Upgrading OpenX

This guide covers the steps necessary to upgrade your existing OpenX installation to the latest release of OpenX 2.6.

Here's the 10-step plan:

1. Check the system requirements
2. Download the latest version of OpenX
3. Backup your files and database
4. Extract new files to a temporary folder
5. Copy over the config files and banner images
6. Disable Maintenance
7. Check the server settings for large database updates
8. Run the upgrade wizard
9. Replace the old folder with the new one
10. Additional configuration steps

Note: If you have customised OpenX or are running distributed statistics you should refer to the admin guide for upgrade instructions.

Step 1: Check the system requirements

The upgrade wizard can upgrade from all versions of OpenX including OpenX 2.4, OpenX 2.5 beta and earlier versions of OpenX 2.6

Step 2: Download the latest version of OpenX

You can download the latest version of OpenX here.

Step 3: Backup your files and database

We recommend you backup your filesystem and database before upgrading.

Backing up your database is quite important if the upgrade involves database changes.

Step 4: Extract new files to a temporary folder

Extract the new installation files into a temporary folder on your server. This temporary folder needs to be accessible from your browser in order to run the upgrade wizard.  For example, if you use html_docs/openx, extract the new files to html_docs/openx_new.

Step 5: Copy over the config files and banner images

You need to copy your old config files and banner images your openx_new folder.

• Copy the existing configuration files (Any files ending in .conf.php, like: www.example.com.conf.php, default.conf.php) from the openx/var directory to the openx_new/var directory of the new version.
• Copy your banner images from openx/www/images to openx_new/www/images
• NOTE: Only copy the config files you need, as described above. Do not copy all old backup config files and log files from previous installations.

Note: The default banner images location can be changed in the configuration file.  To check the location you have set for images, search for the webDir parameter in the configuration file. It is possible that you use only SQL and external banners, and in this case your images folder may not contain any banner files.

Step 6: Disable Maintenance

You want to disable maintenance if you are doing a major upgrade which requires database changes (like 2.4.0 to 2.6.0).
For more information please see:
http://www.openx.org/faq/how-do-i-disable-maintenance

Step 7: Check Server Settings

If you are doing a major upgrade which requires database changes (like 2.4.0 to 2.6.0) you will want to review your server settings to make sure the upgrader has enough time to complete such changes. You will also want to review your database size.
For more information please see:
http://www.openx.org/docs/tips-for-large-database-upgrades

Step 8: Run the upgrade wizard from new folder

To start the upgrade wizard, open a web browser and navigate to the new directory where OpenX is stored (openx_new), for example http://www.example.com/openx_new.

In most cases you will be able to follow the prompts without changing any default settings. See the adminstrator guide for details of each option.

NOTE: Run the upgrader from the same URL which your config file uses. For example, if your configuration file is 'example.com.conf.php' then run the installer from example.com/openx. If the configuration file is www.example.com.conf.php, then run the installer from www.example.com/openx.

Step 9: Replace the old folder with the new one

The final step is to move the temporary folder in place of the old one.

• Add the _backup suffix to the end of the name of your existing working directory, to rename it as openx_backup.
• Rename openx_new by removing the _new suffix, so now its only called 'openx'.

If you don't do this you can edit your configuration file to use the new path, but you will need to also update any invocation tags which point to the old path.

Step 10: Additional configuration steps

In some cases additional configuration steps will be required, these are covered in separate whitepapers.

Upgrading character encoding

If you have been using a the user interface in a non-English language, in particular one which uses a non ASCII character set, then you many need to upgrade your character set encoding.

Securing your ad server

It's good practice to lock down your file permissions to reduce the risk of a security vulnerability.  In particular, make sure to set the permissions on your configuration files to be read-only.

Note: If you have an error when attempting to login which references the preferences table, this most likely means that you have not replaced the old folder with the new one.