Re: best practice in upgrading db structure

SunWuKing.....

> Could somebody explain me, or point me to a resource where I can find
> out what is the recommended practice when a live db needs to be replaced
> with a new version of it that has a slightly different structure?

Put the new database on a development machine.

Do a dump of the old database and ftp it to the new machine. Hopefully
you don't have terrabytes of data.....

Play around with the development machine, learning all the ins and outs,
the good, bad, and the ugly, about the new database, etc. Meanwhile, your
production server is still running untouched and doing it's job.

Maybe you even have to prepare by writing a script to quickly inport the
old data into the new machine.....

Once you figure out what your plan is, you stop updating your old server,
then do a final dump and inport it into the development server, then you
make that your development server the live server, by changing ip, or
changing the DNS, or something, depends on how you are reaching it now and
where from.

But the main thing is do plenty of experimentation before hand, while the
old server is still online and functioning. Make your mistakes when
nobody is watching!!!!

brew

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