We need to move our site to a new host. Unfortunately, we cannot upgrade to Version 4 with the existing host since we do not meet all of the requirements. Thus, our plan is to create the new site on the new host and start with a clean version of Amember 4. Then import our customers vital information (name, email, username and password). PayPal will continue with the recurring payments even if we cannot import this information, so we can manually update the user's subscription expiration - we're OK with this as a worse case scenario. Is there anything else we need to be concerned about? Will the new Amember 4 database continue to work once we transfer our domain from the old host to the new host?
You should be able to just choose the database containing all the tables from amember3 for the import process. I would recommend make a SQL backup of your amember3 database, and create a new amember3 database on your new host and import the SQL backup. Once that is done -- install amember4 into a new database, then once installed, select (or put in the credentials) for the location of where you imported the SQL backup. This will allow you to import all your amember3 data as per the amember3>amember4 migration documents.
Thanks for that. The legacy aMember Pro v3 documentation appears to assume a migration on the same host. There are some additional unknowns here. We would need to install a trial version, and then make that the production version on a different host with a different IP. And, how would we transfer that license? Thanks.
There is no trial version, but send us new domain name via helpdesk and we will issue a free temporary license key.
It's a new domain name, not a new domain. We're keeping the same domain name. We're moving to a new host with a new IP address. We cannot upgrade to version 4 with the existing host since we do not need meet Version 4 requirements. Please provide details what needs to happen. This is a highly visible project and we cannot afford to have our site offline.
I would do something like the folowing: - keep your curent site running until all of the following has been done and tested. That means that you keep your current DNS setting of whatever.com pointed to the IP of your current webserver. - back up amember v3 of whatever.com - in your host file of your computer add following line (change aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd into your new ip) aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd whatever.com - install amember v4 on new server and use license for whatever.com - import users, products etc. - migrate rest of your site - test if test==OK: flip DNS. Few risks here imo, mainly the import of users and how this ties in to the recurring payments you mentioned. To be completely safe I would choose to wait until there is a fully supported upgrade of active databases from v3 to v4. I believe that Alex and collegues are working on that. What you can do is to migrate your curent site to the new server, so with v3. That way you wil be ready once the amember upgarde is available.
Apologies made a big typo. It's the same domain, however, moving to a new host with a new IP. So whatever.com domain name remains the same. PayPal recurring payments will continue regardless of having a functional Amember system, so attempting to re-import user payment info is a nice to have, but not vital. Our thoughts were: 1) Configure new site 2) Install Amember 4 3) Manually setup the products (we have a small number) 4) Export user info from version 3 5) Run a test import of user data (name, user name, password) 6) Worse case scenario manually match product name to user 7) Test new site, member access, etc. 8) Repeat steps 4 through 7 on go-live 9) Change name servers on existing host to point to new host for domain whatever.com Any thoughts? Also, a piece that is missing is the licensing portion and what involvement Amember support is required to assist with a smooth transition.
I recommend to: 1 - store dump of MySQL datebase from v3 2 - edit "hosts" file on your PC to so www.yourdomain.com points to your new host IP 3 - using webhosting control panel, create a new MySQL database and load dump from step 1 4 - install v4 to new host 5 - enable and configure paysystems in v4 6 - run http://www.yoursite.com/amember/admin-import3 and import information from v3 database 7 - check everything, make sure it works as expected -- when you are ready to move, shut down v3 website, repeat steps from 1 to 6, then switch DNS to new host. Ideally it will be 2-3 hours downtime providing you checked everything and write down steps you need to follow. It is important to know that import3 imports products from v3 database. If you setup products manually, there will be duplicates.
Looks good to me, one remark though: while old whatever.com is still live you will have to configure new site & amember v4 with another domain name OR see if you can manage with hosts file entry. If you choose to use another domain you could use a subdomain of whatever.com that way you can use the same license that you already have. During launch you will have to add the extra step of changing the new site to whatever.com Because of this I would defintely choose to use host file entry trick instead. edit: Alex was quicker than me in replying, but good to see that he suggest the host file trick too
Alex and Frdako, thank you for your detailed information, very helpful. Alex, please confirm we need to contact you for free temporary license key to configure the new site/environment.