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Moving to a Different Server


ActiveCollab can be moved between servers. Before moving, make sure the new server meets the minimum system requirements.

  • Install a fresh copy of ActiveCollab. Log into the system and click through to confirm that it works correctly. There's no need to do any extra configuration at this point because you'll overwrite that with later steps,
  • Migrate application unique key. Each fresh setup is installed with an unique key. For data to be fully migrated, this key also has to be moved,
    Open config/config.php of your old system and look for a declaration of APPLICATION_UNIQUE_KEY. If you find it, copy its value. If not, copy the LICENSE_KEY value,
    Once you have the key, open config/config.php of the new installation and update APPLICATION_UNIQUE_KEY with the value that you extracted from the old system.
  • Migrate database. Export the database in SQL format (using the command or mysqldump utility). If you're running v 5.13.133 or later, the export command should be available to you:
php tasks/activecollab-cli.php export_data_for_migration
  • Prior to continuing, there is a little tweak that you might need to perform. Open SQL file and search for TRIGGER statements. If there's a DEFINER piece there, remove it, so you end up with plain CREATE TRIGGER statements, with nothing between the two words.
    Once the SQL statements are cleaned up and saved, empty the database on the new server, and import the data. Use the command line to run these commands:
# Go to directory where SQL file is
cd /path/to/dir/where/sql/file/is
# Connect to database
mysql -u YOUR_MYSQL_USERNAME -p --default-character-set=utf8mb4 YOUR_DATABASE_NAME
# Set connection encoding and import the data
mysql > SET NAMES 'utf8mb4';
mysql > SOURCE data.sql;
  • Migrate files. Pack the entire /upload directory. Upload it to the new server in place of empty /upload directory of the new installation. Change permissions to match the user and group of the rest of the ActiveCollab system, and make sure that permissions are such that PHP can write to that directory.
  • Empty /compile and /cache folders. Only leave .htaccess file in them.
  • Run migrations. Database structure that you just imported may not match the structure of the latest ActiveCollab that you installed, so you need to run database migrations. In order to do that, using command line cd to directory where ActiveCollab is installed, and run this command:
php tasks/activecollab-cli.php upgrade --dont-download-latest

Don't tolerate errors. This should run all green. If you get an error, get in touch with our support team.

  • Complete the configuration. You do this by configuring cron, email, search and add-ons.




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