Community Server to vBulletin - I really need help

[emdee]

Hi Everyone,

I am hoping to get some help from members who have already done this:

import Community Server to vBulletin

aside from the basic instructions/help that i have gotten from VB staff, i think i need more help than they might be willing to extend. ( Staff, you are very helpful, dont get me wrong, and i appreciate the replies to my ticket)

i am a newbie when it comes to this, and i dont have any experience with Windows hosting, databases, etc.

but here is what i have in hand and need your help step-by-step:

- i have my VB site running on a Hostgator Linux server
- i have my Community Server running on a 1and1.com Windows server.
- i have a backup copy of the Community Server database in .bak format (1.4 GB size) produced via the database back system on 1and1.com
- i have successfully uploaded the needed Impex files and a link shows up in my VB admin control panel for Impex.
- i have configured the impexconfig.php as best as i know (can provide code if needed)

- i was told for the import to happen, the source (CS) needs to be on the same server as the vB database, i.e: 'localhost'. so i have uploaded the whole 1.4 gig of the .bak to my linux host under domain.com/forums folder.

- i have tried renaming the .bak file as .mdf (the format that is on windows server) and .mdb but nothing has worked. dont laugh, cause i dont know if its the right way of going about handling the database back up file.

... so when i click on the import in admin CP, im getting error:

Warning: mssql_connect() [function.mssql-connect]: Unable to connect to server: localhost in [path]/impex/db_mysql.php on line 57
 
Warning: mssql_select_db(): supplied argument is not a valid MS SQL-Link resource in [path]/impex/db_mysql.php on line 193 

what am i doing wrong?
what should i do?
what file format should the source database be?
can you help?

thanks
emdee

[emdee]

no help ?

[Jerry]

The answer is in the error :

Unable to connect to server: localhost

Either the server isn't on localhost or you have given it the wrong user & pass.

By the sounds of it the database is on 1and1.com, which is a remote server. ImpEx needs access to both databases to do the import, be that remote access to one or ideally both on the same server.

[tansug]

OK, I am going to take a shot at this.

.bak format is the backup format of the SQL Server and it is compressed. I would recommend restoring this database to SQL Server, and then right click on the database from SQL Server Management Studio and Detach database. Then whereever you restored your files to, go ahead and grab the .mdf file. Since it is detached, you can copy it.

If you do not want to detach this file, then stop the sql server and then copy the .mdf file. Either should work.

Then zip this .mdf file, because it will be substatially bigger than your .bak file.

Then copy the zipped .mdf file to your server where vbulletin is, unzip it and then run the impex.

I hope this works for you. Good luck.