500 server error on install

  • Resolved njyoud

    (@njyoud)


    9 years, 10 months ago

    Hi

    I’m trying to clone a development site to my live domain. I have successfully created the zipfile and install.php using the Duplicator plugin. I made an empty database for the install. I then run the install.php in the domain folder, complete the database connection details, and do Run Deployment. After a while I get a 500 server error.

    The last message in the log is the one about ARCHIVE RUNTIME. The wordpress files and subfolders appear to be in place, so it looks as though it has unpacked correctly. From this I think I can infer that the unpacking of the zipfile has completed. I’m not sure that the database routines have started.

    There’s an error message in the site log which appears to refer to this install, saying that the index.php in the domain folder does not exist (I checked, and it does exist, as a result of the unpacking).

    Having tried this a few times unsuccessfully I got onto my hosting provider support and explained all of this. Their verdict:

    installer.php has been blocked by mod security rules in the server. Since it is a shared server we cannot change the security settings of the server.

    They advise me to try alternatives to Duplicator. But before I do, can you suggest anything else I can try? Is it possible that mod_security has blocked the install, or is there a more likely cause?

    rgds N

    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/duplicator/

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • Hi njyoud,

    I feel your pain… budget hosts can be difficult to work with sometimes. The only other work-a-round you can try is the manual extraction mode. You will have to manually unzip the file on the server, sometimes you can do this with cpanel, or your host should provide a way to do this. If they still can’t help you unzip the file then you can unzip locally and FTP the contents up to an empty root directory.

    Once the package has been manually unzipped, browser out to the installer.php again and under advanced options in step 1 check the box for ‘Manual Extraction’ and re-run the installer steps again…

    Hope that helps!

    Thread Starter njyoud

    (@njyoud)

    Hi Cory

    Thanks for your quick response on this. As I’d noted above, from what I could tell the whole zipfile had finished extracting before the error occurred.

    So I just followed your hint of doing advanced -> manual extraction. It worked first time, and the site appears to have duplicated perfectly.

    I may never find out what was causing the 500 error but that hardly matters. I’m back in business. Many thanks!

    N

    Thanks for the update njyoud!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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