Fresh installation from pretty old installation - How will it work?

[kon]

Hello,

Our first WHMCS installation was made back in 2011. Ever since we have made multiple server migrations and folder changes until today but we kept that same installation. Of course we've been making every single update as suggested.

We've been adding stuff, deleting stuff more times than i can remember. One thing that was not done throughout this decade was documenting every single change we made.

Now we'd like to change that by making a fresh installation. The new installation will be done on a new subdomain and we 'd like to transfer over client info, modules and integrations step by step. The IP address won't change. This way we will delete unnecessary hooks, addons and most importantly any junk from the database.

Have any of you oldies done the process before? I can't think specifically how the license part will work. Could we use the testing license, make all the changes and migrations there and then change the testing license to the production one?

 

Would really like to know what you think and what your experience is. 🙂

Edited November 26, 2023 by kon

[Grizzlyware Josh]

Hi @kon

That's old, and quite an achievement for the same installation!

I would probably recommenced getting your installation into source control/Git if it's not already, and setting up a local or staging development area.

Copy (and prune sensitive information) the DB into staging/local (using something like Docker or Vagrant), and slowly write migrations using something like Phinx (database changes as code).

Then you could eventually (or incrementally) deploy those changes to your production install, and use source control and a deployment process to automate future changes, with Git documenting each change automatically.

I wouldn't wipe the install and move things over, unless you really do want a vanilla installation with zero customisations. Even then, you might struggle to import the data if you've manually edited the WHMCS table schema over time.

As for licensing, you can get a development license from WHMCS free of charge 🙂

Edited November 29, 2023 by Grizzlyware Josh
Dev license

[kon]

Hi @Grizzlyware Josh

Thank you for your suggestions! Much appreciated!

We'll give them a try and if the learning curve isn't long enough (phinx), we'll go with it.

If you think of any simpler approach, we'd be more than welcome to read it 🙂