Drupal 7 Installatron Updating Tips

Drupal Version

Running updates on OIT Web Hosting is essential to ensuring that your site remains safe and responsive to every user. The preferred method of running updates is through Installatron, a server application which manages installed web applications on a hosting account.

Update Check

By default, Installatron will check for core updates in one of two ways:

  • For new Installatron Drupal websites, Installatron checks every 6 hours for Drupal security updates. 
  • For imported Installatron Drupal websites, Installatron does not check for Drupal core updates.

Installatron keeps track of each site's app separately, so there is not a way to determine exactly when an update is going to apply for a site. The documentation for Installation say that a site's web app will update between 12am and 6am server time.

Similarly, when Installatron checks for web app updates from the mothership, it's independent (e.g., the updates do not happen at 12 pm, 6 pm, 12 am, 6 am). This makes sense since the increased load of websites all applying updates concurrently would heavily degrade the hosting service.

Configuring Installatron Updates

To configure your Drupal site on Installatron to automatically update, follow the directions below:

  1. Log in to your website from OIT Web Hosting.
  2. Select Installatron Applications Installer.
  3. For the Drupal site in question, select the wrench to view/edit details.
  4. Under Automatic Update, select "Create a backup and update to new minor versions and security releases. (Recommended)".
  5. Select Save All.

Updating from Installatron

Please see Updating Drupal Core (Installatron).

False Flag on Latest Version

As Doug Curtis from OIT Web Hosting notes, there is a current bug in detecting the latest release of Drupal from within Installatron.

  • There is an open issue where Installatron shows a green check mark indicating it has the latest version but if you check the version number next to the check mark, it is not [current]. I have a ticket open with the vendor about this. This is a good reminder that you should always manually check your versions and not rely 100% on automatic systems.

Backup Directory

The default backup directory for Installatron is:

  • /application-backups

You can set custom backup locations through Installatron by editing your Drupal installation via the Applications Installer, and looking under "Default Backup Location".