Importing old Mantis database+data to new Mantis install?

[newmantisuser]

Hello,

We currently run and old version of Mantis, 1.1.2 on Linux Ubuntu 10 with MySQL version 5.0.51 and I have been asked by Management to upgrade to the latest version of Mantis (1.2.12). I have a VM sandbox setup to test the installation (Linux Ubuntu 10 and MySql) and upgrade process. I have read the mantis administration guide, especially the upgrading and backup sections but things are still a little unclear for me.

I could 'just upgrade' my existing installation to the latest version but I would rather setup Mantis and import all our data from our production system over to my test environment as I am weary of messing with the production server as it is critical to our business.

I have a few questions if someone could help me out.

1. I would like to backup my existing MySQL databases, copy them over to thew VM sandbox and import them into the new installation. I know the command to do this which is
mysqldump -u<username> -p<password> <database name> > backup.sql. Do I need to use the --all-databases flag to get them all imported into the backup.sql file? If I just go with <database name> such as mantis_pit that means I am only backing up the mantis_pit database right?

Since our existing MySQL database contains many databases such as

darwindbs/mantis_pit.sql
darwindbs/experiments.sql
darwindbs/mantis_cal.old.sql
darwindbs/drupal.sql
darwindbs/redmine.sql
darwindbs/trac_buriedtargets.sql
darwindbs/mantis_cal.sql
darwindbs/mysql.sql
darwindbs/mantis_3.sql
darwindbs/mantis3.sql

do I have to manually create empty MySQL databases in my sandbox to match the names from our production system before importing?

Ok so lets say that I make a backup and transfer it over to my sandbox..how do I get the data into the MySQL database to test? Normally you would restore the database using this command:
mysql -u<username> -p<password> <database name> < <input file>.

What is the input file in this case?

2. Do the databases need to be shutdown to perform the import and exports? We just use Webmin so I assume webmin shuts down MySQL before doing a backup....

3. Is there any other data that I might just want to copy from our old system and load into the test environment? I assume just copying /var/www/mantis/ to our new test environment would not work.

Thanks so much for any and all replies. I have attached our production system mantis and my new instillation. The goal is to have them both be identical.

[atrol]

1. export database on old machine (no need to shutdown, no need to export all databases, check your config_inc.php for the right one)
2. import database on new machine (the <input file> is the name of the file you generated when exporting your database, "backup.sql" in your example)
3. unpack new MantisBT 1.2.11 on new system
4. transfer your customizations (config_inc.php, ...) from old system
5. adjust database settings in config_inc.php if needed (mabye you changed database name, user or password)
6. run admin/install.php
7. if you store your attachments on disk you have to transfer also the attachments

You should use a MySQL forum to get support if there are any database related issues.

[newmantisuser]

Thanks you so much for your reply!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your steps worked perfectly. I have everything up and running now. I did run into issues with logging in, adding notes and attachments etc...which was all related to an AUTO_INCREMENT setting, but I was able to get them the issues resolved mainly by doing the following:

mysql> ALTER TABLE mantis_tokens_table MODIFY COLUMN id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; (this particular table was being referenced when I tried to change my password)

The error I was getting was simliar to these. In this example I was trying to add notes to issues and submit them.

mantis adding note error Duplicate entry '0' for key 'PRIMARY' for the query: INSERT INTO mantis_bugnote_text_table ( note ) VALUES ( ? ).

Anyway once again I am very greatful for your post sir. Really appreciate you taking the time to help out a fellow mantis user.