Magento - Naguel

Migrate a Magento project from any server to Cloudways

12 June, 2021

8 min read

Migrate a Magento project from any server to Cloudways

While the title up there make this post looks like a promoted and/or paid one, that's not the case (I wish), and instead this is an honest appreciation of Cloudways and how it has made my life easy while dealing with servers, specially considering that I don't think myself as an advanced devOps.

Recently at the company I work for we had the task to move an existing Magento project, already in production and publicly accessible, from a server outside Cloudways to a server managed by Cloudways.

What's next is going to be long, and everything described could take around 3 days (one day for the server creation, another day for testing the new instance, and a third day for the actual site moving), depending on your skills.

So let's get to it.

Preparation

Make sure to tick a few boxes before moving forward by checking if you have the following:

Credentials to access the original server over SSH and SFTP, with enough permissions to manipulate files within the web root folder (usually public_html or www), use scp, tar, and cat for server configuration files such as the one for Nginx and Varnish.
Server permissions to use mysqldump to create a database backup, or a way to get your hands on a database backup of the project living on the original server.
Access or a point of contact for managing DNS changes for the project’s domain.
Access to the payment gateway accounts and/or credentials needed to configure the payment methods.

Finally, make sure to identify which third-party services currently connect directly to the server over SFTP or similar, because those will need to be reconfigured to point to the new IP and/or to be given new SFTP credentials.

Create the server in Cloudways

Decide on the server size and create it on Cloudways, making sure to factor in how much space you will need for the database, files, and "maneuver" as you will be moving zipped files from the original server to unzip them later.

Server creation example using a "PHP - Custom App" for a Magento Open Source 2.2

Cloudways offers Magento-ready instances for specific versions. If the project you are moving uses a Magento version already listed in Cloudways you can select this version from the dropdown that appears when creating the server, otherwise make sure to select “PHP - Custom App” instead.

This is important because, for example, if you are moving a Magento 2.2 version to Cloudways you can not select “Magento - Version 2.4.1 (with Elasticsearch)” from the dropdown as this instance will come with Elasticsearch 7 out of the box and you won’t be able to downgrade it to Elasticsearch 6 (which is the required version for Magento 2.2 using ElasticSuite).

If you need to go down the route of selecting “PHP - Custom App”, then you must contact Cloudways Support for them to "flag" this instance as Magento internally, after creating it.

This is because Cloudways offers specific configurations and performance-oriented settings for each type of instance, like an internal logic in place to load the specific Varnish settings a Magento project would require.

Cloudways Support flagging a "PHP - CustomApp" as Magento internally

Whatever the Application type you choose, you still need to contact Cloudways Support to ask them to:

Downgrade Composer from version 2 to 1 by running composer self-update --1 (you can't do it because you don't have enough server permissions to do so).
Install a few Elasticseach plugins by running bin/elasticsearch-plugin install analysis-phonetic; bin/elasticsearch-plugin install analysis-icu; bin/elasticsearch-plugin install analysis-smartcn; on the /usr/share/elasticsearch folder (another thing you won't be able to do due to permissions).

You still need to configure a few bits here and there using the Cloudways Dashboard to make sure you match your project needs, including but not limited to the following items:

PHP version, execution limit, memory limit, error reporting, and timezone.
MySQL version and timezone.
Nginx WAF module to be Cloudflare, Sucuri or disabled.
Elasticsearch version, if needed.
Redis, if needed.
Varnish, if needed.

I can't tell what you need to put in those fields as that depends on the project.

Configure the Application

Inside the "Domain Management" section, make sure to configure the project's domain and all the additional necessary domains (like the ones used for different stores if your Magento project is configured to use multiple websites and stores).

"*Domain Management*" configuration inside "*Application Management*"

Your "SSL Certificate" configuration will depend on what your project needs.

Since you are moving from one server to other, chances are you already have a SSL certificate that you can use, otherwise the Let's Encrypt option is quite good.

If you are using a firewall such as Cloudflare or Sucuri, the certificate might be "living there" already so there's nothing you need to configure here.

Do not add any cron in the "Cron Job Management" section for now.

We'll come back to the "Application Management" configuration later at the end.

Stop crons on the original server

By editing the crontab with crontab -e on the original server, or by contacting the original server hosting provider, disable all the crons by adding # at the beginning of each line.

An example of editing the crons with crontab -e and commenting out every line

This needs to happen before you move any file from the original server to Cloudways, and before the database backup creation.

