LiquidFiles Documentation
LiquidFiles Documentation

Migrate from LiquidFiles v2.x to LiquidFiles v3.x

When migrating from LiquidFiles v2.x to LiquidFiles v3.x, we're changing the underlying operating system from CentOS 6 32bit to CentOS 7 64bit. This means that it's not possible to do an in-place upgrade. In order to migrate from LiquidFiles v2.x to LiquidFiles v3.x, you will have to do a fresh install of LiquidFiles v3.x and migrate your data across.

Or alternatively, if you're using a physical server and wishes to use the same hardware, it is also possible to use the builtin backup and restore functionality to restore a LiquidFiles v2.x backup onto a LiquidFiles v3.x system. Please see this section for more information.

We do get a few questions about this - Is it technically not possible to do an in-place upgrade or just not supported? So to be clear — It's not technically possible to do an in-place upgrade when we're switching from a 32bit to a 64bit version of CentOS (and also changing filesystem type).
So when you're updating from LiquidFiles v2.x to v3, you will have to install a fresh LiquidFiles v3.x system and migrate your data across.

Migrate to a different server The Preferred & Safest Method

This is the safest migration method as it will give you an automatic fallback option. If the migration for whatever reason is not successful, you can just simply continue using the previous LiquidFiles v2.x system until you can retry the migration.

The steps involved are:

Restore a LiquidFiles v2.x backup to LiquidFiles v3.x.

Please note that this is NOT the preferred method of migrating. The preferred method is to install a new LiquidFiles system and use the Migrate to New Server Guide to migrate the data across. Only use this method if you cannot use the Migrate to New Server Guide for some reason.

When you have configured to use backups using the builtin Admin → System → Backup function in LiquidFiles, normally it's only supported to restore the backup to the same version (or slightly newer - you can restore a v2.6.10 backup to a v2.6.20 system).

And with LiquidFiles v3.x, we have changed the underlying filesystem structure for data storage, meaning that if you attempt to just run `ft restore` using a v2.x backup, things will end up in all the wrong places and the only way to get back to a functional system is to delete the system and start over.

With LiquidFiles v3.x, we have introduced a `ft restore_v2` command that you can use the same as you would `ft restore` but it accepts a LiquidFiles v2.x backup and moves the data to the correct place during the restore.

If you haven't currently configured periodic backups, the procedure to migrate to LiquidFiles using the same system would be:

  • On the LiquidFiles v2.x system: Update to the latest v2.6.x version
  • On the Liquidfiles v2.x system: Configure backups in Admin → Backup
  • On the LiquidFiles v2.x system: Login to the console and run the command: `ft backup` to run the backup job immediately. Please make sure you don't receive any errors.
  • Install LiquidFiles v3.x using the latest version from https://license.liquidfiles.com/download/.
  • Use the same hostname as the LiquidFiles v2.x system and install the same production license.
  • Enable Console Access in Admin → System → Console Access.
  • Login to the console and run `ft restore_v2` and follow the prompts.