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By Anonymous (not verified) on
My website no longer works after performing the recommended security updates. I have since restored from backup and the site is working again.
How should I go about upgrading my site without it going down?
Comments
A detailed answer is not
A detailed answer is not possible without a detailed question. Apart from the versions involved, or the update method used, the reason the site did not work after update is probably in the Drupal recent log messages (on the updated site) and in the Apache error log for the time you tried to load the broken site, and reporting those error messages here (or indeed reading them yourself: they are usually fairly self-explanatory) would take you closer to precise explanation of what went wrong.
For larger sites version control is often used. For a small site it is usually adequate to make a test copy of the site on the same server where the live site lives; ensure that you have drush installed on the server (managing Drupal without drush is double difficult); and issue the command 'drush up' and sit back for 30 seconds. If the update works, you can then apply it to the live site. If the content has not been changed, you can simply replace your live site with th working, updated test site, if you wish, and clear caches. If the udpated test site fails, you can debug it.
However, if someone other than you built the site, it is possible that contributed modules, contributed themes, or even Drupal core have been hacked. Updates will overwrite any changes from the standard published code, and often break the site. The person who built the site should be offering an update service (normally chargeable). If you built your own site, you will of course know if any changes have been made to code and the issue will not arise.
Digit Professionals specialising in Drupal, WordPress & CiviCRM support for publishers in non-profit and related sectors