migrating a forum

[vbscott]

I am a new admin so please if you reply be very specific and excuse my lack of familiarity.

I have started a new forum with a fresh vB package, it is to accomodate a former vB community which was left without when the owner pulled the plug.

We have a sister community, also a vB board, and that forum offered us a temporary forum while we rebuilt our site.

The new site is ready to go public, we are hosted at urljet.com we would like to migrate just the temporary forum from the sister site. Urljet.com tells me that this is not possible, that we can merge the entirety of both forums and then delete selectively but that they cannot pick one forum from the database. They suggest we copy and paste. I have about 200 individual threads, not all of them are critical but we were hoping to just migrate it to a new forum on the new board.

Does anyone have suggestions.

Thanks. Scott

[Steve Machol]

If I understand you correctly, they are right. There is no option to import just some data. You would either have to import all the data, then remove what you don't want, or remove the extra data first then import.

[vbscott]

If I understand you correctly, they are right. There is no option to import just some data. You would either have to import all the data, then remove what you don't want, or remove the extra data first then import.

Thanks Steve,

Could we make a copy of the board where the forum exists which we want to migrate, delete all but the particular forum we want and then migrate? So as not to disturb the board which has the particular forum we are seeking.

Scott

[Steve Machol]

Yep, that would work.

[vbscott]

Yep, that would work.

How do we go about duplicating the board which has the forum we are seeking to migrate, can this be done on a local computer or does it have to be done from the server for that board.

Scott

[Steve Machol]

Upload the vB files for that version to a new password-protected directory. Then backup and restore the database to a new db and edit the config.php file to point to that db.

[vbscott]

Upload the vB files for that version to a new password-protected directory. Then backup and restore the database to a new db and edit the config.php file to point to that db.

If we are unable to figure this out is this a service which vB can provide to us for a fee?

Scott

[Steve Machol]

No sorry, that is not a service we provide at the moment.

Note: The only consistently reliable method of backing up and restoring a database is with shell access via telnet or ssh. This is because backing up with a PHP script like that in the Admin CP or phpMyAdmin can result in PHP timeout errors and an incomplete backup file.

Please see the instructions here:

Backup:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/maintenance_ssh_backup

Restore:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/maintenance_ssh_restore

If you don't have telnet or SSH access, some people have reported success with these scripts:

MySQLDumper:

http://www.mysqldumper.de/en/index.php

MySQLHotxcopy:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=134821&highlight=mysqlhotcopy

[vbscott]

Steve,

Thanks so much for the advice. The owner of the other forum is better versed in vB than I and I am hoping with your comments and links we can make it work.

Thanks again. Scott

[vbscott]

Steve, I have just received this message from the owner of the other forum, would you please comment. Scott

k9diabetes
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 74


Re: Import process discussion
I already have a practice version of my forum and yours set up... but I do not know how to "merge" them.

Not sure if this is the same as the ImpExp function... I guess it is.

The practice forums are at:

http://www.k9diabetes.com/practice

and

http://www.k9cushings.com/practice

They are currently closed just so no one finds them and posts to them.

As Steve or someone mentioned, timeouts were a problem with my forum importing it via PHPAdmin. Not saving it but restoring it. But eventually I succeeded.

I can prune everything else out of my practice forum and try the ImpEx function and see what happens. What concerned me yesterday was what would happen to individual board settings, etc.

Natalie

[Steve Machol]

Not sure what you are asking but please read the online Impex import instructions here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/impex

[Baba Wawa]

I believe that there are people who would perform this service for you, for a reasonable price.

Can anyone confirm that??

[vbscott]

Steve, this is Natalie's present question, I have directed her to this thread.

Thanks. Scott


k9diabetes [IMG]


I have uploaded the files but it's having trouble accessing the source forum, I believe because they are on different ISPs. I think that I could installl vBulletin again on URLJet and then they would be local with each other.

Natalie


Re: Import process discussion

I say yeah, go ahead and continue the discussion while I see if I can accomplish an import on the practice systems.

It will be a lot easier if they are all on the same server so I'm transferring the practice copy of my forum (with Cushings forum content only) over to the URLJet server now.

Will do a quick vBulletin installation and import the copy of the K9D forum that contains Cushings posts only to that and it will then be the source for the import.

[Steve Machol]

1. That is because you do not have the correct db info in config.php.

2. In order for the import to work both databases will need to be on the same server.

[vbscott]

I believe that there are people who would perform this service for you, for a reasonable price.

Can anyone confirm that??

I did confer with my host and they wanted $200.00 to make a copy of the forum and then migrate it after we pruned it. I did not find this reasonable. What do you think?

Scott