Transfer or Migrate Joomla to another new server

One of my client was requesting me to migrate its' current existing Joomla site to another new webhosting server. As Joomla utilizes the database aside from its' web application, in order to transfer its' current application, the database needs to restore over as well.

In this post I am going to post the configuration required once you replicate over the files and database over to the new server. As Joomla provides the easy setup interface where most configuration were done behind the scene, there is a configuration file that Joomla saved upon successfull installation of the joomla site, configuration.php. This file is frequently being referred by Joomla for the site to operate. Thus, it is crucial to mantain the configuration.php file to ensure the site operates correctly.

When there is a need to migrate the site to a new server, below are the configurations value that need to be looked into (inside configuration.php);

1. $mosConfig_absolute_path: This is the absolute server path to your new Joomla! installation. It will probably look something like "/path/to/joomla/installation".
2. $mosConfig_cachepath: This is the absolute server path to the cache for your Joomla! installation. It will probably look something like "/path/to/joomla/installation/cache".
3. $mosConfig_live_site: This is your website's url. It will be something like "http://www.yoursite.com".
4. $mosConfig_host: This is the location of the server that hosts your MySQL database. For most instances, this value will be "localhost". If you are unsure, ask your hosting provider.
5. $mosConfig_db: This is the name of your MySQL database.
6. $mosConfig_user: This is the database user name. Make sure this user has all privileges on your database.
7. $mosConfig_password: This is the password for your MySQL database user.

Once all have been configured, overwrite the existing copy of the file and it should work accordingly.