Introduction:
Upgrading a working Drupal installation could be a hair raising experience. I am going to narrate a fool proof way of upgrading your Drupal 7 installation to the current version 7.2.
Methods available for upgradation:
1. Via the fantastico program in your c panel. This could be easy and could work out for certain minor upgrades. Let me warn you it is the most unreliable method to perform an upgrade.
2. Manual upgrade is the most efficient and reliable option. I am going to describe the manual method of upgrading drupal 7 to drupal 7.2. This type of upgrade is considered to by a minor one as it contains only certain important security patches and bug fixes.
Step one:
Backup!!!!!!!!!
The most important step. You need to back up your entire drupal installation (to be rock safe) and the entire data base.
How to back up the entire drupal site?
For this you need to have a FTP client. Filezilla is a free and very useful ftp client.
You can download Filezilla from here.
After download is complete install it.
*you have separate versions for windows and linux
Choose the correct version for your operating system. Install the ftp client.
Key in your FTP address, user name and password. You can leave the port empty no problem the client will do it for you. After logging into your website server migrate to the folder in which your drupal installation is installed. If it is the root folder you need to back up the entire public html folder. If it has been installed in a subdomain then the installation folder should be completely backed up.
After backing up your Drupal installation using FTP client like Filezilla the data base needs to be backed up. It is in the database that the articles are stored.
How to back up your drupal database?
In order to backup the database you can make use of the Backup / Migrate module which is available in drupal 7. You can download this module from here. You need to have installed and enabled this module. If you have not done it is high time you do it now. For backing up the drupal database you need to log into your Drupal site using your administrator account.
1. Click the configuration button which could be seen on top of the page
2. Click on the menu Backup and migrate
3. In the next page specify the download location (from your local computer) Usually the default backup folder would be download.
4. Choose back up. Now you will see a dump of the drupal 7 database in your local computer. This database backup can be restored at anytime when you need it just by going again to the backup / migrate module and clicking the restore button.
Downloading Drupal 7.2:
You can download the current version from here.
If you are using microsoft windows then choose the .zip version of the file.
If you are using linux operating system then choose .tar version of the file.
These are nothing but varying zip formats.
Unzipping the downloaded Drupal 7.2 installation:
Now is the time to unpack the goodies. Right click on the file and unzip the files to your convenient location. Usually Desktop is the most obvious location. Don’t think I need to explain the unzipping process in detail. I assume the reader would be fully conversant with unzipping procedure.
Uploading unzipped files to the webserver:
These unzipped files should be uploaded to your webserver using the FTP client. Preferably Filezilla.
These files should go into the same folder where the earlier version of Drupal is installed. Upload
all the files except the following ones:
1. .htaccess
2. Sites (this is a folder)
3. robots. txt
It is important not to copy these files to your webserver.
Now is the time for real action. Log in to your Drupal 7 site using Administrator username and password.
Click on the modlules link. In the modules page disable all the non core modules.
You should make a careful note of all modules (non core) which you are disabling because you need to re enable them after the upgrade is over. Don’t log out of the site. Keep the logged in browser window. Minimize that window if necessary.
Open a new tab in your browser and type the url of your site. “wwww.example.com” replace example with the exact name of your site. Now key in www.example.com/update.php. This should take you to the web based update window. Just follow on screen instructions. Finally you will get a confirmation that your upgrade is over.
If you are unable to access update.php file please follow these steps:
Open the settings.php file from your downloaded installation using any text editor. Look out for the line “$update_free_access = FALSE; and change the FALSE to TRUE. Save the file and reupload it to your webserver using the FTP client. Now try out www.example.com/update.php. You should be able to proceed further.
After update is over then go to the minimized administration window of your website and uncheck the maintenance mode. Re enable the modules which you have disabled. Save these settings.
You have completed the upgrade isn’t it?
#1 by nikos on June 13, 2011 - 9:11 am
hi, nice article.
I have a couple of questions -I hope you have time to answer them.
(a) In my unzipped 7.2 folder I can’t find any “htaccess” file in order to remove it and not upload it at my server (hostgator) as you indicate. Is it normal? I guess it is.
so,
(b) I guess when I use ftp program to upload the files, it will ask me if I want to overwrite previous with same name or not. What do I answer?
Thanks in advance
N.
#2 by drtbalu on June 13, 2011 - 10:49 am
You need to give yes when the ftp client asks permission to rewrite the file. ht access file will be found in your server.
#3 by nikos on June 14, 2011 - 9:33 pm
Hi again
I just updated succesfully to 7.2 following your instructions. The only problem was that I had to go to php.ini and disable register_globals (set to off) and then copy the php.ini file at my public_html folder as well. I would like to say this, in case some other guy encounters the same problem.
#4 by uwe on June 16, 2011 - 9:46 pm
thank you Nikos,
I had the same problem with my hostgator account. Your tip fixed it!
#5 by nikos on June 20, 2011 - 4:47 pm
Nice to hear!
#6 by Troy Black on June 27, 2011 - 9:12 am
Well Done, Works a treat on the manual install.
#7 by Joe O. on June 27, 2011 - 3:39 pm
Thanks so much, this was exactly the kind of walk through I needed.
#8 by Nate on June 30, 2011 - 5:03 pm
I just used this to upgrade from 7.2 => 7.4 and it worked great! I was so happy to find a tutorial that told you more than the upgrade.txt file (http://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/UPGRADE.txt).
Thanks a ton!
#9 by nikos on July 12, 2011 - 3:59 pm
Updated to 7.4 like a poem. Not needed to play with the .ini files like last time, they are already fixed.
#10 by stan on July 20, 2011 - 2:28 am
thanks for the update info…rock on
#11 by nic on July 27, 2011 - 7:03 pm
great work… flawless!!!
#12 by nikos on August 2, 2011 - 5:35 pm
Always a joy to report first that upgrade to 7.7 was flawless.
#13 by Hall Truck on August 4, 2011 - 5:25 pm
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
#14 by Martin on October 11, 2011 - 5:41 pm
Thank you again, now upgraded from 7.4 to 7.8 without any problems
Thank you! Martin
#15 by riju on October 19, 2011 - 6:48 am
thank you very much..can you please explain why we need to disable all non core module while updating..
#16 by drtbalu on October 19, 2011 - 10:31 am
some of the non core modules may not be compatible with the new version.
they can be safely enabled after upgrade process is voer
#17 by riju on October 19, 2011 - 10:59 am
Thanks for ur fast reply
#18 by nikos on October 29, 2011 - 7:52 pm
ok, just updated to 7.9 perfectly. Didn’t do the “disable non core modules” part, as I (now) believe all modules compatible with any 7.X version are still compatible with any newer version, but this is a decision to be made by users.
#19 by 7.2 on November 2, 2011 - 6:13 pm
Thank you for the simply step-by-step on upgrading to 7.2!