Testing, upgrading, and moving a site

At various times during the life of your site, you will want to test new plugins, upgrade to a new version of Elgg, or move to a different server. This section provides a guide for these activities along with pointers to help you avoid common mistakes.

Testing

It is never a good idea to activate a new plugin on a production site without first testing it. This is one reason why you should have a test site. A test site allows you to try new plugins, test upgrades, perform stress testing, and evaluate performance tweaks without disturbing your users. The test site should mimic the production site as closely as possible including server configuration, code, and data. Depending on available resources, it could be on a server configured exactly like the production server, on the production server, or on any other computer. If you do put your test site on your production server, then do not use it for load testing or trying server configuration modifications...