Issues after upgrading to 5.5.6

[Rosely]

Hi support team!

My name is Rosely and I'm new on this support forum, but our usual Admin (Nikki) is too occupied with other life things so I hope you can assist me
In January I upgraded our forum from 4.2.2 to 5.5.6, with SSH (with big mysql database, it was a hassle). This because our host had upgraded the PHP version to 7.2.24.
The URL is http://buffyforums.net/forums

1. vBulletin Version > 5.5.6
2. PHP Version > 7.2.24
3. MySQL Version > 5.0.12
4. Any Addons installed >
5. Does the issue occur in a default style? Yes
6. Does the issue occur using the English language provided? Yes
7. Browser and Browser version used. Chrome, latest
8. Did you clear the browser cache and did the error continue? Yes, but it happens to many people.
9. A list of steps that can be used to recreate the issue.
10. If the issue is an Invalid Server response, the web server and PHP logs that correspond with its timestamp

We have several errors that I don't know how to fix. I tried looking into the other threads, but I am not sure if it's all the same.

Site speed - slow loading or even seizing up when opening threads or posting.
Threads won't open or give error message - some threads (possibly the larger ones) open to a blank page, but if you log out you can view them still. A member who registered after the upgrade didn't have the same problem.

1. Error message on the screen
   1. Internal Server Error
      The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
      Please contact the server administrator to inform them of the time this error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error.
      More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
      Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
2. A list of steps that can be used to recreate the issue.
   1. Sorry I don't know, most threads seem to be able to be opened when you're nog logged in.
3. If the issue is an Invalid Server response, the web server and PHP logs that correspond with its timestamp
   1. I don't have that, but I do have some emails about the Mysql connection going away or timing out. Does that help?

Hope I gave you the right information, if not let me know and I'll ask my members to provide better info Thanks!

[Rosely]

My supermod tells me this:

I haven't found a thread over 300 posts that I can open still. They either open with that error 500 message or it is just a plain grey page. I've tried in both Safari version 13.0.5 and Firefox 73.0.1. But if I log out, I can see the threads fine.

For example, this page is loading fine when you're not logged in, but gives an error when you are:
http://buffyforums.net/forums/forum/...watch-season-4

[In Omnibus]

If your MySQL version is 5.0.12 that is the problem. Is that information in the first post correct?

[Rosely]

I think so, it's the information that I have from the php info file.

mysqli

Client API library version	mysqlnd 5.0.12-dev - 20150407 - $Id: 3591daad22de08524295e1bd073aceeff11e6579 $
Active Persistent Links	0
Inactive Persistent Links	0
Active Links	1

On another page of the host I see this:

buffyforums_v5a (5.31 GB)

"MySQL 5 Database"

The old database is 2.77GB. I deleted almost a gig to do the upgrade and now it's already 5.3 wow


What version of mysql should I have?

[In Omnibus]

In that case your first step should be to upgrade (or ask the host to upgrade) the SQL version to 5.6.10 or higher.

vBulletin 5.5.4+ require PHP 7.1.0+ and MySQL 5.6.10+ (or MariaDB 10.0.0+).

I should add that SQL 8.0 would be better.

[Rosely]

Okay thank you, I'll ask the host to do this.
Do I need to upgrade the database after this? Or can this just be done?

[In Omnibus]

Okay thank you, I'll ask the host to do this.
Do I need to upgrade the database after this? Or can this just be done?

I've never run into a situation where anything else had to be done unless your old database is myISAM, which is unlikely unless it is ten years old. As long as the database is InnoDB you should be fine just changing the SQL version.

[Rosely]

This database was created in 2007, we were on earlier versions of the vbulletin forum too. But I honestly have no idea. I'll ask the host Thanks!

[Wayne Luke]

The MySQL 5.0.12 is referring to the client library in PHP, it doesn't actually reference the version of MySQL running on the server. All versions of MySQL register as 5.0.12 when looking at the php.ini file. (See screenshot)

After upgrading from vBulletin 4.X, you will need to:

1. Make sure all of your tables use INNODB. New tables created by the upgrade will use INNODB but chances are that your old vBulletin 4.X tables that are still being used are using MyISAM.
2. Rebuild the search engine.
3. Clear the system cache.
4. Make sure that PHP has at least 128 MB of RAM allocated. You might need 512 with your database if attachments are already in the filesystem.
5. Make sure that you're using the /core/includes/config.php file that ships with vBulletin 5.X.

