Re: Upgrading and converting: SL-->LSMB 1.1-->LSMB 1.2.26

On 12/04/01 12:57, Erik Huelsmann wrote:

Hi Victor,

I'm pretty sure this would be easy to clean up, if I knew where things
were supposed to be pointing, and which database which tables should
live in. Should there be one user database or several? If the
user-data belongs in among the accounting data, how to get past the
"session" relation error (e.g. just drop the "session" table before
importing Pg-central)? How do we get from the user database to the
accounting info database (obviously not an issue if the user info lives
in the same database)? If multiple user databases are employed, how
does ledgersmb.conf work with that (or multiple companies for that matter)?

Thanks for the extensive context you provided! It helps getting a picture of where you stand with your migration and where you want to go to. At this point, I would actually stop working to get the users migrated from 1.1 to 1.2 (which is still the route to go: there are migration scripts to go from 1.2 to 1.3).

Currently, I have no way of verifying that my transition from 1.1.12 up to 1.2.26 went smoothly, so I'd rather not go on to 1.3 until I can determine whether I have, in fact, succeeded in upgrading to 1.2.26. I created a test user, using information from the original members file, but attempting to log in with that user get me this:

Error!
LedgerSMB/User.pm:207
SELECT value FROM defaults
WHERE setting_key = 'version'
ERROR: column "value" does not exist
LINE 2: SELECT value FROM defaults

This suggests to me that the database schema did not get updated. That led me to scrutinize the instructions for database upgrade a little closer. The version of the database that showed in the "version" column of "defaults" was 2.6.18. Running the 2.6.18-2.6.19 SQL script seems to have removed the last obstacle. Now I just need to create users for the other two databases (or preferably look up how to export and import users). Hopefully any database schema changes from 1.2 to 1.3 will be handled a little more automatically, now that more of the vestiges of SL have been cast off.

The reason I'd stop trying very hard to migrate the users - if all else works - is documented in the book I've just started writing on 1.3 (http://book.ledgersmb.org/1.3/ledgersmb.pdf; Appendix A Section A.1 Users): ""It’s this shift in paradigm that makes it impossible to meaningfully migrate users from older LedgerSMB and SQL-Ledger versions to LedgerSMB 1.3.""

That's reasonable (as long as the historical transactions are still attributed to the correct users--or if they don't care if the users who posted them no longer exist, which would be expected in a company where staff changes).

Going through 1.2 to get at 1.3 is still the suggested route. The book also contains an appendix on migration (Appendix B) which says ""Yet, while item 3 [a stricter data model] is a good reason to want to switch, it’s also a reason why migration from older versions to 1.3 can be harder than earlier migrations: when the data in your older version is not consistent, it won’t fit into the new data model and will need to be fixed first.""

I'm hoping there will be some tutorial on ways of fixing inconsistencies? Or is that too broad a category?

So, if you were asking me, I'd go forward, spending no more time on migrating users, instead going to 1.3 and spending the time you have on any potential data inconsistencies. Please note that your migration issues provide very valuable insight both to develop better migration scripts as well as a source for problem solving for anybody coming after you, if you'd share your experiences here.

I'd like to make sure that 1.2 is actually working fully before going to 1.3. I'm reasonably certain that it's working, but I just discovered that my database snapshot was taken before a day's worth of entries (sigh). Re-entering those will be a good trial run for functionality.

--Victor Wren