Transfer of data form 1.5 to newer... need help.

Transfer of data form 1.5 to newer... need help.

by Craig Hardenbrook -
Number of replies: 3

We have recently downloaded the newer versions of moodle to upgrade.  We have been running version 1.5 and I noticed it is best to upgrade to 1.6, then 1.7, to 1.8 but the problem I am facing is the conversion of data to the new format. 

What we did was install a new copy of 1.6 and tried to do a restore from the backups we created in 1.5.  I moved a copy of the backup .zip file into the backupdata folder of the new Moodle install and it appears when trying to do a restore.  I run into 2 different errors.  One is that the data is not in Utf-8 and the other is that the files are too large.  I have searched for workarounds and found a couple but none have worked for me. 

Any tips would be appreciated.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Craig Hardenbrook

Re: Transfer of data form 1.5 to newer... need help.

by Fredrik Pedersen-Dambo -

Hi, I also need a solution for this.
Is it possible to do a upgrade all the steps offline with the Windows packages?
I mean like this:
Import course zipfiles in 1.5 (is the windows package for 1.5 still available?) and do the upgrade procedure to 1.6. Then to 1.7 and finally to 1.8 and then backup the course files to upload them to a fresh onlineinstallation of 1.8 with a new database?

I guess that cron must run locally if this solution is possible?

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Craig Hardenbrook

Re: Transfer of data form 1.5 to newer... need help.

by Sandra King -
Hello, I did this over the summer.

In order to successfully backup and upgrade I created a complete duplicate of everything (renaming it with the version number of moodle it was from).

I then followed the directions to upgrade to 1.6, this overwrote the original moodle folder and modified the moodledata and the database. (you don't have to move backups if you do this)

I followed the directions to update the data to UTF-8, and once the computer agreed that moodle1.6 was working I went to 1.7 and then to 1.8.

At each step I created a duplicate of the final version so that if I had a problem I didn't have to go back to the beginning again.

When I was done my htdocs looked like this...

/moodle
/moodle1.5
/moodle1.6
/moodle1.7
/moodle1.8

where I store moodledata looked like this.

/moodledata
/moodledata1.5
/moodledata1.6
/moodledata1.7
/moodledata1.8

and my database looked like this
moodle
moodle_15
moodle_16
moodle_17
moodle_18

The version with the standard name ended up in Moodle1.8 and all of the others are redundant backups. Of course the directions tell you to tar the files as back ups, but then if you have a problem, you have to untar the file. and if you aren't careful it overwrites the other version of the folder.

Obviously you don't need all of the backups once the process is complete you can delete all of the extras.

Make sure that if you do any thing with one of the other folders (backups) you edit the config.php so that it is pulling info from the correct version of the moodledata and the database.

Any way, I hope this helps.
Sandra King
Average of ratings: -