Moving server and upgrading from 3.6.8 to 4.1.1

[Zachery]

Please please PLEASE do not try to only move part of your database, we absolutely do not support partial restores or the issues that go along with them. Move everything and prune off what you need. You never need to install vBulletin to move servers.
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/moving_servers

[mred_1]

Thanks for all your hints, i already work on something like that - give them to eat and later the sweets, every week a further candy ;-)
I think i should investigate the possibility to dump only user and content tables from a simple updated vb4 to the ready modified and configured vb4.

[George L]

I need to move a 3.6.8 site to a new server and have a couple of questions if anyone could help:


I'm ok about closing the site for a couple of days, but really really don't want to risk longer than that.

As ENF stated, in that case may i suggest you do a test upgrade on a COPY of your live database and get all the hacks, customisations and style fixed up and any potential error/issues come to light on test upgraded copy and document all the changes needed. Then when it comes to live real upgrade, things will go smoother. This will allow you to continue running live forum unaffected while you work on test upgraded copy. So make copy of data and move to new server, upgrade the copy of the database on new server. Old server live working forums unaffected while you work on test upgraded copy on new server

[ENF]

Just my opinion here on moving large forums:

For the OP's case: Move your existing site over to the new server as-is and make sure it's working first. If possible run a test upgrade first on a test environment to see what kinks may pop up.

For those forums with lots of modifications and features, and worried about losing members/visitors: Bring up your new site without modifications, just to get it running. Add new, updated modifications slowly to bring the board back to what you would like it to be. Otherwise, if you are wanting to fully upgrade everything before letting people back in, I'm afraid downtime may not be avoidable. I've had better success in moving things in stages, even though the largest move took some 20 hours to fully complete start to finish. The table changes in early on in the 4.x series plus the index rebuild were the largest time killers.

[mred_1]

The problem is not the work for all the mods the problem is the downtime of the forum. I'm not a fulltime Admin so i have not enough time to do all that work over a weekend and the risk to loose a lot of users is high. Only the copy job for all the files and the database dump and restore will take half a day.

In the moment i work on the new vb4 with all needed addons and patches to find and solve all the problems, then i will close the active system, clone it and do the update, after that the forum will be available for reading so I can install the most important add ons and all the config stuff. Downtime must not be longer than a weekend.

You now a 20 meter high hill out of dust and you have a spoon to shift it to another place?

[oatsy]

I think I've decided to copy across the existing 3.6.8 to the new server as is, then use the upgrade script to bring it to 4.1.1 I'll probably lose all the mods and add-ons doing that but they're easier to add in 4.1.1 than many of the 3.6.8 ones were anyway, i.e. few if any manual template code changes. I'll try the upgrade to 4.1.1 in a test environment first, before changing the doman DNS to the new server.

No 1 is only an option if you use vB as it is and if you don't want to risk a crash of your active system.

My Database is 5GB big an my vB 3.8 has more than 100 Addons. I need a possibility to migrate the data from vb3.8 to vb4 or from 4 only to 4 with all addons and patches

Don't thing you have a hope in hell of updating from 3.8 to 4.1.1 and keep all the add-ons and patches. Some of those will have changed for sure and have to be reapplied, and it seems likely that some aren't available for 4.1.1 - although some may now be either standard features in 4.1.1, or can be acheived a different way with standard features, so won't be an issue with future updates.

The more add-ons there are the more intimidating/drag the updates are. You might question if all 100 are really necessary, or just 'seemed cool at the time but don't actually add enough to be worth the bother'.

[mred_1]

No 1 is only an option if you use vB as it is and if you don't want to risk a crash of your active system.

My Database is 5GB big an my vB 3.8 has more than 100 Addons. I need a possibility to migrate the data from vb3.8 to vb4 or from 4 only to 4 with all addons and patches

[wda2015]

number one..

[oatsy]

I need to move a 3.6.8 site to a new server and have a couple of questions if anyone could help:

One option is to upgrade to 4.1.1 at the same time (I'm not even sure I still have the 3.6.8 files any more). If so, what's the best way to do this?

1. Upgrade to 4.1.1 on the existing server first. Then install a fresh 4.1.1 on the new server and copy/upload the db into that.

2. Install a fresh 4.1.1 on the new server then Import the db from the old 3.6.8 site into that (via Impex?). Will the db from a 3.6.8 import to 4.1.1. ok? I have a feeling it may not be that simple.

My first thought is that option 1 will work better as (I think) the Upgrade sytem will take care of potential issues importing the db from 3.6.8 to 4.1.1. It has the disadvantage that the current site will be the test-bed in that case, so if there are any problems it'll be on a live site (or dead site, if it gets messed up). Option 2 would at least allow testing out of the public eye, but the db would have to be copied and moved twice (once to test, then again when testing was complete to hoover up new posts in the interim).

3. The current site will have a fairly big db. Haven't checked the size yet but it has 60,000 threads, 2.5m posts and 8,500 users. Am i right in saying that won't be straightforward to backup via mysql backup? There's a file size limit isn't there? What is that and if it can't be simply downloaded, what's the best way to transfer it?

Thanks in anticipation

NB I'm aware I need to turn off all the hacks and start over with those. Also that the current skin won't work so the style will have to be rebuilt from scratch. For those hacks that had db entries (e.g. Post Thank You) what happens to all the related db entries? Do they cause a problem trying to import them, or do they just drop into the ether somewhere because there's no db fields for them in the new site?

I'm ok about closing the site for a couple of days, but really really don't want to risk longer than that.