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wpkitchen
Member
—
7th December 2011 (5 months ago)
I'm asked to merge two multisite installations. The goal is, to get all the blogs hosted on *.server1.com over on server2.com Each server has 40 blogs to start out with, so server2 will end up with 80 blogs.
I'm interested in hearing from anyone who may have tried something like this, and to get their general ideas on how to best approach it, or to hear about any experiences others may have.
I'm asked to merge two multisite installations. The goal is, to get all the blogs hosted on *.server1.com over on server2.com Each server has 40 blogs to start out with, so server2 will end up with 80 blogs.
I'm interested in hearing from anyone who may have tried something like this, and to get their general ideas on how to best approach it, or to hear about any experiences others may have.
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Sales & Support Pro
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7th December 2011 (5 months ago)
#
Hiya!
I think the best way to go about this would be to use the import/export feature and do each sub-site one-by-one.
There will be a fair amount of manual moving for each though, such as;
- links
- users (you'll need to create new accounts, with new passwords)
- plugin and theme settings
Hi @phil, thanks for your input. But why not handle it more automated, operating on the DB directly? It seems to me, that the process you suggest will be so time comsuming, that it should only be a last resort. Also, though it could work for 40 blogs if the budget allows for the manual labour, what if the project had been to merge to sites with thousands of blogs each?
I have been looking for a solution for this for over a year, as well. I tried merging the databases with mixed results. I manually changed the user ID's to prevent them from being duplicated in the database, but I was unsuccessful.
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Member par excellence
—
28th December 2011 (4 months ago)
#
@Phil That was the way i did BlogLines.co.za and about 70 MU sites
I took the 70 MU sites each had about 100 blogs on then I then export then the files and then i went to BlogLines.co.za and i started setting them up one by one and when i was done i then with the sites i then started to use domain mapping to map all the sites to there new blogs
SO it worked
Gym4me.com was on the server but not on BlogLines.co.za
So i set up gym4me.bloglines.co.za and then imported all the contented
I also ran Cache Images
I then Added gym4me.com to domain mapping
I then removed the site from the server Ie Deleted the account
I then logged in to cpanel an i parked the domain as well as add a * wild card
So Yes it is doable but it was a lot of work but the +1 is i now have BlogLines.co.za to update and i no longer have to updated the 70 Mu Sites
A Lot of work yes but in the long run a big time saver
I agree there's alot of work doing them one by one, but if that's what I have to do I'll do it. My problem with that is that I will need to create a new account with a new password for each blogger. How did you solve that issue? Did you simply let them have a new account/password or did you somehow create accounts with the same userinfo as before?
Also, does theme settings come with the export/import feature?
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Support Chimp
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29th December 2011 (4 months ago)
#
Hi wpkitchen.
The issue is not so much importing the content and the sites but matching up the articles and content to the appropriate Id.
If you wanted an automated way you would need some custom queries to give users of server1 new unique ids not used currently on server2, you would also need to find articles by uid and change that uid to the new uid.
You will also need to update site IDs to ensure there are no conflicts with existing sites on the install you are merging with.
If I go for the manual method, as suggested by @phil, will it take care of comments as well (are they exported and imported too)?
And what about attachments (images) in posts? I know they can be fetched and imported as part of the process, but will it handle it if there are alrready images in the media library with conflicting file names?
I'm going to make a try with backupbuddy. Blogs with identical names will not be imported though. I will import those one by one.
After import, I will move the first domain to point to the second install, and install the multi-domain plugin. Unfortunately the domain name can not be changed in the CP, so I will need to change it in the DB on the imported blogs as they will have a different domain name than the install they have been imported on,
Responses (9)
Sales & Support Pro — 7th December 2011 (5 months ago) #
Hiya!
I think the best way to go about this would be to use the import/export feature and do each sub-site one-by-one.
There will be a fair amount of manual moving for each though, such as;
- links
- users (you'll need to create new accounts, with new passwords)
- plugin and theme settings
Thanks,
Phil
Member — 8th December 2011 (5 months ago) #
Hi @phil, thanks for your input. But why not handle it more automated, operating on the DB directly? It seems to me, that the process you suggest will be so time comsuming, that it should only be a last resort. Also, though it could work for 40 blogs if the budget allows for the manual labour, what if the project had been to merge to sites with thousands of blogs each?
Member — 28th December 2011 (4 months ago) #
I have been looking for a solution for this for over a year, as well. I tried merging the databases with mixed results. I manually changed the user ID's to prevent them from being duplicated in the database, but I was unsuccessful.
Member par excellence — 28th December 2011 (4 months ago) #
@Phil That was the way i did BlogLines.co.za and about 70 MU sites
I took the 70 MU sites each had about 100 blogs on then I then export then the files and then i went to BlogLines.co.za and i started setting them up one by one and when i was done i then with the sites i then started to use domain mapping to map all the sites to there new blogs
SO it worked
Gym4me.com was on the server but not on BlogLines.co.za
So i set up gym4me.bloglines.co.za and then imported all the contented
I also ran Cache Images
I then Added gym4me.com to domain mapping
I then removed the site from the server Ie Deleted the account
I then logged in to cpanel an i parked the domain as well as add a * wild card
So Yes it is doable but it was a lot of work but the +1 is i now have BlogLines.co.za to update and i no longer have to updated the 70 Mu Sites
A Lot of work yes but in the long run a big time saver
Member — 28th December 2011 (4 months ago) #
I agree there's alot of work doing them one by one, but if that's what I have to do I'll do it. My problem with that is that I will need to create a new account with a new password for each blogger. How did you solve that issue? Did you simply let them have a new account/password or did you somehow create accounts with the same userinfo as before?
Also, does theme settings come with the export/import feature?
Member — 29th December 2011 (4 months ago) #
Backup buddy could probably be used for this purpose. It's not free but if it works it's worth it. I'm gonna check it out.
Support Chimp — 29th December 2011 (4 months ago) #
Hi wpkitchen.
The issue is not so much importing the content and the sites but matching up the articles and content to the appropriate Id.
If you wanted an automated way you would need some custom queries to give users of server1 new unique ids not used currently on server2, you would also need to find articles by uid and change that uid to the new uid.
You will also need to update site IDs to ensure there are no conflicts with existing sites on the install you are merging with.
Here is a link on multiple installs (not MU):
http://codex.wordpress.org/Migrating_Multiple_Blogs_into_WordPress_3.0_Multisite
As mentioned, you might like to consider Backup Buddy, I've not used it but if you wish to take a peek:
http://pluginbuddy.com/5-reasons-to-love-backupbuddy-with-new-wordpress-multisite-support/
Take care
Member — 2nd January 2012 (4 months ago) #
If I go for the manual method, as suggested by @phil, will it take care of comments as well (are they exported and imported too)?
And what about attachments (images) in posts? I know they can be fetched and imported as part of the process, but will it handle it if there are alrready images in the media library with conflicting file names?
Member — 9th January 2012 (4 months ago) #
I'm going to make a try with backupbuddy. Blogs with identical names will not be imported though. I will import those one by one.
After import, I will move the first domain to point to the second install, and install the multi-domain plugin. Unfortunately the domain name can not be changed in the CP, so I will need to change it in the DB on the imported blogs as they will have a different domain name than the install they have been imported on,
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