Technically speaking, you want to avoid Magento to keep on writing any file in, for example, the var folder within the Magento root folder, related to Orders processing or Catalog management (like stock updates), and you want Magento to stop altering tables related also to those entities, which are the usual stuff affected by crons (among many other things).

If, for example, there are pending Order and/or Catalog tasks, they will be taking place in Cloudways after we finish the migration and we enable back the crons on the new server.

Move the files

Make sure to move the pub/media folder from within the Magento root folder, and any other custom folder and file that doesn't live in the repository.

Usually, there are some custom folders and files inside the pub and var folders that are not created automatically.

If you happen to be using Capistrano on the original server you would have a shared folder in the web root. In that case, just move that folder from the original server to Cloudways.

The way I do it is by creating a .tar.gz file with everything in it, but any cache folder...

[user_original]:~$ tar cvzfh shared.tar.gz shared/ --exclude='pub/media/catalog/product/cache';

tar cvzfh filename.tar.gz folder-to-zip/ --exclude='path/to/exclude';

...and then I transfer it from the original server to Cloudways using scp...

[user_original]:~$ scp shared.tar.gz user_cloudways@18.133.133.133:/mnt/data/home/master/applications/example/public_html

scp filename.tar.gz dest_username@123.dest.ip.123:/path/where/to/transfer

Make sure to push this file into the public_html folder in the Cloudways server, so you just need to unzip it there with tar -xvf shared.tar.gz; and then delete it.

Something I would like to do, just in case, after this big move, is to fix any potential permissions issue with the files and folders I just unzipped, by reseting those permissions using the Cloudways Dashboard.

Application Management setting to reset files/folder permissions

Enable Maintenance Mode

Put the site living on the original server into Maintenance Mode by running bin/magento maintenance:enable before proceeding.

For what it's worth, the downtime starts now.

Move the database

Using mysqldump create a database backup on the original server.

[user_original]:~$ mysqldump -uroot -p database_name > database_export.sql;

For security reasons, make sure this happens on a folder not accessible over the browser, like on the private_html folder or anywhere outside the web root.

Once done, push this .sql file to the Cloudways server using scp again.

[user_original]:~$ scp database_export.sql user_cloudways@18.133.133.133:/mnt/data/home/master/applications/example/private_html

scp filename.sql dest_username@123.dest.ip.123:/path/where/to/transfer

For the same security reasons, make sure to push this file to the private_html folder in the Cloudways server.

Once the transfer is completed, and before anything else, you need to remove the DEFINER from the .sql backup to avoid any "Access denied; you need (at least one of) the SUPER privilege(s) for this operation" issue while trying to import it.

Basically, run the following command on the private_html folder in Cloudways (or anywhere you pushed the .sql file before).

[user_cloudways]:~$ sed 's/\sDEFINER=`[^`]*`@`[^`]*`//g' -i database_export.sql;

Now the backup is ready to be imported into the actual database in the new server.

For this to happen you need to contact Cloudways Support with the request.

Cloudways Support handling the database import

After the import, make sure to delete the .sql file.

Configure Magento

By accessing directly to the recently imported database in Cloudways, and not through the Magento Admin Panel, make sure to have the correct details for Varnish and Elasticsearch, keeping in mind that Cloudways uses port 8081 for Varnish, and 127.0.0.1:9200 for Elasticsearch.

Make sure there's no reference in the core_config_data table to the IP for the old server that you might need to change for the IP of the new one.

Go back to the files, and edit the app/etc/env.php file you transferred from the original server to fix the credentials for connecting to the new database living in Cloudways now.

In that same file, correct the details for Redis (if used) keeping in mind that Cloudways uses 127.0.0.1 and 6379 for the host and port, respectively.

Once done, clear cache and reindex to make sure everything is working.

Configure the Application again

Go back to the "Application Management" in the Cloudways Dashboard and configure, in the new server, all the crons you commented out on the original server, making sure to use the right paths for the new server.

Inside the "Application Settings", configure the "WEBROOT" to point to the pub folder from within the Magento root folder.

Point the domain to the new server

First thing first, make sure Magento is still on Maintenance Mode on the new server, and whitelist your IP to be able to access the site (using the bin/magento maintenance:allow-ips command).

Now change the DNS settings to point the project's domain to the new server.

The whole idea is to open the site only for you in order to test it before allowing real customers. So, while the DNS change propagates, some customers will hit the site on the old server (that will show the maintenance page forever and ever), and others will hit the site on the new Cloudways server (that it will also show the maintenance page while you test it).

Now is when you test the site and make sure everything is okay.

