Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Help with getting the CMS CORE package up and running. This does not include 3rd party modules, PHP scripts, anything downloaded via module manager or from any external source.
jlkane

Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by jlkane »

I'm trying to install CMSMS 1.12 on a client's new web host -- a shared hosting account at LiquidWeb.com -- and I've had 3 failures:
- installing manually
- installing via Softaculous in the root directory
- installing via Softaculous in a subdirectory

I am addressing the new installations using a temporary URL like this one:
http://koba.liquidweb.com/~bmepccos/admin/
In each case, attempts to reach the admin login or index.php are greeted by a 500 Internal Server Error.

I've consulted tech support at LiquidWeb.com, and they suggest that the problem stems from the fact that we haven't yet propagated a DNS change for this domain to the new server. But I am developing a new site for a client who is hosting their old site on a different server, so we want to develop and test the new site on the new server before switching over DNS.

The tech at LiquidWeb.com suggests editing the hosts file on my computer, but that workaround is impractical for reviewing the new site with a large number of non-geeky users at the client firm, who wish to test the site on a large number of different computers, tablets, and phones.

It seems to me that this problem should be solvable through a suitable root_url and/or root_path entry in the config.php file, but I've been unable to make such a solution work.

I'm especially baffled because I've successfully installed CMSMS on new servers in just this sort of pre-DNS-change scenario before without any such problem. What am I doing wrong?!?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Jim
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velden
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Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by velden »

I don't think you're wrong.

Test:
- rename .htaccess file if it's in the root
- try to browser to /version.php it should not error 500
- create a phpinfo.php file with code below

Code: Select all

<?php phpinfo(); ?>
- browse to that file, it should just work

If above steps fail: back to provider and let them prove that at least the most simple php file works.
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Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by Jeff »

DNS issues shouldn't give you a 500 error.

500 errors should be reported in the php error log. Look at that or have LiquidWeb support give you the last 10-20 line and paste them here.
jlkane

Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by jlkane »

Velden and Jeff,

Thank you both for your help. Here's an update:
1. Browsing to /version.php yields a 500 error
2. I created a phpinfo.php file, but browsing to it yields a 500 error, too.

So it seems clear that something's very wrong with the PHP environment at LiquidWeb. I'll get in touch with them tonight and try to sort it out.

Jim
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Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by calguy1000 »

if browsing to the version.php yields a 500 error it's certainly a problem with the hosting environment.
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Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by Dr.CSS »

Most of the time in this situation I have to use the IP for this, 30.48.720.187/~folderName/admin/...
jlkane

Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by jlkane »

Dr.CSS wrote:Most of the time in this situation I have to use the IP for this, 30.48.720.187/~folderName/admin/...
I tried reaching the admin login through the IP address like this before my original post, and it failed with a 500 error as well. I know that in the end this may be the best approach to addressing CMSMS before the DNS cutover, but it's clear that there's a bigger problem to solve here.

More tonight...
Jim
jlkane

Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by jlkane »

Okay...
So before I went back to LiquidWeb.com's support, I decided that I'd better try the solution that they had already suggested: using my computer's hosts file to reroute my client's domain to the LiquidWeb IP address of our new host. Much to my surprise, it worked! My request for phpinfo.php worked perfectly (and showed the PHP environment to be nicely updated) and my request for the CMSMS admin panel worked as expected.

So...
I'm back where I started.

If there's no solution *inside* CMSMS's purview that will let me work around this problem, I'm stuck with an awkward work-around:
- Migrate the old site's content to the new server
- Repoint DNS to the new server
- Build out the new CMSMS-driven site on the new server (while hiding the new index.php file from casual visitors)
- Cut over from the old content to the new CMSMS-driven content when we're ready to go

On the plus side: The old site is static HTML, so migrating it to the new server will be easy.

On the minus side: The old site is being maintained using Adobe Contribute and it includes an FTP site that acts as a repository for files that this client shares with *their* clients. That FTP site is used by a number of their clients and kept up-to-date by a number of my client's lead engineers. All of those connections will have to be re-established on the new server.

I'll live through all that.

Does anyone see a more sensible alternative to this fall-back approach?
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Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by velden »

jlkane wrote: Does anyone see a more sensible alternative to this fall-back approach?
Still contact provider. The website is serving regular http request properly. It should do the same with request for php files.

You don't have a .htaccess file or custom php.ini file in your webroot?
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Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by calguy1000 »

This is not a CMSMS issue... it's an issue about a (in my not so humble opinion) poorly configured host.

You may wanna find yet another host while you haven't invested much time in this one.
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jlkane

Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by jlkane »

velden wrote:You don't have a .htaccess file or custom php.ini file in your webroot?
No, I don't.
calguy1000 wrote:This is not a CMSMS issue... it's an issue about a (in my not so humble opinion) poorly configured host.

You may wanna find yet another host while you haven't invested much time in this one.
Can anyone suggest a specific configuration change that might remedy this problem? There are a number of factors that led to my selection of LiquidWeb.com for this installation: SSD-equipped servers for improved performance, excellent phone support (free 24/7 US-based), and the ability to assure me that the server I'd be on would have the fileinfo module compiled into the PHP environment. That last issue led to a couple of lost days with my last CMSMS installation -- the problem is well-documented on this forum. Much as it may seem foolhardy to press on with them (and even to work with them to improve the environment they provide), I'd rather do that than pull a swap just now, especially because my experience says that I may simply jump out of one frying pan into another fire.

My $0.02 worth,
Jim
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Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by Jeff »

There could be a variety of things that could be wrong.

One place to start is to look at the error logs and see why you are getting the 500 error page.

Otherwise hire (it looks like it is more than liquidweb's free support will do for you) a sysadmin figure out what is wrong.
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Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by Jeff »

My guess is that http://koba.liquidweb.com/~bmepccos isn't setup the same as http://www.yourdomain.com is.

You talk about their good support, but even if they are US based doesn't mean that they know what they are doing.
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Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by Dr.CSS »

You say you installed it manually but you couldn't get to the /admin, so what URL did you use to install it, I'm not so sure that that koba.liquidweb.com should or is part of that actual URL more likely it's an IP/admin...

The only reason I was thinking the other way is that I will do new sites on my server and have to use the IP for the first couple of days...
jlkane

Re: Installation Failure without DNS Propagated

Post by jlkane »

Dr.CSS wrote:You say you installed it manually but you couldn't get to the /admin, so what URL did you use to install it...
I should have said that it failed when I tried to reach /install/index.php. I tried using the IP address in the URL and I tried using the machine name (koba.LiquidWeb.com). Both resulted in a 500 error.

But once I used the hosts file to reroute DNS -- *boom* -- I got straight into the install process as usual.
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