Joomla Migration by Backup and Restore with a Backup Plugin
Introduction
This tutorial explains how to migrate an existing installation of the content management system (CMS) Joomla using plugins from another provider to one of the popular hosting.fr web spaces.
This tutorial only deals with the migration of Joomla. How to also migrate your domain is described elsewhere.
For the migration, we will proceed as follows:
- Install the backup plugin in the existing Joomla installation,
- Export the data from the existing installation,
- Decompress the backup using Akeeba’s Kickstarter tool on the hosting.fr web space.
Step 1: Verify Prerequisites
- You already have an existing Joomla installation at a provider from which you want to migrate to hosting.fr.
- It is recommended to update your existing Joomla installation to the current stable version before migration.
- You have already configured a domain, a web space, and a database at hosting.fr that you can use for Joomla. You know the SFTP or SSH credentials for this web space.
Step 2: Install the Backup Plugin
For the migration, we use the Akeeba plugin. It can be installed via the Joomla Backend. Click on “Extensions” > “Manage” > “Install” in the Backend. You will be directed to the following page:
Go to the “Install from Web Catalog” tab. If “Akeeba Backup” is not already displayed, please search for it using the search function. Then click on it. You will be directed to the following page:
Please click on “Install”. Then, you will need to confirm the installation by clicking “Install” again. Joomla should inform you that the installation was successful.
Step 3: Export Data from the Existing Installation
At your old provider, you need to export the MySQL or MariaDB database data as well as the Joomla files. Start a manual backup in the Backend via the “Settings” > “Akeeba Backup” menu. You will be directed to the following page:
Click on “Configuration Wizard” to allow Akeeba Backup to configure itself automatically. The automatic configuration may take a few minutes, as Akeeba Backup tests, for example, the maximum execution time of PHP scripts on your server. If the configuration is successful, the following message will appear:
Click on “Backup Now” to create a backup. In the next step, you can also enter a description for the backup:
After entering the desired information, please click on “Backup Now!”. This will take some time while the backup is being created. Then, the message “Backup successful” appears. Then click on “Manage Backups”. You will be directed to the following page:
Click on “Download” for the most recent backup and save the backup on your computer.
Step 4: Restore the Backup on the hosting.fr Web Space
To restore the backup on the hosting.fr web space, you can use “Akeeba Kickstart”. This is a PHP script that can directly restore the entire Joomla installation without a prior Joomla installation being necessary.
Download Akeeba’s Kickstarter
Please download the Kickstarter from Akeeba’s site. Unzip the zip file into a folder on your computer.
Upload the Kickstarter to the Web Space Using Filezilla
To transfer the Kickstarter from your old provider to hosting.fr, first download it using the FTP or SFTP client FileZilla with the credentials you received from your old provider. The FileZilla client can be downloaded from the FileZilla project page for Windows, OSX, or Linux. We recommend connecting to FileZilla via the encrypted SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).
Create a Server Profile and Establish Connection to the Web Space in FileZilla
Let’s first create a server profile for:
- Start the FileZilla tool. Create a new server profile in the “Server Manager” under “File” > “Server Manager”.
Click on “New Server”.
Select the “SSH File Transfer Protocol” (SFTP). If SFTP is not available at your old provider, please choose FTP.
Enter under “Server” the server address.
Choose the port. Generally, at hosting.fr, it is port 2244.
Enter the username and password for the web space.
For better readability, you can name the server profile, for example, “new provider”, by selecting the profile on the left in the tree and pressing “F2”.
Finally, click on “OK”.
- FileZilla will ask if you want to save the password for your web space. Please select “Save Password”. We recommend saving the password securely by setting a master password.
Upload the Kickstarter Files
Please restart the server manager. Select the profile you created previously and click on “Connect”. If you have set a master password for FileZilla, you may be asked about it.
FileZilla will then ask if you trust the server’s cryptographic certificate. Select “Always trust this server, save this key.”
After establishing the connection, please navigate through the list of files and folders on the right to the folder on the web space that is the root directory of your respective domain. You can see which folder it is in your domain settings.
Navigate in the left column to the folder where you previously extracted the files from Akeeba’s Kickstarter zip file. Then select the files in this folder. Right-click on the files and select “Download”.
Please wait until the file transfer is complete.
It is also recommended to upload the backup directly to the server via SFTP, as it can be very large. Please navigate in the left column of FileZilla to the folder containing the backup file you previously downloaded from your old installation.
- Upload the .jpa file to the new web space and wait for the upload to complete.
Step 5: Import the Backup Data via the Kickstarter Script
We can now import the backup files with the Kickstarter. To do this, call the Kickstart script in the browser by adding /kickstart.php to the domain, for example by accessing the page https://moved.mustermann-domain.com/kickstart.php. A warning message will appear:
Take note of the instructions and then click on “Click here or press ESC to close this message”. The following page will appear:
Please select your downloaded “Archive File” if it is not automatically detected. Under “Write to files”, choose “Directly”. Then click on “Start”. A progress bar will appear and finally the following message will appear:
Click on “Run the installer”. You will be directed to the following page:
Click on “Next” to configure the database.
Please enter the credentials for your new database at hosting.fr. How to find the credentials at hosting.fr is described in the article “Where to find my database credentials?”. For security, please select the “Backup” option under “With existing tables”. Finally, click on “Next”. If a warning appears indicating that your database contains special characters, click “OK”. If the operation was successful, the following message will appear:
Click now on “Next Step”. You will be directed to the following page:
No further changes are necessary here. Unless, for example, you want to change the site administrator’s password. Please click on “Next”. The following page will appear:
Please now close the window or tab. You should return to the previous tab, which should now be displayed as follows:
Please click on “Clean Up” to complete the migration. Then you will be directed to the following page:
From there, the frontend (website views) or the backend (website management page) can now be opened.
Conclusion
Check the proper functioning of the site in the frontend and backend. The site migration is thus complete.