What is happening?

This category is for everything related to the Drupal 9 upgrade scheduled for October 2021.

Any and all questions or concerns should be posted here.


In the coming weeks, the following changes will automatically be applied:

  • All CERN websites will move to the OpenShift infrastructure; and
  • Drupal 8 websites will be upgraded to Drupal 9.

Where the former is very unlikely to require any action from any end-users, the Drupal upgrade will require some (minor) changes for a subset of websites using custom themes and modules. Indeed, the Web Team has already made sure that the CERN Theme, the CERN Override Theme, and all CERN Modules are Drupal 9 ready.

As such, unlike the Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 migration, the upgrade to Drupal 9 will be significantly easier and largely automated for the vast majority of websites. If your website uses custom themes or modules, this guide will outline the steps necessary to check and otherwise prepare your website for Drupal 9.

Please note that e-mails will be sent to all Drupal 8 website owners the week of 18th October.

Good afternoon,
I’ve tried to have access to the files of the Drupal “webtest” site I own following the steps described in File Access but it does not seem to be possible. Is there a solution for this?
thanks in advance.
cheers,
David

Hi David

Thanks for reaching out!

Accessing WebDAV has changed slightly with the OpenShift infrastructure.

Please see https://drupal-tools.web.cern.ch/access-webdav-in-openshift.

If you require any assistance, please let us know!

Thanks!

thanks a lot Joachim, it totally worked.
cheers,
David

Hi again, I’m having another doubt here. Sorry if this is not the right thread to post it. It’s about uninstalled modules: whenever I uninstall a module it does not seem to be fully deleted and keeps appearing in the list of available modules. How can modules be completely removed from the site?
Thanks once again.
Regards,
David

Hi there,

Is the “webtest” web page I received in my email yesterday a copy test of the website I maintain? Ie, if I break it, is it easily recoverable?

Thanks,
Alec Lancaster

Hi Alec

The .webtest website is a preview of your production website on the OpenShift infrastructure. It also allows you to take a peak on the Upgrade Status report to gauge what, if anything, needs updating in order to ensure Drupal 9 compatibility. You are welcome to experiment on this site as nothing done here will impact your production site. However, if you do have several things to test, I suggest requesting an actual test website to be created alongside your production site(s) being moved to OpenShift. You can do so by submitting a ticket here: https://cern.service-now.com/service-portal?id=sc_cat_item&name=Drupal-Clone&se=Drupal-Service

Thanks!

Hi David

If by list you are referring to the Update Status report, chances are that you need to do a re-scan for it to detect that modules have actually been removed. Are you please able to confirm whether you have done this, and whether you are still seeing the modules listed? Please note that the Upgrade Status report will display a selection of modules which you might not have used before under the REMOVE section. The only ones you need to concern yourself with are the ones also available in your Modules → Custom folder through WebDAV. The rest are ones which we can handle centrally once migrated to the new infrastructure, hopefully removing one source of confusion in the process!

Thanks!

Thanks again Joachim for the prompt response. I was meaning the list showing up when clicking on the “Extend” top menu item. There there is a list of the available modules and it includes some that I’ve uninstalled but appear to be just “disabled”. Such modules are also listed under the REMOVE section of the Status report.
Regards,
David

Hello,

I’ve received an email:
Drupal: your site moves to the Cloud on …

I understood it is just move to the Openshift, but it mentions “two things”:

  • CERN websites are being moved from physical servers to cloud-based “OpenShift” servers
  • Drupal 8 websites are being upgraded to Drupal 9

So is the intervention mentioned in the email just the move or also upgrade to Drupal 9?

I understood the upgrade to Drupal 9 will be done later beginning November.

Cheers,
Jozef

Hi Joachim,

Thanks very much for explaining that! I don’t plan on making any real updates except that there are some modules (seen in the picture below) that are marked as a ‘collaborate with maintainers.’ I’ve confirmed that all of them but H5P and Bricks are not in use on our web page, thus are safe for removal in moving to Drupal 9. However, with Bricks and H5P it seems there are some themes or fields that utilize them. I can’t quite figure out which. Are these modules maintained or updated by CERN, ie, should I be worried about them?

Thanks!
-Alec

Hi Jozef

Thanks for reaching out!

This week, all websites will be moved to the OpenShift cloud infrastructure. You have received an e-mail informing you of a date and an approximate time for when the migration of your website(s) occurs. You will also receive an e-mail once things have been migrated successfully.

Importantly, this is not us upgrading your website(s) to Drupal 9. However, once a website has been migrated to the new infrastructure, it will have access to the Upgrade Status report outlining what, if anything, needs updating to ensure Drupal 9 compatibility. If you want to take a peak already, you can do so by accessing your .webtest.cern.ch preview website and inspect the Upgrade Status report.

You can find more information here: How to Prepare Your Website for its Drupal 9 Upgrade | Drupal @ CERN

Thanks!

Hi David

If the modules in question appear disabled (i.e. you cannot tick anything) under the Extend tab you can safely ignore these. I appreciate how this might be confusing: One thing which the new infrastructure allows us to do is to centrally manage and distribute modules. This will allow us to trim the list of modules you see under the REMOVE section, for instance.

In short, the only modules you should concern yourself with are those which are highlighted in the REMOVE section in your Upgrade Status report and which allows shows up in your Modules → Custom folder: These are modules which you, or someone else, at one point has installed but subsequently decided not to use. If you have already cleared any potential modules like this, you have done exactly what you need to do!

Thanks!

Hi all,

Is there a way to preview our web page in Drupal 9 before the switch happens? This would be great so I could see if my web page will break or not.

-Alec

Hi Alec

If the Upgrade Status report does not highlight any issues, then you will be all good for the Drupal 9 upgrade. In fact, your website might already have been upgraded. You can verify this by checking either the small logo in the top-left corner (which will now show a 9 instead of an 8) or by checking the Upgrade Status report to see whether it is reporting on Drupal 10 or 9.

What you can do if you really want to test Drupal 9 is to go ahead and create a new clone, but choose the Drupal 9 setting upon creation. You can do this through the new Webservices Portal found at https://webservices-portal.web.cern.ch/.

Thanks!

Hi Joachim,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I’ll do all those!

-Alec

Hi Joachim,

It seems that the structure for creating test clone websites has changed with the move to cloudshift. Can you explain the process of creating a website clone in Drupal 9 to me? Thank you!

-Alec

Hi Alec
You can see how to clone a website now on https://webservices-portal.web.cern.ch/ following Joachim workshop.
Here you are the video:
Log in to CERN
Regards
Almudena