Problems for RackSpace Cloud users with WordPress after migration
This is a very specific technical entry for WordPress users of the RackSpace Cloud (formerly Mosso), who have been part of the big migration on that platform today.
This would be boring and incomprehensible to anyone else...
We'll start with the easy part:
FOR USERS OF THE WP-DBMANAGER PLUGIN
There is a red alert that shows up on the dashboard for users of the wp-dbmanager plugin.
The alert reads
Your backup folder MIGHT be visible to the public To correct this issue, move the .htaccess file from wp-content/plugins/wp-dbmanager to (your specific path).
Firstly: don't panic. It's a false alarm. When RackSpace migrated your file to a new path, they ran an automated script to change any hard-coded references from the old absolute path to the new one. Unfortunately this script did not catch any entries in the database, and plugins that wrote the path to the db were still looking for the old path.
In this case the trusty WP-DBManager plugin was baffled, because it looked for an .htaccess file in the old path backup folder and couldn't find it, therefore sparking an alert.
To fix this, all you need to do is uninstall the plugin through the Database button (DATABASE tab on the left hand nav - choose the uninstall option - NOT through the plugin menu) and then reactivate the plugin from the plugins tab as usual. This should remove the alert and bring things back to normal. Finally, check that all the settings are as they should be.
DATABASE SEARCH AND REPLACE
Unfortunately there are likely to be other functions and plugins that write absolute paths onto the databse. The implication is that you have no choice but to either run a sql script that replaces the old path with the new path EVERYWHERE (not just in one table) - if anyone knows what that script would be, please add it as a comment. It's too late at night here for me to find out.
Otherwise the good old way still works:
1. Back up your DB (don't do anything before you do this!).
2. Download a copy of the database, open with a text editor, replace all old paths with the new.
3. Restore the corrected database.
4. Test.