G2 - not really good when it comes to reinstalling

technobilder

Joined: 2003-02-09
Posts: 214
Posted: Fri, 2006-01-06 15:38

I ran into the problem, that my G2.0.2 installation had an error with the email notifier script. So I upgraded to the daily snapshot that should fix the error.

Fatal - the upgrade didn't work and my G2 was unacessible.

Downgrading by installing the original 2.0.2 files wasn't possible as the upgrader said that newer files were installed. :-(
I didn't know which G2 DB tables to empty or to reset (how) ?

After all I had to remove my installation - 90.000 indexed pictures.
Migration my old G1 took 3 days, deleting everything on my managed server by FTP another 2. And now I have to migrate new - again 3 days work.

It cannot be true that there's no way to step back if an upgrade fails !
The upgrader must have a possibility to overwrite data in the DB for this case.
At the moment there would be no fallback possibility if G2.0.3 would have an error when becoming available.

So please provide a solution that a "downgrade" installation get's possible without loosing the g2data and DB tables at all.
 
valiant

Joined: 2003-01-04
Posts: 32509
Posted: Fri, 2006-01-06 15:54
Quote:
It cannot be true that there's no way to step back if an upgrade fails !

that's why there's an explicit step in the upgrade instructions to backup.
even in the upgrader there's a message that you should backup before proceeding.

periodic backups should be on your agenda anyway, I do that for all my web applications (phpbb, g2, ..).

Quote:
The upgrader must have a possibility to overwrite data in the DB for this case.
At the moment there would be no fallback possibility if G2.0.3 would have an error when becoming available.

So please provide a solution that a "downgrade" installation get's possible without loosing the g2data and DB tables at all.

no, we can't. in the upgrade code, we often change the database schema and we change sometimes even data.
there's no easy way to downgrade, we'd have to invest quite some development resources into it.
but that doesn0't make sense at all.
instead, we continue to recommend / instruct our users to backup often and especially before upgrades.
usually nothing should happen, but if something happens and if you have a backup, you can just restore your backup and try again or wait until a related problem has been fixed.

of course i'm sorry for the time that you've lost, but i'm pretty sure one could have saved your g2 unless it was really badly broken.
i had some disk crashes and lost all my data before i have learnt to backup the data that means something to me. maybe you should start doing backups for your valuable data too.
 
technobilder

Joined: 2003-02-09
Posts: 214
Posted: Fri, 2006-01-06 16:51

Backup: Hey I have only a managed server at my ISP. I don't run my G2 from at home. At home I only have 256KB/48KB DSL. And my Gallery is 90.000 pictures - making 8GB of data. Would you like doing a backup with these parameters? And I guess not anybody using G2 has his server and broadband connection at home.

As far as I think G2 is meant for larger installations, so you should provide a solution for those people have no access to a private server/broadband solution.

 
valiant

Joined: 2003-01-04
Posts: 32509
Posted: Fri, 2006-01-06 21:15

i'm using a cheap shared webhost too. from time to time i do a backup, downloading the whole thing. you could do a differential backup, only download what you not already have locally.
not having a backup of data you depend on is a bad idea anyway. obviously the data doesn't mean a lot to you, else you would care. and to care about data is making sure that even if your webhost has a fatal failure, you don't lose your valuable data. you have it in your own hands.

besides: you don't have to download and reupload the whole x GB of album data to rebuild your g2. you can just use the "add items -> from server" method to add the data with a few clicks into a fresh new g2.
 
technobilder

Joined: 2003-02-09
Posts: 214
Posted: Sun, 2006-01-15 17:14

Ok, with the new album structure it's easier to "backup", as I can do it incrementally.
But which data in the g2data dir are essential?
I backup "albums" - bon't need the cache and tmp dir - but which dir/files do I have to backup too incrementally?
 
valiant

Joined: 2003-01-04
Posts: 32509
Posted: Sun, 2006-01-15 17:32

the whole structure is essential, but only g2data/albums/ , g2data/plugins , g2data/plugins_data and versions.dat must be backed up. g2data/cache/derivative/ is computationally expensive to regenerate, so you might want to back it up too.

see:
http://codex.gallery2.org/index.php/Gallery2:How_To_Restore_From_Backup
 
technobilder

Joined: 2003-02-09
Posts: 214
Posted: Sat, 2006-01-21 19:16

Hm, I don't have g2data/plugins only plugins_data. But as my G2 works I think this isn't essential.

How time consuming is it to regenerate cache/deriative if I don't have a backup? As it consists of many thousand small files it takes ages to backup by FTP.

It would be good if you could supply a script for that can duplicate the gallery2 and g2data directorys. I looked around on the web but didn't find anything good. As I'm no coder I don't know which script is best.
It would be ok if the files get duplicated/copied to a new dir by a configurable path.

 
valiant

Joined: 2003-01-04
Posts: 32509
Posted: Sat, 2006-01-21 22:19

g2data/plugins_data is essential. without, e.g. all your watermarked images will give errors in g2. just keep that folder.
@regenerating cache/derivative:
for 10gb images? maybe 4 hours, maybe a day, don't know.