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Upgrading Openads 2.0

This guide covers the steps necessary to upgrade Openads 2.0.11-pr1 to the latest release of OpenX 2.8.

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 are running phpAdsNew you will need to upgrade to Openads-2.0.11-pr1 first. See our guide to upgrading phpAdsNew.

Step 1: Check the system requirements

Important: Check the full list of OpenX 2.8 system requirements here. They are different than Openads 2.0 requirements.

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 very important as upgrading from 2.0 to 2.8 has many database changes. If there are issues you will want to have a backup which allows you to quickly restore your old settings

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. This will allow your current installation to stay running live while you upgrade.

Step 5: Copy over the config files and banner images

You need to copy your old config file and banner images into your new temporary folder.

Copy the config.inc.php to var/config.inc.php in your new folder.

  • Copy the configuration file (config.inc.php) to the html_docs/openx_new/var directory of the new version.
  • If you have set up local banner images copy them to openx_new/www/images. 

Note: The Local banner (Webserver) configuration is set under Settings->Main Settings->Banner Settings in the admin interface. It may be that you have not set local webserver banner path and only use SQL banners - in this case you have no local banner images to copy over.

Step 6: Disable Maintenance

You want to disable maintenance so that the database changes during upgrade are not effected by maintenance running on the database.
For more information please see:
http://www.openx.org/faq/how-do-i-disable-maintenance

Step 7: Check Server Settings

Upgrading from 2.0 to 2.8 is a major upgrade which involves many database changes. You will want to review your server settings to make sure the upgrader has enough time to complete such changes.
For more information please see:
http://www.openx.org/docs/tips-for-large-database-upgrades

Step 8: Run the upgrade wizard

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

In most cases you will be able to follow the prompts without changing any deafult settings until the Configuration checklist (last tab). On the Configuration page will be a list of paths to use for your installation. Important: It will be using the 'openx_new' folder which you are upgrading with -- you most likely want to change this to use the 'openx' folder of your current installation.

See the adminstrator guide for details of each step of the upgrade process.

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.

Step 10: Additional configuration steps

In some cases additional configuration steps will be required, these are covered in other documentation.

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: After upgrade if you have an issue with your admin path and you did not edit the Configuration tab settings as described above, this means you must edit your config file so it uses the correct paths.
After you upgraded using 'openx_new' and then renamed the folder to 'openx' you must edit your openx/var/www.example.com.conf.php config file so that the paths use 'openx' folder name rather than 'openx_new'.