How to install on a new host an Akeeba backup?

Question

I've been asked to migrate a site over from a previous host and was sent a backup file; it was generated using Akeeba. My question is, how do use this backup to migrate to a fresh installation? Any help would be most appreciated.

Answer 1

Sorry to provide just a link as answer, but the only reasonable way I know of is to use https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/akeeba-kickstart-documentation.html. Download link is here. The very short version is that you upload the kickstart.php and the backup to the root of the site and then use browser to go to yourdomain.tld/kickstart.php. This starts the extraction and later installation. But read the documentation first, it is not really difficult, but you do need to understand what the installer asks correctly for it to work.

Incidentally since the things kickstart asks and requires to work are the same things required by Joomla installation, you can probably solve any issues by reading the Joomla installation documentation. But Akeeba generally has pretty thorough documentation, so everything you need to know should be behind the first link I provided.

Answer 2

I myself too was very disappointed that I had to upload a php file with the backup every time I needed to install from the backup, since that added a few steps in the workflow.

Also the kickstart is just an unzipping tool for the default .jpa archive.

So what I do now a days, is go to the following settings page on Akeeba Backup's admin panel, and set the archive type to .zip.

1. administrator/index.php?option=com_akeeba (Akeeba Admin Panel)
2. administrator/index.php?option=com_akeeba&view=config (Configuration)
3. Advance Configuration
4. Archiver engine (Set to Zip Format.)

Once completed, when you create a backup through akeeba, it will generate a .zip file, instead of the .jpa file.

Now all I have to do is upload the .zip file just like I'd do to a vanilla Joomla! installation or a Wordpress or any other CMS for that matter, and unzip using the webhost's unzip tool which is available in most of the web-host admin panel including CPanel.

After which you can run the installation just by going to the url of the respective site, like you would do to a normal Joomla! install.

Benefits:-

1. No extra files required, just upload the backup and unzip.
2. Since we are using the Cpanel/xyz webhosts trusted script, there is a high chance of enough amount of memory being allocated, which could become a problem if an external script is used.
3. Even for your local use, when you just wanna peek into a single file inside the package, you don't have to use the akeeba tools like "kickstart" or "akeeba unzipper" whatever that's called.
4. You can Instantly check if an archive is broken, by simply opening it inside like winrar.
5. Sometimes(read On some hosts) kickstart gives problems with JQuery not loading and stuff, well... now you don't have to worry.

Cons:-

1. I had read somewhere that the .zip format is unrelaible, but in my personal experience never once have I faced data corruption when using .zip with Akeeba.
2. The .jpa format has password encrypting feature which cannot be used with .zip format, but when you are uploading a php script to a server already, who are we "password protecting" the backups from? Since the server admin can get your source code anyway after your securely unzipping the encrypted .jpa.