This tutorial is for Joomla! CMS Version(s)
Copying a Joomla! website is a two-part process: you must copy the
files and you must copy the database (which is where the content is
stored). Copying the files and copying the database are separate
operations. Which you carry out first will depend on your particular
circumstances but in most cases it does not really matter. If your
website is being updated frequently and you need to take your website
offline while the copy takes place then you will probably want to
perform the database copy last so as to minimize downtime.
Copying a website (common method)
Copying the files with FTP
One method of copying the files from one Joomla! installation to
another is to use standard desktop FTP software to first download all of
the files comprising your Web site from their location on your Web
server, then upload these files to the location of the new Joomla!
installation. Depending on where you're placing the copy of your
Joomla! site, the new location could be a different directory on the
same Web server, or it could be a new location on a completely different
Web server.
It is important to maintain the same directory structure for all
of your folders and files as you move them from one location to another.
Fortunately, desktop FTP software will handle this automatically as you
upload and download sets of files and folders. (Your FTP software
should contain Help documentation which explains FTP and how to use the
FTP software interface.)
Note that after you move the files from one location to another,
you may still need to edit Joomla! configuration files to get your copy
of Joomla! working at the new location; you may also need to change
settings for aspects of your Web server to get the copy of your Joomla!
site working.
In rare instances, a file may become corrupted during an FTP
transfer, where only part of the file is successfully transmitted. If
you encounter strange or unexpected errors with your new Joomla!
installation after you copy over the files, you may want to try
re-uploading your files in case of corruption during transfer.
Download files from server to your computer
- Use FTP software (e.g. FileZilla) to connect to the server
- Select the directory you want to download (mostly /public_html/ or /htdocs/)
- Right click + select files/folder to download, or drag + drop the folder from the "Remote site" view to the "Local site" view
- The downloading of the remote files will start
- After you've downloaded the files, check the "Failed transfers" to see if there weren't any errors
Upload files from your computer to a server
- Make sure that configuration.php has the right settings for the
server (especially: localhost, database, database user, database
password, log_path, tmp_path)
- Use FTP software (e.g. FileZilla) to connect to the server
- Select the directory you want to upload, and to where (mostly to /public_html/ or /htdocs/)
- Right click + select files/folder to upload, or drag + drop the folder from the "Local site" view to the "Remote site" view
- The uploading of the local files to the remote server will start
- After you've uploaded the files, check the "Failed transfers" to see if there weren't any errors
Copying the database with phpMyAdmin
The phpMyAdmin tool can be used to export and import a database,
providing a simple way to duplicate a copy of a database using a
different name on our servers.
Exporting a copy of the database to your computer
- Login to the database that you want to duplicate using phpMyAdmin
- Click the database name on the left-hand side of the page.
- Select the Export tab
- Select the Save as file option
- Click Go
You'll then be prompted to save the database file on your personal computer.
Importing the copy into a new database
You'll first need to create the new, empty database on your server
using the account control panel. It needs to be UTF8 (utf8_generic_ci).
After the new database has been created:
- Login to the new database using phpMyAdmin
- Click the database name on the left-hand side of the page
- Select the Import tab
- Click the Browse button under "File to import", then select the database file from your computer
- Click Go to import the database
- Hint: If you see a "No database selected" error, it's
probably because you forgot to first click on the database name in the
left-hand column.
Changing configuration.php
In order to get Joomla to work on the new server, you should make the
necessary changes in configuration.php to reflect the new server
settings.
You should check/edit the following to
var $host = 'localhost'; // usually "localhost". If it's different for your server then your hosting provider should be able to tell you that.
var $user = 'the_db_username';
var $db = 'the_databasename';
var $password = 'the_db_password';
var $live_site = ''; // is usually empty.
Joomla will work, even if $log_path and $tmp_path are wrong, though you won't be able to install extensions.
Login into the back-end of your new Joomla site.
In Joomla 1.5 goto: Help > System Info > Directory Permissions. Look at the bottom 4 rows:
Cache Directory /var/www/example.com/cache/ Writable
Cache Directory /var/www/example.com/administrator/cache/ Writable
Log Directory ($log_path) /var/www/some/other/folder/example.com/logs/ Unwritable
Temp Directory ($tmp_path) /var/www/some/other/folder/example.com/ Unwritable
If the $log_path and $tmp_path are "Unwritable", you'll need to change the values in configuration.php.
Use the values of the "Cache Directory" without the "/cache/" part and change $log_path and $tmp_path to
var $log_path = '/var/www/example.com/logs';
var $tmp_path = '/var/www/example.com/tmp';
If the Directory Permissions show that $log_path and $tmp_path are "Writable", then you should be able to install extensions.
Copying a website using SSH command line (method for experienced users)
Copying the files using a compressed archive file method
Copying a large number of individual files using FTP can sometimes be
unreliable. If you have command-line access to the both source and
destination systems then you can create a compressed archive file
containing all the files on the source system, then transfer that single
file to the destination system where it can be decompressed.
Creating an archive file
On Unix-style systems (eg. Linux) you can use the
gzip program to create .zip files, or the
tar program to create .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 files. For detailed instructions type
man gzip or
man tar at the command line. For example,
tar cvfz joomlabackup.tar.gz /path-to-joomla
will create a gzip-compressed archive file, called
joomlabackup.tar.gz, containing all of the files in your Joomla! installation.
Important note! You need to make sure you are NOT in the
folder you are trying to backup when you run the tar command or you will
create an endless loop.
Having copied the archive file to the destination system, you now
need to unpack it. Use the equivalent command that you used to create
the archive file. For example, to unpack the archive file created in
the example above, enter
cd /path-to-joomla
tar xvfz joomlabackup.tar.gz
If the user or group IDs are not the same between the source and
destination systems, then you will need to amend the ownership of the
files you just extracted. For example, on an Apache system, you might
need to enter the command
cd /path-to-joomla
chown -R www-group.www-user *
so that Apache has ownership of the Joomla! files.
- Please ask your hosting provider for the correct group and user names, www-group and www-user, on your system.
Copying the database with MySQL command line method
Usually you run
mysqldump to create a database copy:
$ mysqldump -u user -p db-name > db-name.out
Copy
db-name.out file using sftp/ssh to remote MySQL server:
$ scp db-name.out user@remote.box.com:/backup
Restore database at remote server (login over ssh):
$ mysql -u user -p db-name < db-name.out
Special Notes
Tools
Akeeba
- Akeeba Backup produces a .jpa file
- The .jpa file contains all the folders/files and database files.
- The .jpa file also contains an installer
- Kickstart.php (from Akeeba) unpacks the .jpa file
- You then run the installer and install your site like a Joomla install.
- The installer changes the configuration for restoring to a different location and prompts for the new database details.
After you create the Database for your Joomla download and install Akeeba, it can be download from
Joomla extension directory. There is a link to full instructions there as well.
GoDaddy.com Migrations
If using GoDaddy.com, different steps are required for import to be
successful. In the Database section of the hosting control panel, find
the database you wish to export and click the "edit details" icon (the
little pencil). From there you will see a toolbar menu at the top with
the option to Backup the database. Select that option and backup the SQL
database to a _db_backups folder.
To import, go to the new hosting panel (if still using Go
Daddy)and navigate to the new database you are importing to, following
the same steps for export. This time, click on Restore in the menu and
select the previously backed up database. After a few minutes, your
database will be as good as before.
Source:
http://docs.joomla.org/Copying_a_Joomla_website 