Disable Maintenance Mode

Once you are done with the testing open the site, now in Cloudways, to the public, by disabling the Maintenance Mode (with the bin/magento maintenance:disable command).

The downtime ends now.

Missing query string parameters when using Varnish on Magento

13 May, 2021

2 min read

Missing query string parameters when using Varnish on Magento

I had this weird issue a time ago with a simple task that consisted on getting some query string parameters from the URL, from the PHP $_GET variable, to store them in Magento after the Customer places the Order.

What sounded like a very straightforward task got complicated because the $_GET variable was missing some of the those parameters I needed to save.

Debugging this issue made me realise that all the missing parameters where those starting with utm. I was literally going to this example URL...

http://example.com/test.php?utm_source=Source&utm_medium=Medium&utm_content=Content&utm_term=Term&siteId=42689&siteName=naguel.com

...to get the following incomplete output when printing the $_GET variable:

The cause of this issue was Varnish's recommended VCL configuration for Magento that includes the following inside the sub vcl_recv {}.

# Remove all marketing get parameters to minimize the cache objects
    if (req.url ~ "(\?|&)(gclid|cx|ie|cof|siteurl|zanpid|origin|fbclid|mc_[a-z]+|utm_[a-z]+|_bta_[a-z]+)=") {
        set req.url = regsuball(req.url, "(gclid|cx|ie|cof|siteurl|zanpid|origin|fbclid|mc_[a-z]+|utm_[a-z]+|_bta_[a-z]+)=[-_A-z0-9+()%.]+&?", "");
        set req.url = regsub(req.url, "[?|&]+$", "");
}

That was literally subtracting all marketing-related GET parameters from the URL, including those starting with utm_.

The solution is quite simple: remove the utm_[a-z]+ from the if conditional and restart Varnish to apply the changes.

UTM parameters?

UTM stands for "Urchin Tracking Module" (who cares, right?), which are basically marketing-related parameters to track marketing campaigns, and to know how people interact with the site.

In my case I was dealing with them because of a Rakuten integration with Magento.

More information on what they are and what we can do with them can be found on "The Ultimate Guide to Using UTM Parameters" post from Neil Patel's blog.

Magento Magento 2 PHP Varnish Rakuten

Proper way to configure asynchronous email sending in Magento

15 March, 2021

2 min read

Proper way to configure asynchronous email sending in Magento

There are two ways to configure how Magento send order related emails (order confirmation, invoice, shipment and credit memo emails):

Either immediately when an action is performed (for example, right after you place an order).
Or cron-based (asynchronous).

Magento itself recommends to configure this to be asynchronous for performance reasons, so the email dispatch process doesn't block nor delay what the customer is doing (for example, less time consumption when the customer is placing an order), or to avoid long cron runs (or total crons block) when an ERP is updating orders status in bulk.

Enabling the “Asynchronous email notifications” setting moves processes that handle checkout and order processing email notifications to the background.

Configuration best practices by Magento

For my personal experience, it is also recommended to configure emails sending to be asynchronous to avoid having unsent emails.

When this is configured as immediately (not async), if an email fails to be dispatched because of any reason (like a server timeout) then Magento won’t try to send that email again in the future and the customer won’t be ever notified of his/her action.

Basically, there are a lot of good reasons to have this to be async.

Before setting this up

If you are going live for the first time on a new site there's not much to worry about, but if you are changing this setting from not-async to cron-based on an already live site then there's something to consider first.

The way this works when it's configured to be async is that Magento will rely on a cron to pick up from the database (from those tables related to Orders, Invoices, Shipments and Credit Memos) all those entities where the email was not dispatched, and it will send it.

Problem is that Magento doesn't care much about the date of those entities.

For example, if there’s an Order from 2019 whose order confirmation email was not sent because of any reason (for example, because there was a PHP error that stopped the execution), the cron will now pick this Order up and Magento will send the email related to that order.

To avoid this behaviour we should mark all pending emails from Orders, Invoices, Shipments, and Credit Memos as if they doesn't need to be dispatched, which can be done by executing the following SQL statements before enabling the asynchronous sending.

UPDATE sales_order SET send_email = 0;
UPDATE sales_invoice SET send_email = 0;
UPDATE sales_shipment SET send_email = 0;
UPDATE sales_creditmemo	 SET send_email = 0;

What we are doing here is ignoring the sending of emails for old Orders (and Invoices, Shipments and Credit Memos) so when we change this to be async the cron will only cares for future stuff.

Changing the configuration

Enable the “Asynchronous sending” option under “Stores → Settings → All Stores → Sales → Sales Email → General Settings”.

Magento Magento 2 Performance

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