It is recommended that you

1. Store CSS and SVG in the file system.
2. Store Attachments in the file system.
3. If you have fast SSD storage, you can store templates in the file system.
4. You should investigate using Memcached with your installation.

I also recommend using PHP 7.4 for the best performance.

[Rosely]

Okay, thank you. I know one of the admins has rebuild the search engine, this was a big thing in deed.

I have now checked php myadmin and we indeed have the old version

Edit: changing them one by one

[Rosely]

Hi there
We're working down the list. So far the long threads are still not loading when you're logged on.

After upgrading from vBulletin 4.X, you will need to:

1. Make sure all of your tables use INNODB. New tables created by the upgrade will use INNODB but chances are that your old vBulletin 4.X tables that are still being used are using MyISAM. Check/Done
2. Rebuild the search engine. Check/Done
3. Clear the system cache. Check/Done
4. Make sure that PHP has at least 128 MB of RAM allocated. You might need 512 with your database if attachments are already in the filesystem. Asked this at DreamHost
5. Make sure that you're using the /core/includes/config.php file that ships with vBulletin 5.X. I did

It is recommended that you

1. Store CSS and SVG in the file system. I'm sorry, I have no clue what it exactly is that you mean. I know what CSS is, and I have the files that came with it stored where the installation put it. Do you mean with new styles? We didn't come around to make them. I did only 1 inline-style thing to make the textfield bigger. And as far as I know we don't have any SVG.
2. Store Attachments in the file system. How can I do that?
3. If you have fast SSD storage, you can store templates in the file system. Oh I should ask this DH too, but then, I still don't understand what you mean with this, maybe because I haven't created any custom styles yet?
4. You should investigate using Memcached with your installation. Asked this DH

I also recommend using PHP 7.4 for the best performance. I should probably ask this too, but we're on 7.2, would that be a big problem?

[Wayne Luke]

1. By default vBulletin stores all templates in the database. This isn't necessarily efficient but it is a spot where it is guaranteed that it can be written to. This includes the CSS and SVG templates that vBulletin 5 uses. The majority of images on a vBulletin site are actually SVG images. You can tell the system to store these in the file system in the Settings under Options -> Style and Language Options.

2. Attachments -> Attachment Storage Type in the AdminCP.

3. Doesn't matter if you use custom styles or not. vBulletin has close to 800 templates across the styles it ships with. These are a combination of HTML and vBulletin Markup that are compiled to PHP when you save them. These are stored in the database. Switching them to be stored in the File System removes the executable PHP from your database allows PHP to naturally cache these files in a compiled format.

7.2 goes end of life at the end of the year but otherwise won't be a large problem. It is the minimum required version for the 5.6.X series.

[Rosely]

Thank you

1. where is the directory I need to set to 777?
2. Done
3. Okay, I'll ask DH first, but then probably get back to you to ask where and how to do so

Thank you for your help!

The site is still not loading long threads unfortunately, but we're not there yet and we keep hoping!

[Rosely]

We've found out how to change this on user level:

In User Settings > Account > Conversation detail option
Change Use Forum Default into Show 20 posts per page

But can we change the forum default?
Because now it loads all the posts in one long page and this is why we get this error.
Can we change it for everyone at once? Thanks!

I think I might have found it, but I'm not user 1:

vBulletin Message

You are not authorized to execute SQL queries

This I managed to change for the styles / edit site too. somewhere in the code. Can you tell me where?
(Oh and also the query that will change all threads into 20 posts per page instead of ongoing )


Edit: oh and I managed to upgrade the memory to 128M (It was 90)

[Wayne Luke]

You can change the number of posts shown in a topic by editing the modules. You can go to any topic page and click Edit Page in the Site Builder module. Then click edit the options of the Conversation Detail module. Save the module. Save the page.

By default the directory that needs to be 777 would be /core/cache/css. If you have a different value under Settings -> Options -> Style & Language Options then that directory would have to be CHMOD 777.