Update recommendations and troubleshooting

If something goes wrong with the update, it is in almost all cases related to the Apache or Nginx configuration on the host, and NOT Docker and the running containers!

If you are not familiar with your Apache/Nginx configuration (including https), or need to ensure only a minimal downtime, the recommendation will be always to do the painless new installation on a new host and then an migration of your database and files to the new host! Same is true if your old hosts Linux version is no longer supported from it's distribution.

Requirements for the update to succeed

The update operates under the assumption you have NOT changed any of the following:

• files or backup directory (/var/lib/egroupware/default/files or /var/lib/egrouware/default/backup)
• your database runs on the host AND you use "localhost" as "db_host in header.inc.php
• your EGroupware runs under http(s)://your.domain/egroupware (Setup >> Konfiguration >> Webserver URL: /egroupware).
• with the exception of MariaDB/MySQL no other service (LDAP, IMAP, PostgreSQL) uses a host-name of localhost

If you changed anything of the above, you either need to change it back to the default locations, or you need to fix your installation after the update. EGroupware will fail after the update without any further changes!

How to migrate your data from an existing 17.1 or older installation

1. do a new installation as described for the distribution of the new host
2. enable https using Let's Encrypt following the exzellent instructs from eg. Digital Ocean for Apache or Nginx or take a look at SSL Encryption with Let’s Encrypt in the forum
3. make a database backup inside your old EGroupware using Administration >> Database backup and restore
4. rsync the files and backups from the old installation to the new server, run on the new server the following commands:

rsync -av --delete root@<ip-of-old-server>:/var/lib/egroupware/default/ /var/lib/egroupware/default/
chown -R 33:33 /var/lib/egroupware/default

5. log into the new EGroupware using the generated sysop user and go to Administration >> Database backup and restore and restore the last backup you rsynced to the new server
6. you can repeat steps 3. to 5. multiple times, until you are ready to use the new system productively