by hand, in sftp or ftp.  You can also do it from inside of Civi, I'll talk about it in a sec. Also from http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC21/Moving+an+Existing+Installation+to+a+New+Server+or+Location.  Also make sure all of these are writable by the server:
/sites/default/files
/sites/default/files/civicrm/uploads
/sites/default/files/civicrm/templates_c

Third, and this is not mentioned in the previous links, CHECK YOUR MYSQL.  That's right ladies, in your database there's a table (civicrm_domain) and in that table, there's civicrm_backend.  Make sure this mother is set to NULL. This cost me hours.  Fix that shit.  http://www.opensourcery.com/blog/jonathan-hedstrom/civicrm-deployment-host-host

After fixing that shit, reset CiviCRM using the admin tools.  I found the following resets helpful (the 2nd isn't really that necessary probably):

Will reset some of the functions - http://yourmomswebsite.com/civicrm/menu/rebuild?reset=1
Will rebuild the menu - http://yourmomswebsite.com/civicrm/menu/rebuild?reset=1
Will dump the BOTH temp directories - http://yourmomswebsite.com/civicrm/admin&directoryCleanup=3

Now, and this is a relevant question, what if CiviCRM isn't loading?  Now this was a problem for me.  I started out by looking at my server errors and seeing what was making noise, this led me to comment out lines 186-190 in /civicrm/packages/IDS/monitor.php and some lines from  /civicrm/packages/IDS/filters/storage.php.  This made civiCRM load but it was ugly as hell.

Turns out if CiviCRM isn't loading due to IDS, just comment out line 74 of civicrm/CRM/Core/Invoke.php.
From http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,6147.0.html.  This will tone the bad boy down so you can run these rebuild thingers and modify:

http://yourmomswebsite.com/civicrm/admin/setting/path?reset=1
http://yourmomswebsite.com/civicrm/admin/setting/updateConfigBackend?reset=1

Still not working?  Well hell, I don't know. Good luck.

Migrating Databases

Changing databases is a bit easier.  Your main hitch is going to be making sure the new database has the correct information in the civirm_domain table (I'm assuming changing civicrm.settings.php to POINT to the new database is pretty self explanatory).  If it gives you problems, make sure you set that mother to NULL and do all the fancy resets from inside of CiviCRM (if there's a way to trigger that rebuild without having to go to CiviCRM on the web site, that'd be awesome to hear).

Tone

I realize its been completely unhelpful and unprofessional.  I'm just trying to be in sync with CiviCRM in general (and not you guys you're great  [especially that lobo guy, you rock!], I just hate the program and the cheap developer, i.e. www.hermanconsult.com/, who put it on our web site).

Thanks very much for taking the time to put all that together.

I was trying to set up a backup copy of the website and was getting the IDS error message and deleted files/civicrm/upload/Config.IDS.ini and cleared the cache from files directory etc.

It still didn't work, until I changed the civicrm_domain >config_backend to NULL - then everything was good! - thanks to this post.
 

Adding - Not trying to minimise the pain seen above, but I cleaned up the message for my own notes..so here is a copy in case it helps anybody else:

CiviCRM - Migrating Servers

Before commencing back up and store your database!

First, make sure your civicrm.settings.php file is up to date.  It uses an absolute address for both the civicrm directory and the civicrm temp directory.  Don't assume you're at the same absolute place on the new server.  http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC21/Moving+an+Existing+Installation+to+a+New+Server+or+Location

Second, clear the temp files:
/sites/default/files/civicrm/uploads > delete Config.IDS.ini
/sites/default/files/civicrm/templates_c > delete all

Make sure all of these are writable by the server:
/sites/default/files
/sites/default/files/civicrm/uploads
/sites/default/files/civicrm/templates_c

Third, CHECK MYSQL.  In the database table (civicrm_domain) set the civicrm_backend to NULL.  Reference: http://www.opensourcery.com/blog/jonathan-hedstrom/civicrm-deployment-host-host

After that reset and check that everything is configured correctly in CiviCRM using the admin tools.
Rebuild the menu - http://yourdomain.com/civicrm/menu/rebuild?reset=1
http://yourdomain.com/civicrm/admin/setting/path?reset=1
http://yourdomain.com/civicrm/admin/setting/updateConfigBackend?reset=1
Clear temp directories - http://yourdomain.com/civicrm/admin&directoryCleanup=3

(If CiviCRM isn't loading due to IDS, temporarily comment out line 74 of civicrm/CRM/Core/Invoke.php.)

It seems that civicrm's temporary directories now need to be writable by the whole world??  I tried restricting write permission to user or user+group and that broke it again.  Does anyone have a fix for that?

like any other web application, civicrm's temporary directories need to be writable by the web server. Ensure that your group/owner of files / directories is valid (and preferably the web server for those places where it needs to be writable)

lobo

Wish I would've found this sooner, I'm not sure if I did what was right, but I need to put it on here if someone has the same trouble.

I was running into a ton of errors with civicrm after transferring to another hosting provider. Drupal was fine, but CiviCRM was giving a blank white screen when trying to view civi pages. I was getting Smarty errors, and config file errors, etc. while looking at account settings and admin pages of my site as well. (any page that connected to civicrm for some reason)

The thing that stopped all errors, and gave me access to CiviCRM, instead of an annoying White Screen, was deleting the civicrm folder in my files directory. I saved it to my computer before hand, in case I need something from there at some point. But, after deleting it, I had full access to CiviCRM! with no annoying errors.

Hope this helps some people.
bmodesign

there is a menu item called UpdateConfigBackend.php which does what you say. However if your civicrm install is hosed, you cannot access that menu item. The alternative would be to write something as a drupal module / joomla component / standalone php file to help fix things if hosed

lobo

I know it's been a long time, but I just wanted to thank bmodesign at reply #6 for posting that - solved my problem completely! Thanks!